Are you are a person who likes a very hot sauna, please do choose a large sized unit to get the level of heat that you like. It is also a not good idea to continually work your sauna heater to the limit of its capacity continuously, so be sure to adequately spec your sauna heater so it is not doing this and you will get a long working life out of your unit.
Sauna Sizing Table
3.0KW — 2 to 4 cubic metres
4.5KW — 3 to 6 cubic metres
6.0KW — 5 to 8 cubic metres
8.0KW — 7 to 13 cubic metres
9.0KW — 8 to 14 cubic metres
15.0KW – 14 to 24 cubic metres
What type of venting does a sauna require?
In recorded history one of the major considerations in sauna design has been to incorporate some sort of ventilation into your sauna. For example the original Scandinavian sauna tent used a sauna vent under the wood stove spaced as far as possible away an outlet vent high in the ceiling or upper wall.
If your sauna is inside your home it is important for your exhaust and inlet vents to vent into the same space, you do not want one vent connected to inside your house and one vented outside for example. The reason for this is that effective venting comes from the convection principal, air that enters the sauna becomes heated and slowly rises, this happens slowly but constantly. If there is a difference in air pressure between the inlet and outlet vents, then this is likely to cause interference with this convection and hence the natural ventilation of your sauna. This natural ventilation is important for many reasons including spreading heat from the sauna heater to every point in your sauna room, as the air moves past your sauna heater, circles around and then slowly moves towards to the outlet vent positioned at the opposite end of your sauna room. In many cases a simple gap under the sauna door could count as your inlet vent, with your sauna heater positioned near by to catch the air flow and pass the heat. Or similarly a gap above the door could serve as the outlet vent if the inlet vent is down low on the opposite end of the sauna and the sauna heater is positioned near there.
Part of the standard sauna venting specification states that the inlet vent must remain unobstructed, whereas the outlet vent can be louvered, allowing for it to be closed completely. Thus, it is not a contradiction of the standard specification to build a small sauna completely absent of any outlet vent.
What accessories should I use in my Sauna?
The bare essentials for your sauna are a bucket and ladle and a thermometer for measuring the temperature in the sauna. The bucket and ladle are used to sprinkle small amounts of flavoured water onto your volcanic sauna stones, this creates the wet sauna effect allows you to experience a much hotter and a wetter sauna.
Also recommended is a hygrometer for measuring the humidity of the sauna, so you can optimise the sauna every-time to your liking. An hourglass is the classic and natural way to measure the passing of time within the sauna
You will need some sort of seating in your sauna, this can be a simple wooden seat in a micro sized sauna to long wooden benches in much larger saunas which let you lie down, some people do like to use a wooden headrest in this position as well.