Bathroom LED lighting - advice needed :-)

11 years ago

Planning our Master Bathroom remodel. Room is small (52.5 sq ft). Currently room has two recessed 6" cans with incandescent bulbs placed over a 32" vanity. These lights offers plenty (probably too much) of light for the room, but not ideal placement.

Our plans are for 2 sconces at the vanity, and a recessed shower light.

Thinking of going LED. Have others been going LED in bathrooms? The bathroom doesn't get used a lot (primarily morning). Is the extra cost worth it? I guess my biggest concern is the Lutron light switch (dimmer light/fan combo) doesn't work with LED so that means I have to get a separate switch for the fan...bummer!

Any concerns with using LED for the sconces? We don't have any LED lights in our house so I am curious as to how it is for makeup application. If we go with a 2700k color for the LED light, will we be ok?

Also LED bulbs appear much brighter. Will we be ok with the 2 sconces and recessed shower light (shower is all glass enclosure) I did the calculation online and it states we need equivalent of 79 watts for the room. We could put a light over the toilet but I am thinking this will be overkill and our room will be too bright. Thoughts?

FIXTURE: If going LED - what are the pros & cons of going with an integrated LED recessed light (like a CREE) versus buying a regular recessed light and putting an GU10 LED bulb in it? We are looking at New Construction housing so I am not sure if it makes a difference.

We prefer a 3" white trim can (will settle on 4") but can't find an integrated LED light with 2700k color that is wet and IC rated (CREE is not wet rated).

Thinking of going with standard wet/IC rated recessed lighting fixture and using the CREE 5050 SMD GU10 bulb which equates to a 60 watt halogen bulb. Thoughts?
http://www.lightexports.com/servlet/the-7973/smd-led%2C-5050smd-gu10%2C/Detail

Anyone have any recommendations on on 3" recessed shower lights? The selection seems very limited for 3", and 4" with a much greater selection. Again want white trim, need New Construction, IC rated and wet rated. Confused about trim vs housing and listings online are horrible. They don't tell you if it is IC rated, wet rated, whether it is dimmable (does that depend on the housing or only the bulb?) Not sure what is better - frosted glass, fresel, clear, pinhole, lexon, reflector, etc.

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

David
11 years ago
Lighting needs should be calculate in terms of lumens or candela or foot candles not watts.

LEDs make sense if you're trying to achieve an ultra slim/ sleek or modernistic lighting design otherwise impossible with conventional lighting.

Dimming typically applies to the bulb unless you have housing with an integrated ballast or power supply
wws944
11 years ago
A lot of what you ask is personal taste. LEDs are the future of most lighting. But if you like non-LED specific fixtures, make sure they use common bulb sizes where LED versions are easily available. And note that in the case of recessed cans, buying a LED light that is integrated with the trim can cost about the same as one with separate trim and bulb.

Case in point: My wife picked out some very nice bath fixtures that used an uncommon bulb size. After four years of looking, I finally found, within the last month, LED replacement bulbs for them. And even then, they were from a semi-anonymous Chinese ebay vendor...

On the GU10s, if you go that way, check out the recent Philips version. They are rated at 300 lumens and draw 6 watts. They dim *really* nicely. Another approach in the same size would be to use 12 volt MR-16 cans. Lots more MR16 choices than GU10s. For one, Cree just announced availability of their new LM16 bulb which seems quite interesting.
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piscesgirl
Original Author
11 years ago
Wow this stuff is confusing. So online I see bathrooms listed as needing anywhere from 56 lumen per sq ft to 80 lumen per sq. ft. (if my sources are correct). The room is 52 sq ft which means 2912 - 4160 lumen for the room. Currently we have 2 standard GE BR30 flood lights in the room which have an output of ~700 lumen each or 1400 total. Maybe we just don't like bright light, but we think the 1400 lumen in there now is plenty.

The LED recessed bulbs I am looking at are about 320 - 400 lumen. I am just worried that if we use the calculations above that will be way too much light. I don't want my contractor to install this many recessed lights only to find that we need sunglasses to enter our bathroom.

Not looking for a sleek modern design but actually just the opposite (traditional bathroom with sconces). Was thinking of going with LED because we want to be ahead of the curve and not find ourselves 2 years down the road with outdated traditional bulbs when everything is LED and us needing to replace dimmer switches, etc.

Can anyone recommend a 3" shower (wet rated) IC recessed light that we can use LED bulbs in? Not having much luck. The ones I found appear to be with an integrated bulb and I don't like the color of the bulb or they are not IC or wet rated. I may just need to switch to 4" if I can't find anything. Or for that fact give up on LED all together.