Sauna heating options
user-1147460
| Posted in General Questions on
We have a large sauna that has been heated by the good old resistance elements under rocks.
6.4kw 240v (I’m in New Zealand)
The elements are kaput.
Rather than rushing out to replace elements I’d rather investigate newer technology to heat the sauna. Any of you experts on this fabulous site have insight as to what’s modern best practice to heat a large sauna?
3.7 x 2.8 x 2.3m
That’s a shade under 24cubic meters.
Cedar walls over concrete block structure,very well insulated ceiling.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
The biggest change to sauna heaters over the past couple of decades is the realization that stone mass is critical so newer heaters have more stone capacity. Open sided mesh heaters have also been introduced (late 1990's). For size you usually want about 1kW / cubic meter.
There's more detail on this in Trumpkin's Notes on Building a Sauna.