Traditional vs. Infrared Sauna: How to Choose, Where to Put It, and What the Research Says
Updated October 2026
A traditional sauna heats the air to around 160 to 190°F, and it's the kind of sauna behind decades of Finnish health research. An infrared sauna warms your body directly at around 120 to 150°F, draws far less power, and has much less research behind it. Which one belongs in your home has less to do with the heater than with where it goes, who joins you, and what your electrical panel can carry. Here's how we think it through with clients, with the research we trust and the specs your electrician will ask about.
The decision between the two ultimately boils down to personal comfort, health goals, and considerations such as available space and budget. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the key differences between Traditional Sauna and Infrared Sauna, helping you make an informed choice for your wellness journey. Michael was interviewed in Forbes discussing the practical considerations of adding either to your home; you can listen to the roundtable here.
Both kinds of saunas provide a variety of benefits to the body and mind:
Better sleep
Relaxation
Detoxification
Weight loss
Clear and tighter skin
Improved circulation
The main difference between the two is in the way the heat the space and the temperature.
Heat and cold, at a glance
| Traditional sauna | Infrared sauna | Steam shower | Cold plunge | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Heats the air and the stones | Panels warm your body directly | A generator fills a sealed shower with steam | A chiller holds the water cold |
| Temperature | 160 to 190°F | 120 to 150°F | 110 to 115°F | Water often set between 39 and 59°F |
| Humidity | Low, 10 to 20%, rising briefly with löyly | Dry | About 98% | Not applicable |
| A session | 5 to 20 minutes a round, with a cool-down between rounds | 15 to 30 minutes or more | 10 to 15 minutes to start | 30 seconds to 3 minutes |
| What you do inside | Rounds, löyly and conversation | Read, stretch, listen or sit still | Unwind at either end of the day, phone left outside | Breathe slowly, head above the water |
| Power | 6 to 8 kW heater on a dedicated 240V circuit, typically 30 to 40 amps, hard-wired | 1.4 to 2.8 kW; small cabins on a dedicated 20-amp, 120V circuit, larger ones on 240V | 5 to 10 kW generator on a dedicated 240V circuit, 30 to 50 amps by size | Dedicated 120V circuit, 15 to 20 amps, GFCI protected |
| Ready in | 30 to 60 minutes | 10 to 30 minutes | A few minutes | Always on, filtering around the clock |
| The research | Decades of Finnish studies, plus a 2022 trial | Small trials; the Finnish findings weren’t studied in infrared | Thin | Lower stress about 12 hours later; little else yet |
| Best for | The ritual, the rounds and company | Gentler heat, longer quiet sessions, a lighter electrical load | Daily use inside a room you already have | The contrast after heat or cardio |
Ranges from manufacturer specifications and published research. Your electrician and local code have the final word. Last reviewed October 2026.
If you’d like to go deeper than this chart to understand the kinds of questions you should ask to understand the type of hot and cold therapy is for you, we’ve made a simple list you can download here:
Where the tradition comes from
There are about 3.3 million saunas in Finland, for about 5.5 million people. You'll find them in city apartment buildings and lake cottages, and both the president and the prime minister have an official one. For thousands of years, the sauna is where Finns washed, gave birth and, as the story goes, kept visiting diplomats in the heat until a deal was done. UNESCO added Finnish sauna culture to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2020, and there's a Finnish saying that in the sauna, everyone is equal. The heat comes from löyly, the steam that rolls off the stones when you ladle water on them. After a round you walk down to the lake, or roll in fresh snow, and go back in.
The neighbors kept their own versions. In Malmö, Sweden, people have moved between the sauna and the sea all year at Ribersborgs Kallbadhus, a bathhouse on a pier that opened in 1898, and Sweden's cold-bathing tradition reaches back to the Middle Ages. In Oslo, a sauna society runs 18 saunas, most of them on the fjord, with stairs straight down into the water, and this September the city hosted the International Sauna Congress. These traditions grew up around washing, ritual and company long before anyone measured their effect on health, and they've lasted because people love doing them together.
What the research says
Most of what we know about saunas and heat comes from Finland. In a study that followed more than 2,300 Finnish men for about twenty years, those who used a sauna four to seven times a week had about a 40 percent lower risk of death from any cause than men who went once a week, and about two-thirds lower risk of dementia. Later work from the same researchers linked frequent sauna use to about half the risk of developing high blood pressure, lower risk of respiratory disease, and, in a study that included women, about 60 percent lower risk of stroke.
Those are associations, and the people who study heat are the first to say so. The participants were mostly middle-aged Finnish men, the saunas were hot traditional ones, and the scientists themselves can't yet tell you how many minutes, how hot or how often. The one rule everyone agrees on is don't drink in the sauna.
What we can say is that heat adds to movement. A sauna session raises your heart rate to roughly 120 to 150 beats a minute, similar to moderate exercise, while your muscles do no work at all. In a Finnish trial, inactive adults who added a 15-minute sauna after exercise for eight weeks saw their blood pressure fall further and their fitness improve more than people who only exercised. In the long-running cohort, the men with the lowest risk of sudden cardiac death were the fit ones who also used the sauna often. That's why we plan heat as the end of a movement routine, a few steps from where you move. (We wrote about the movement side in designing a gym in your home.)
The traditional sauna: heat, steam and ritual
A traditional sauna heats the air and the stones to around 160 to 190°F at low humidity, until you ladle water on the stones and the löyly rolls over you. You stay in for 5 to 20 minutes, step out to cool down, and go back in, usually for two or three rounds. It's a social room with a rhythm to it, and it's the kind of sauna all of the Finnish research was done in.
It also asks the most of your house. A room for three or four people typically needs a 6 to 8 kilowatt heater, hard-wired on its own 240-volt circuit of about 30 to 40 amps, and 30 to 60 minutes to heat up. Many heaters can now be started from your phone, which helps, because a sauna you have to remember to preheat is a sauna you'll skip on a busy night. Outdoors, a wood-fired stove is still an option where codes allow.
Inside, we use untreated spruce, aspen or cedar with no varnish, and two bench heights, so you can sit high for more heat or low for less. A sauna also has to breathe. In an electric sauna, fresh air comes in low beside the heater and leaves low on the far wall, which surprises most people, and the moisture has to go somewhere it won't damage the finishes next door. If the plan is to build one inside your home, ventilation for the sauna and for the room around it is what keeps it easy to maintain.
The infrared sauna: gentler, quieter, lighter on the house
An infrared sauna warms your body directly with heating panels, so the air stays dry and around 120 to 150°F. It's gentler, which suits people who dislike intense heat, and sessions tend to run longer and quieter: a podcast, a stretch, or just sitting still. With lower heat and no humidity, you can read a book, a magazine or the newspaper without ruining it. Many people find it easier on sore muscles and joints, though the trials behind that are small.
A one- or two-person cabin often runs on a dedicated 20-amp, 120-volt circuit (at least one maker warns that a 15-amp circuit isn't enough), larger cabins move to 240 volts, and most are ready in 10 to 30 minutes. As Michael Gilbride told Forbes in 2023, "While infrared can be a lower cost to operate, it's important to understand how they work." The difference, he explained: "Traditional saunas heat air at a high temperature. Infrared saunas heat the body directly at a lower temperature."
What infrared doesn't have yet is the research. The Finnish studies weren't done in infrared, and the best trials so far are small: a Japanese infrared therapy called Waon, tested in hospitalized heart-failure patients, improved walking distance and symptoms though its main measure fell short, and a 2018 review of sauna studies concluded there "may" be benefits but higher-quality data are needed.
Our read. If you want the ritual, the rounds, the company and the evidence, build a traditional sauna, especially by a pool or a few steps from the house in nature. If the electrical panel, the footprint or your tolerance for heat points the other way, infrared is still a good room to recover in. Units that combine both kinds of heat exist, too.
Red light therapy is a different tool
Red light therapy and infrared saunas are often sold together, but they're different tools. An infrared sauna works by heat: its panels give off far-infrared, wavelengths much longer than you can see, which warm your body directly. Red light therapy, which researchers call photobiomodulation, relies on light instead of heat. It uses specific red and near-infrared wavelengths, most often around 660 and 830 nanometers, delivered at a measured intensity for a set time. Its best evidence so far is modest: softer fine lines around the eyes with consistent daily use, and in-clinic treatment for some kinds of hair loss.
That's where many products fall short. A red-tinted bulb, or the colored mood lighting in a sauna or steam shower, glows red without delivering a therapeutic dose, and many home devices don't publish their intensity at all. For context, clinical systems typically run at 100 milliwatts per square centimeter or more; most home masks run at 20 to 40. If you're shopping for one, look for the wavelength and the intensity at a specified distance. If a product can't give you those numbers, enjoy the glow for the gram, but don't count on the treatment.
Where a steam shower fits
A steam shower runs much cooler than a sauna, around 110 to 115°F, at close to 100 percent humidity. Its health research is thin, and the Finnish researchers say their findings may not apply to steam. Its advantage is that it lives inside a room you already use every day. Used in the evening, it nudges you out of the day's alertness and toward sleep; in the morning, it loosens the body before the day asks anything of it. And steam is hard on electronics, so the room makes the choice for you: the phone stays on the other side of the glass.
In 2023, Michael told Forbes a steam shower was "a must-have investment." In many markets it has since become table stakes. If you're adding one, plan for:
The generator. It lives outside the shower, in a closet, vanity or attic that stays accessible, usually within 25 to 50 feet depending on the maker, on its own 240-volt circuit.
The size of the generator. It's matched to the room's volume and its materials. Natural stone needs roughly twice the generator of the same shower in porcelain, so choose the finish and the equipment together.
A sealed room. Glass to the ceiling, a gasketed door, and a vapor barrier on every surface, ceiling included.
The ceiling. Ideally no higher than about eight feet, and sloped one to two inches per foot so condensation runs down the wall instead of dripping on you.
The details you'll feel. A steam head low and away from the bench, and a bench long enough to lie down on.
Where a home sauna should go
Almost every home sauna we've seen go unused was a good sauna in the wrong place. The decision that matters most is the path: preheat, sauna, rinse, cool-down, and eventually bed. Every door, stair and cold stretch between them is a reason to skip it on a Tuesday in February. An outdoor sauna is a wonderful idea in October, so before you build one, stand where it would go and time the walk back inside. If that walk feels long in the fall, it will end the habit in January, however good the robe.
Clients often ask for the sauna in the primary suite. Given its size and power needs, we usually place it closer to a gym, a movement area, a meditation room or the outdoors, near a shower and somewhere friends and family can join without walking through your bedroom.
Then the practical questions: what's left in your electrical panel, and what your co-op board, HOA, landmark district or town will approve. Either one can turn a four-week project into a nine-month one. And think about the day you might want it gone. A sauna built into a bathroom or a basement comes out with demolition, so buy for the next fifteen years, or buy something freestanding you can actually move.
Bring the outside in, and bring people
The Nordic versions all end the same way: outside, near water, with other people. There's good reason to design for both. In a classic study, hospital patients whose windows faced trees went home sooner and needed fewer strong painkillers than patients facing a brick wall. Apartment residents whose window views included natural elements reported greater wellbeing. And in a 2026 study of about 1,900 people at UK community saunas, wellbeing and mood rose after a session, and a sense of belonging helped explain why.
So we frame a view from the bench: a glass door or window onto a tree, a garden, water or simply the sky. We put a bench outside for the cool-down, an outdoor shower if the climate allows, and enough room on the sauna bench for the people you'd invite.
Cold plunges, honestly
Cold plunges have the most enthusiasm behind them today and the least evidence. A 2025 review of eleven trials found cold-water immersion lowered stress about twelve hours later, with a possible sleep benefit from a single study and no effect on immunity; the authors concluded that the popular claims "remain unsubstantiated." If you're curious, start in the shower. In a Dutch trial of more than 3,000 people, ending a warm shower with 30 to 90 seconds of cold was linked to 29 percent fewer sick days off work, and 30 seconds did as well as 90.
Two cautions. Plunging right after a strength workout blunted muscle growth in several studies, so save the cold for after the sauna or after cardio. And the first minute and a half in cold water brings gasping and a spike in heart rate and blood pressure, so ease in, keep your head above the water, and talk to your doctor first if you have a heart condition.
If you do build one, plan for:
The weight. A filled plunge of 100 to 125 gallons weighs roughly 1,100 to 1,500 pounds. Residential floors are typically designed for about 40 pounds per square foot of live load, and a plunge concentrates far more than that, so it belongs on a slab or a floor an engineer has reviewed.
The circuit. Its own 120-volt circuit with GFCI protection.
The chiller. It gives off heat and a steady hum, and needs a foot or more of open air around it. On built-in plunges it can sit in a ventilated closet some distance away.
The water. Filtration and sanitizing run around the clock, and the water still gets changed every one to six months depending on how you care for it.
Can it go in the bathroom? In a large suite, yes, if there's a ventilated closet that can house both the steam generator and the chiller outside the wet room, separate circuits for each (a steam generator and a plunge often call for different electrical protection), and a floor engineered for the weight. In most homes we'd rather put it beside the sauna, so the circuit runs heat, rinse, cold, rest.
Before you begin
Heat isn't for everyone on every day. Skip the sauna and talk to your doctor if you have unstable angina, a recent heart attack, uncontrolled blood pressure or severe aortic stenosis. Leave alcohol for after. If you're pregnant, avoid anything that raises your core temperature above about 102°F. And if you're trying to conceive, know that regular sauna use lowered sperm counts in a small study, with a full recovery about six months after stopping.
Start before you build
You can try all of this without a renovation. A warm bath or shower an hour or two before bed has good evidence behind it for sleep. End a morning shower cold. And book a session at a community sauna with friends; it's the least expensive way to learn whether you love the ritual, and what you'd want at home.
Build the circuit
If you're renovating or building, design the five minutes after as carefully as the sauna itself: a rinse within a few steps, a bench and a view for the cool-down, water and towels within reach, low light, a hook for the robe. When the moments before and after are easy, the habit has a much better chance of sticking.
Questions to answer before you choose
Who's coming in with you, and how often?
Do you like heat hot and short, or gentler and longer?
How far is it to the nearest shower, and to a door outside? Count the doors.
What's left in your electrical panel?
Where will the heat and the moisture go?
What will you look at from the bench?
What will your co-op board, HOA or town approve?
If you want cold, where do the plunge and its chiller go?
What happens in the five minutes after?
Frequently asked questions
Is a traditional or an infrared sauna better?
A traditional sauna is the better choice if you want the ritual, social sessions and the type of sauna behind the Finnish research. An infrared sauna is the better choice if you prefer gentler heat, longer quiet sessions or a lighter electrical load. The Finnish health findings were never studied in infrared saunas.
How much electricity does a home sauna need?
A traditional sauna for three or four people typically needs a 6 to 8 kW heater on a dedicated 240-volt circuit of about 30 to 40 amps. A one- or two-person infrared cabin often runs on a dedicated 20-amp, 120-volt circuit, and larger infrared cabins need 240 volts. Check your panel's capacity before you choose a unit.
Can you put a sauna in a bathroom?
It's possible, but we usually place a sauna near a gym, a movement area, a meditation room or the outdoors instead. A sauna needs its own ventilation and a place for heat and moisture to go, and it's a room friends and family should be able to reach without passing through your bedroom. In the bathroom, a steam shower usually makes more sense.
How hot should a home sauna be?
Traditional saunas usually run around 160 to 190°F and infrared saunas around 120 to 150°F. Researchers can't yet say exactly how hot, how long or how often is best, so start gently and stop if you feel unwell.
Is red light therapy the same as an infrared sauna?
No. An infrared sauna uses far-infrared heat to warm your body. Red light therapy uses specific red and near-infrared wavelengths, often around 660 and 830 nanometers, at a measured intensity. Red mood lighting in a sauna or steam shower doesn't deliver a therapeutic dose.
Can a cold plunge go in a bathroom?
Only in a large bathroom with a ventilated closet for the chiller outside the wet room, its own GFCI circuit, and a floor engineered for 1,100 to 1,500 pounds of water. If the bathroom also has a steam shower, both machines need space and separate circuits. In most homes, a cold plunge works better beside the sauna.
Should I use a cold plunge after working out?
Not right after strength training, which several studies found can blunt muscle growth. A cold plunge fits better after the sauna or after cardio.
Is an outdoor sauna a good idea?
Yes, if the walk back to a shower is short and comfortable in winter. Before you build one, stand where it would go and time the walk back inside.
Where does it go in your house?
Everything above is true of every house. What we can't tell you from here is where a sauna goes in yours, because that depends on where your panel is, which wall is wet, what your board will approve, and how far you're willing to walk in February. That's what a Floorplan Review is for: you send us your plan, we work through it together, and you keep the marked-up version to hand to your builder. If you're already choosing equipment, our Specification consultation covers the heater, the steam generator and the plunge. The makes and models we specify go out in the Folio.
Michael Gilbride Design crafts modern welcoming spaces that support his client's ambitions of living well, where beauty is found in the balance between sophistication and ease.
With an emphasis on effortless elegance and functional refinement, he creates environments where charm, relaxation, and comfort converge seamlessly.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you create the perfect balance in your home.
