How to pick the right infrared lamp for your bathroom
When you’re picking out an infrared lamp, your first instinct might be to just grab the most powerful one on the shelf. But here’s the thing: bigger isn’t always better. It’s more about finding a balance between the size of your room and what your walls are made of. These lamps don’t actually heat the air—they send warmth directly to you and the surfaces around you. It’s a different kind of cozy.
Finding your wattage
If you’ve got a tiny bathroom that gets steamy fast, a smaller lamp (somewhere between 250W and 500W) is usually plenty. It keeps the room comfortable without turning it into a sauna or spiking your electric bill. But if you’re dealing with a massive master bath, you’ll want something with more punch—think 800W to 1200W. If you go too low in a big room, the lamp just runs and runs, trying to reach a temperature it can’t actually hit. That’s a quick way to burn out your filament.
Getting the placement right
These lamps use short-wave infrared, which basically means the heat travels in a straight line. Because of that, you want to hang the lamp exactly where you’ll actually be standing. If you put it in the wrong spot, you’re just wasting heat on a random patch of wall or the ceiling. Also, keep an eye on your ceiling height. The higher you mount the lamp, the more the heat spreads out before it hits the floor. If you have high ceilings, you’ve got two choices: get a higher-wattage bulb or hang the lamp a bit lower.
A quick warning on wiring
High-wattage lamps feel great the second you flip the switch, but they pull a lot of power. I’ve seen way too many people install a 1200W lamp only to have their circuit breaker trip immediately. Usually, it’s because the wiring was only meant for a few lightbulbs, not a heavy-duty heater. Before you wire anything in, just double-check your wire gauge. It’ll save you a lot of frustration.