“Heart of a sauna”
Sauna heaters are the lifeline of any sauna. An intelligently designed heater is necessary so that it can produce and sustain such intense temperatures. A sauna room is generally heated to 100 degrees. The heater performs two functions in a sauna:
- Heating the room
- Creating loyly
Traditional sauna heaters consisted of heap of stones around a fire which heated very slowly and cooled down quickly.
The smoke saunas didn’t even have a chimney. Traditional saunas required a lot of stones tom maintain the temperature. Since the advent of electricity and chimney sauna heaters have evolved over the time. Sauna heaters today are placed in steel casings and they also have insulation layering to protect the external surface from heat.
Although gas and oil can be used to heat a sauna, the most commonly used are wood and electricity. Although many heaters are heated only once but some heaters are also heated throughout the bathing period.
Stones in a heater
The larger stones should be placed at the bottom and the smaller stones should be placed on the top. Constant heating and cooling of stones can crack the stones therefore stones should be selected keeping in mind their properties.
Properties of sauna stones should be:
- Rough surface
- Excellent heating capacity
- Heat resistant
- Odourless
- No cracks
Suggested stone materials:
- Olivine
- Peridotite
Stones should be changed every two years if the sauna is frequently used but if used once a month they can be changed after five years or more.
Infrared sauna heaters
Innovation in technology has led to the development of infra-red sauna heaters. Infra-red saunas make use of infra-red radiation which directly transfers the heat to a person’s skin.
While deciding on the heater certain things need to be kept in mind:
Material of the heater
While deciding on the type of heater we can either choose ceramic, steel or aluminum heaters. We need to consider the emissivity of the various materials used. The more an emmisivity is reached by a material the better it is at emitting heat. Aluminum has an emissivity of 56% while ceramic has an emissivity of 92%.
Emissivity
Infrared heat depends upon the emissivity of the source and the surface temperature. Emissivity measures the ability of an object to emit the energy that it absorbs.
Wavelength
We need to consider the peak wave length of the infra-red energy.
Electric sauna heaters
Electric sauna heaters are convenient and clean to operate. Use an electric sauna heater with an outer shell made of stainless steel so that it does not rust. The sauna heater should be placed in the middle of the room for even distribution of heat.
Electric sauna heaters can either be floor mounted or wall mounted. Wall mounted heaters are used in residential saunas as they occupy less floor area while commercial heaters are mounted on the floor because of their size and weight. Electric sauna heaters cannot run for more than one hour in residential areas without being reset.
Wood fuelled heaters
Wood fuelled heaters can operate at any maximum temperatures. They cannot be used in residential areas because they do not have UL or CSA classification. Wood fuelled heaters are used in those areas where there is no power facility. Wood heaters are operated without electricity and a chimney needs to be installed.
