How Much Electricity Does the Best Home Sauna Consume?

Owning the best home sauna means you have a place to unwind and relax after your daily hustles and bustles. However, the sauna’s energy consumption is one of the key factors you should consider before purchasing it. Let’s discuss the amount of energy your home sauna is likely to consume, the affiliated costs, and how to minimize electricity costs when using a home sauna. 

Factors Affecting the Amount of Electricity Your Best Home Sauna Consumes

For starters, the heater in the best infrared saunas requires approximately 6 kW of electricity to heat the room to the optimal temperature. Energy consumption drops to around 3 to 4 kW once the sauna is appropriately heated. This is because maintaining the temperature in your home sauna requires minimal heat.

The average home sauna electricity consumption ranges between 9 and 13 kW per one-hour stretch, inclusive of the sauna preparation time. Worth mentioning is that various factors affect the amount of power the best home saunas use:

• The size of your home sauna
• The sauna’s insulation
• The size of the sauna’s heater
• The amount of time the sauna runs for
• The intensity of the sauna’s temperature

To calculate the electricity your home sauna consumes monthly, multiply its usage per hour by its output and the total monthly use. 

For example, assuming the cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is $0.15 and your home sauna runs for 90 minutes daily for a month (30 days). That means the best home sauna runs for 45 hours or 2,700 minutes. Suppose the heater consumes 6 kW per hour. In this case, the total will be 270 kilowatt hours (kWh) monthly. So, back to the average electricity cost, which is $0.15 per kWh. Running the best home sauna will cost: 

• 270 kWh monthly X $0.15 per kWh = $40.5 monthly for an hour daily in a sauna that consumes 6 kWh. 

Determining the amount of electricity your sauna uses helps you know the costs involved. The electricity bill cost can help you decide whether or not to proceed with the home sauna installation. Remember, the more frequently you use your home sauna, the higher your electricity bill will be. 

How to Minimize Energy Consumption for Your Best Home Sauna

While electricity usage forms a small part of the cost of the best home sauna, it’s a factor you should consider. Users can instigate various factors in a home sauna’s energy consumption to determine efficiency and lower energy bills regardless of how frequently they use their home sauna.

·       Use the Home Sauna Immediately It Gets Warm

The best home sauna takes approximately 30 minutes or one hour to heat and reach the desired temperature. Sometimes, you may end up focusing on other things as you wait. Remember that every second you spend outside your suitably warm sauna counts as a moment of wasted energy. Consider entering the sauna immediately after it gets warm to reduce your electricity cost. Set a reminder or timer on your smartphone to receive an alert once the sauna is ready. 

·       Pick the Best Home Sauna for Your Needs

While you can choose an infrared or traditional sauna, it’s important to understand that the former consumes less energy than the latter. That is because infrared rays infuse heat directly into your body and heat the air in your surroundings as much.

As a result, they use minimal energy to increase the temperature inside your best home sauna. Traditional home saunas consume more energy because they heat the air inside the room. Still, they can raise the temperature higher. You can opt for heated rocks in a wood-burning stove instead of an electric heater to lower the electricity your home sauna consumes.

·       Insulate the Sauna Area Appropriately

By properly insulating your best home sauna, you help prevent the heat from leaving the enclosed area of the unit. If the insulation is substandard, there will be heat leaks, and the sauna heater will overwork to maintain the temperature.

The more the sauna’s heater works, the more energy it consumes, increasing the cost of running your unit. Usually, you can use good quality wood to ensure your home sauna insulation is well sealed. If you have an outdoor home sauna, consider insulating it with thermoplastic boards or fiberglass rolls. 

·       Choose the Right Heater Size for Your Sauna

Your best home sauna’s internal volume determines the required heater size. If you choose a small heater, it will consume more energy and take longer to heat the unit to the right temperature. Each sauna heater has a guide for the sauna size ratio to the power requirement. Read the guide closely to match your home sauna with the correct heater. 

·       Adjust the Heater to a Lower Temperature

You can enjoy good steaming in your sauna at 70°C. One way of achieving this is by turning the heater off before completing your sauna session. While you should pick a heater based on your sauna preferences, this concept is best for heaters with a large quantity of stones. The stones provide a nice steam because they retain heat and generate it for longer, even after turning off the heater.

To prolong the lifespan of your heater, inspect the stones regularly to ensure they are in good condition. If you prefer higher temperatures, choose the best home sauna with a small stone capacity. 

·       Re-stack the Heater Stones

Re-stack the heater stones in your sauna at least once annually, or more times if you use the sauna frequently. Remember, heater stones break down gradually during use because of temperature fluctuations.

Replace any worn-out stones with new ones. Re-stacking and replacing your stones are effective maintenance methods for saving energy. When the air in the heater circulates properly your best home sauna will heat up faster, and the heater will require less electricity to heat the unit. Further, when the heater stones are in good quality it means the heating capacity of your unit will remain optimal while reducing the risk of overheating. Read the stacking instructions in the user manual of your specific heater. 

·       Use the Right Power for Your Heater

Choose the heater’s power based on the volume of your sauna and the construction materials used. If the heater is overly powerful for the sauna’s volume, chances are that it will heat the sauna room fast without allowing the stones to reserve sufficient heat to generate steam. When this happens, you’ll need to re-warm the stones which will take more time.

If the heater is overly small for your sauna room it will take longer to achieve the required temperature. Again, the heating elements could wear out fast due to being overworked. A longer heating time means more energy consumption, hence a higher electricity bill. 

·       Ensure the Ventilation in the Home Sauna is Correctly Adjusted

The best home saunas should have an efficient ventilation system to cycle the air inside the unit. When the sauna is not in use there won’t be any source of moisture, meaning ventilation will be unnecessary.

When the sauna is heating, keep the vents closed to retain heat inside the unit, allowing it to reach the preferred temperature faster. Open the vents for fresh air once you start using the home sauna. Remember, while too little ventilation could make breathing difficult, too much ventilation accelerates the speed at which heat escapes the sauna. Optimal ventilation will prevent these risks

Finally

Knowing the amount of electricity that the best home sauna uses helps you establish whether or not to install the unit in your home. If you already have a home sauna, use the tips in this article to reduce its energy consumption and keep it working effectively for longer.