Picking the Right Infrared Lamp for Your Bathroom
When it comes to heating your bathroom, more power isn’t always better. It’s tempting to just grab the highest wattage on the shelf, but that’s usually a mistake. If you go too big, you’re just throwing money away on your electric bill—and you might actually overheat the fixture. Go too small, and you’ll be shivering in the cold for ten minutes while the room slowly warms up. The trick is to match the lamp to the actual size of your space. Finding your fit If you’ve got a tiny powder room—something under 4m²—you don’t need a powerhouse. A single 250W to 400W shortwave lamp does the job perfectly. It hits you with heat almost instantly, so you aren’t waiting around for the air to warm up. For those medium-sized bathrooms (between 4m² and 8m²), you’ll want a few more lamps working together. I usually suggest a total of 600W to 1000W, split across two or three tubes. This spreads the warmth around the room so you don’t end up with one scorching hot spot right under the light while the rest of the room stays chilly. Then you’ve got the big master baths. Anything over 8m² needs some real muscle—usually 1200W or more—to make sure the whole room feels cozy. Why it feels different These lamps use a tungsten filament inside quartz glass. Instead of heating the air (which takes forever), they send out shortwave radiation. Think of it like stepping into the sun on a winter day. You feel the heat on your skin the second you flip the switch. No lag. No waiting. Just a heads-up: because these get incredibly hot, the housing matters. Make sure your fixture is built to handle that kind of heat, otherwise, you risk warping the plastic or messing up your ceiling mount. Saving a bit of cash Since these lamps pull a decent amount of power, don’t just leave them running. Toss in a timer or a motion sensor. Running a 1000W setup in a tiny 3m² room is just overkill. It puts unnecessary stress on your wiring and wastes energy. When you match the wattage to the room size, you get that “instant warmth” feeling without the heart attack when you see your utility bill.