Re: Websites for heaters

Hi,

The 750W emitters that you suggest would be much too hot for the purpose of sauna. Also you would definitely not need as many heating elements as is found in the box type saunas. The wattage of the elements in the box saunas are about 200W.

The configuration that I use and that I've been suggesting to others is to use two free-standing FIR (Far-Infrared-Sauna) heaters in the bathroom or some other small room that would allow a 5 - 6 foot seperation of the heaters. Each heater has two 500W elements, or 1000W/heater.
Two heaters are needed for best sauna effect, one to warm the front and the other to warm the back. I've recently added a clamp on heat lamp to the configuration and it seems to contribute nicely to the sauna environment.

I let the bathroom warm up for about an hour. The room temperature gets to about 115 - 120F. I then enter the bathroom, put a towel on the floor between the heaters, and sit down.

This method is a bit more intense than the box sauna so it is important not to follow the same time and frequency of use that is suggested for the box saunas. I suggest no more than 30 min. session and no more than 2X/week.

Keep in mind that when you sweat a lot, the body starts to lose lots of potassium. Be sure to have a good diet so that these lost minerals/electrolytes are being replaced.

Information on these heaters can be found at
http://www.thmi.com/FIR/heater.html

I suspect that you may be right about the difficulty in finding a FIR (Far-Infrared-Sauna) heaters due to them not being UL approved. These heaters are not UL approved but are safe, IMO. UL approval is not required to import products. However, with people being so sue-happy in N.America not many businesses will take the risk.

If you would like to see photos of a homebuilt sauna in which the person uses two of these heaters you can find them in the Photos section of the yahoogroup CFS-FMS_FIRST-Aid
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CFS-FMS_FIRST-Aid/join

This enclosure was built with plywood that had been sitting in their garage for a number of years. It looks every bit as good as the box saunas being sold for $3,000 or more.

Other information that may be of interest can be found on the web site at http://www.xmission.com/~total/temple read the articles in the "Soapbox" section and the "Articles" section.

An advantage of using free-standing FIR (Far-Infrared-Sauna) heaters is that during the winter months they can be used to add comfortable FIR heat to the living areas of the home.

All the best,
Jim

http://www.xmission.com/~total/temple
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CFS-FMS_FIRST-Aid/join
http://www.thmi.com/FIR/heater.html

Tweet