Operational Costs

I’m often asked the operational costs of an Almost Heaven Sauna, and people are sometimes skeptical when I tell them the cost is negligible. In both my own experience and in conversations with happy sauna owners, it truly is a cost that is not noticed on the electric bill. For the skeptics, perhaps the following comparison will help. People purchase hot tubs and are typically told that the operational costs will be “a dollar per day,” on a yearly average. Of course, this is a difficult figure to establish since operational costs are based on many factors such as outside temperature, frequency of use, efficiency of the spa, etc. However, for our purposes we will use this figure. A spa typically uses a 6kw (6000 watt) heater, and coincidentally, a sauna typically uses a 6kw heater as well. A spa is designed to operate all of the time, so if there are 720 hours in a month; it costs a little over .04 cents per hour to run the hot tub. Of course, the spa isn’t operating all of the time, so let’s say it is only running 25% of the time; that would mean about .16 cents per hour of operational time. Applying the same math to a one sauna would mean that it would cost .16 cents to enjoy that relaxing and healthful one-hour sauna session. Obviously, there are many variables for both spas and saunas, and my point is not to state a specific operating cost, but this does hopefully explain why using your sauna several times per week is hardly noticeable on the typical electric bill.