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March 1

Warm up to this advice on building saunas

Q: I have seen some reasonably priced sauna kits which use electricity for the heat. Do these consume much electricity and what designs should I consider in a kit big enough for one or two people?

Scott W.

A: Using a small sauna can be a healthy way to relax at home for most people. The hot dry environment in a sauna does affect many systems in your body, so it would be wise to consult your physician before using one.

As you mentioned, saunas are heated by electricity, but using a small one may not increase your utility bills significantly. If you have ever been in a sauna, you know how warm you continue to feel as much as an hour after you are out of the sauna. When you feel chilly, a quick sauna bath is more energy efficient than setting the furnace thermostat a few degrees higher.

Look for an efficient kit with insulated walls. The best sauna kits use insulated walls with R-19 insulation value. They also incorporate reflective foil inside the wall cavity to block the radiant heat loss from the walls. Heat loss through the sauna's walls is not a total loss though because it ends up helping your furnace heat the house.

One of the newer technologies for saunas is infrared heating from several heat lamps instead of the traditional hot rocks with a powerful heating element. This infrared heat energy penetrates into your body to provide a similar effect to the very hot dry air in a traditional sauna bath.

The least expensive method (about $750) to get started is with a sauna tent (Cedarbrook Sauna) with an infrared heat lamp set (uses standard 120 volts). This is a fabric tent in which the interior reaches only about 115 to 120 degrees. That is warm enough to keep the side of your body not facing the lamps from feeling chilly. You just rotate on the bench every several minutes like chicken on a rotisserie.

For about $1,000 more, you can get a standard 4 foot by 4 foot cedar sauna kit which is small enough to function satisfactorily with the infrared lamp set. There are very small hot rock heaters which can also be plugged into a standard 120-volt wall outlet, but they will take a long time to heat up the interior of a sauna room.

Since you mentioned a kit, you are probably referring to a precut unit. This includes all the pieces of lumber and hardware needed to assemble the sauna. Another option is a modular sauna which is delivered to your home preassembled in several large sections. These typically cost about $1,000 more than the identical precut kit. You probably will have to hire an electrician to run a 240-volt line to a large sauna heater.

The following companies offer sauna kits: Amerec Products, 800-331-0349,; Cedarbrook Sauna & Steam, 800-426-3929,; Finnleo, 800-346-6536,; Mr. Sauna, 800-767-8326,; and Thermasol, 800-776-0711,

Q: I have an old insulated steel front door. The weatherstripping seals are bad and I want to replace them with magnetic strips, but I cannot find any.

Is it possible to add this and where can I buy it?

Howard B.

A: I don't know of any generic magnetic weatherstripping thin enough to fit the gap in your old steel doors. It would probably be easiest to just replace the seals with adhesive-backed foam.

The only possible option is to try to use magnetic seals from interior storm windows. These are probably thin enough to fit, but they are not flexible. If the gap is not uniform, they will not seal very well.

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