The bathroom might not be the place you immediately think of for placing smart bulbs but with the options for different brightness settings depending on the time of day, automatic turning on and off and the ability to change the colour for the ultimate mood-lit bath a smart light in the bathroom can be a great choice. In this post we share the best smart lights for the bathroom.
What to look out for when adding a smart light to your bathroom?
The bathroom isn’t just like any other room in your house. Anything within your bathroom will be exposed to moisture even when it’s not directly above a bath or shower, therefore it’s important to get the appropriately rated light fitting for your bathroom first.
If you’re fitting a light fitting above your bath or shower and your room is super-low then you’ll need to make sure it’s rated to IP67 otherwise IP65 is ideal. You can read more about bathroom lighting zones and ratings required for lights in the bathroom here.
So, what types of light could you fit in your bathroom?
Upgrade Your Bulb
The simplest way to make your bathroom lighting smart is to upgrade your lightbulb to a smart bulb. This is a great, simple and affordable option if your bathroom already has a E27 or B22 (screw in) light bulb.
To make this upgrade you just need to choose a smart lightbulb (smart bulbs cost anywhere between £10 for a budget, coloured smart bulb compatible with the TUYA network right up to £55 for a Philips Hue bulb. This gives you a range depending on your budget and any existing smart light bulbs. From our experience we tend to find Hue bulbs offer extra brightness and their HomeKit compatibility is great for Apple users too.
Spotlights
A great way to add soft, mood lighting to your bathroom is using spotlights. Spotlight light fittings for bathrooms can be found in a ceiling mounted format but are more often recessed. This means, you’ll need an electrician to help install these. You can even get recessed LED fittings for your ceiling which are smart out the box and water resistant for the bathroom.
Once installed you can use any smart spotlight bulb with the same range as above depending on the brand you go for.
Smart Light Fitting
The final way to achieve a smart light for your bathroom is to buy a smart light fitting for your bathroom. These are great because they’re smart out of the box and can often replace your existing fitting. There’s a whole range of these available ranging from £25 for a budget priced, multi-colour, TUYA compatible option right up to £160 for a Philips Hue option.
Personally, during a recent bathroom renovation I went for the budget option as thanks to the TUYA compatibility and my Raspberry Pi running home bridge I can still use it in my Apple Home App.
Best Smart Lights for Bathroom – Summary
Upgrading your bathroom light can really change the feel of the room, allow you to have different brightness levels at different times of the day, set the mood for the perfect relaxing bath with ambient colours and let’s you hook it up to motion sensors.
It’s a great option for the smart home and isn’t expensive.
