Sauna Venting | We get these questions a lot:
- Can I vent my sauna heat back into my house?
- Or should I vent the sauna to the outside?
It is best to vent the sauna heat back inside the house rather than to the outdoors. Why?
- The main reason is that the barometric pressure outside is often different than indoors and this can create reverse flow bringing air from the outside in back through the exit vent. Also, you always want to minimize penetrations to the outdoors – it’s just more labor.
- Though it might seem like a great way to add heat to your house, a sauna will add very little positive heat to your home as by design; it is meant to heat a small enclosed space and contain that heat.
- Also FYI, the sauna will not add any significant moisture to the adjoining air space. Even when you ladle water over the sauna heater rocks you add very little actual humidity to the air. Saunas provide very dry air. The added humidity of a sauna ranges from 10-35%.
Most importantly, the air coming into the sauna through the intake opening should be fresh and cooler than the heated sauna air
Fresh air also affects the sauna heater’s thermostat and high limit sensors. Otherwise, the sauna heater may sense that the room is prematurely hot and thus shut the heater down before the desired temperature is reached. Fresh air air has slightly more oxygen but do not be concerned with oxygen levels as the sauna rooms are no where near air tight.
Many saunas do just fine with a wide gap (about 1″) at the bottom of the door serving as the intake vent too. If you’re sauna is in an out building though, careful as small critters may find the warmth and shelter an inviting place to nest or warm up.
We use sliders to control airflow and grills to cover the vents
The cedar grills are beautiful, decorative and you can just as easily match heat registers in your house to the same affect. Sliders are important to control air flow. Many leave their intake vent fully open all the time and prefer a grill to cover the interior side of the intake vent ensuring constant intake air flow.
Vents and grills do not include hardware as customers have different size nail guns or preferences on screws. We use 1 ½” galvanized (or stainless) finish nails.
Air flow is very important for the sauna heater appliance
Your sauna appliance needs fresh cooler air AND so do you! It ensures the air in the sauna does NOT get stuffy, especially as more bathers enter. So … 6 ½–8″ from the hard floor is plenty of space for the sauna heater to pull fresh cool air through through the intake vent AND some hot air will leave out the exit vent (up top, about 4-6″ from the ceiling on the wall) and fresh air with more oxygen can enter. The intake vent will be covered with this 4×6″ Sliding Door Sauna Vent Cover on the inside. (NOTE: bigger heaters > 8kW should get the bigger 6×8″ Sliding Door Sauna Vent Cover.) And on the outside, you’ll cover the vent with this exterior sauna vent grill.
