What a home infrared sauna costs to run: do the arithmetic yourself
Three numbers and one multiplication. Put your own electricity rate in and you will have a better answer than any article can give you.
Every article on this topic quotes a cost per session as if it were a fact about the sauna. It is not. It is a fact about your electricity contract, and yours is not ours. So rather than give you a number to distrust, here is the formula, which takes about thirty seconds and will be right.
The formula
Cost per session = sauna power in kilowatts × hours running × your rate per kilowatt-hour.
That is the whole thing. Three numbers.
- Sauna power in kilowatts. On the spec sheet in watts. Divide by 1,000. A 1,600 W sauna is 1.6 kW.
- Hours running. Heat-up plus session. A 25-minute heat-up and a 35-minute session is one hour.
- Your rate. On your electricity bill, per kWh. US residential rates vary widely by state, so use yours, not an average.
A worked example
A 1.6 kW sauna, run for one hour, on a rate of 17 cents per kWh:
1.6 × 1 × $0.17 = about 27 cents per session.
Four sessions a week is roughly $4.60 a month. Change any of the three inputs and the answer moves, which is exactly why you should use your own.
The number that is smaller than you expect, and why
Most people over-estimate this badly, usually by imagining something closer to an electric heater running all day. Two things keep it low.
First, the heater is not at full draw the whole time. It pulls hardest during heat-up and then cycles to hold temperature, so the average draw across the hour is below the rated maximum. Treating the rated figure as constant, as the formula above does, therefore gives you a deliberately pessimistic answer. Good. A cost estimate should err that way.
Second, infrared saunas run at a lower air temperature than traditional ones, and for less time.
The comparison that actually matters
The running cost is rarely what decides this purchase. The comparison that does is what you are currently paying for the same thing somewhere else.
If you hold a gym or spa membership largely for the sauna, put its monthly cost on a five-year view and set it against a one-time purchase price plus five years of the number you just calculated. Do the same with per-visit spa sessions. Most people who do this arithmetic are surprised by which side it lands on, and it is worth doing honestly, including the visits you would genuinely have made rather than the ones you meant to.
The Nutelix version of that comparison is on the product page, with the alternative's real published price rather than a flattering one.
Three things that raise your cost
- An unheated space. A sauna in a cold garage works harder for longer. Same session, more kilowatt-hours.
- Chasing the maximum temperature. The last stretch of heat-up is the expensive part, and most owners do not need it.
- Heating an empty room. A timer is worth more than it sounds: it means the sauna reaches temperature as you arrive rather than twenty minutes before you remember.
What Nutelix draws
Both sizes are specified at a 220-240V supply, which in North America means a dedicated circuit rather than the outlet behind the couch. For the rated wattage of the size you are considering, ask us before you order and we will send it. Put that figure into the formula above with your own rate and you will have your real cost per session in under a minute.
