Downlights in Bathroom

[hefs]

Hi all,
I have downlights in my bathroom and en suite (9 in total) and am experiencing a lot of condensation in my loft. 1 side of the loft the felt is completely wet, whereas the other side has drips on it.
I have seen from comments on here that this is probably caused by steam escaping through the downlights so am assuming this is my main problem. I was going to buy some firehoods (as seen on this forum) but have since been informed that the downlights should have a glass cover on them when located in bathrooms and when checking have noticed that none of mine have any type of cover (these were already in the house when I moved in). So my question is, is this advice correct and I need to buy the covers and if so is this likely to help reduce the condensation or will I also need to purchase the fire hoods?
Thanks for any help

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Depending on where they are in the bathroom the lights should be sealed, i.e. the ones with glass covers, but AFAIK you can't just buy those you'd need to replace the lights with ones rated at least IPx4, and stated by the makers as suitable for Zone 1.

Even then that won't stop warm moist air going into the loft space, and nor will fire hoods - you should completely seal in the lights - see http://www.nhbcbuilder.co.uk/NHBCpu...ical/StandardsExtra/filedownload,21353,en.pdf

Or get rid of the damn things and repair all the holes in the ceiling.

 

[sm1thson]

^agree with what BAS has said as, as for a bathroom the lights should be as described, and are better replaced with something more suitiable etc for a whole host of other reasons.

However I'm not convinsed that solving that will solve the problem. have you got adequate forced ventilation (a fan) to remove the humid air from the bathroom? and does the loft have sufficient ventilation to outside? (insulation should not be not right to edges, airbricks/ tiles should be present etc)