Picking the Right Infrared Heater for Your Bathroom
If you’re putting an infrared heater in a bathroom, the first thing you need to care about is the IP65 rating. It sounds like technical jargon, but it basically just means the unit is sealed tight. Bathrooms are steamed-up, wet messes. Without that seal, moisture creeps into the electrical guts, and your heater will either short out or start corroding in a few months. Nobody wants to deal with that. How much power do you actually need? There’s no magic number that works for every room. You’ve got to look at your space. If you’ve got a tiny powder room (under 4 square meters), a 400W to 600W unit is plenty. It keeps things cozy without turning the room into a sauna. For a medium-sized bathroom, you’re looking at 800W to 1200W. Then you have the big master baths or those open-concept wet rooms. Those need 1500W or more. Here’s the catch: if you go too low on the wattage, the heater has to run constantly to hit the temperature you want. That wears out the relay and wastes power. But if you go overkill, you’ll end up with “hot spots”—where you feel like you’re being scorched in one spot while your toes are still freezing. It’s about the light, not the air These heaters use shortwave infrared. They don’t actually heat the air in the room; they heat you and the things you’re touching. Because of that, where you put the heater is way more important than how powerful it is. Just make sure nothing is blocking the path between the heater and where you’ll actually be standing. A few warnings on the electrics More wattage means you get warm faster, but it also puts a lot more stress on your circuit breaker. If you’re installing a few 1500W units in the same area, double-check your wiring. If the wires are too thin, they’ll heat up under the load. This causes a voltage drop, which means your fancy lamp isn’t even putting out the heat it’s supposed to. My advice? Put high-wattage heaters on their own dedicated circuit. It saves you from the annoyance of tripping the breaker right in the middle of your morning shower. Just find that sweet spot where the room warms up quickly without overloading your home’s electrical system.