A red light room is an equipment room. The panels do the work the panels do; the room decides whether they can be used at the settings their manufacturer specifies, whether the space can be cleaned and serviced, and whether it can be booked back to back without the next guest waiting in a corridor. This page sets out what is specified when a red light room is drawn into a spa, a gym or a private wellness suite: the light source and how it is mounted, the distance the room has to allow, the surfaces, the ventilation and the electrical provision.
Panel output settings, session length and eyewear are set by the panel manufacturer’s instructions. The room specification below sits alongside those instructions and does not replace them.
The light source and how it is mounted
Red light panels emit in the visible red band and, on most units, in the near-infrared band as well. Two panels with the same physical size can differ substantially in the wavelengths they emit, in irradiance, in beam angle and in the way the emitters are distributed across the face, so the panel is selected first and the room is drawn around it rather than the other way round. The manufacturer’s data sheet is the specification document; the room drawing references it.
Mounting is the first thing the room has to resolve. A panel can be fixed to the wall, hung on a track, or carried on a free-standing frame, and the three are not interchangeable once the wall build-up is set. Wall fixing needs a substrate that will take the load at the fixing centres the manufacturer gives, which usually means plywood or a steel backing built into the partition rather than plasterboard alone. Track and frame mounting move the load to the floor or the ceiling and change the setting-out entirely. This is decided at the drawing stage, because retrofitting a backing into a finished partition means opening the wall.
Panel height is set against the intended use. A room used standing sets the panel centre against standing torso height; a room used seated or lying sets it lower and usually needs a wider panel or a second one. Where the room has to serve both, adjustable-height track mounting is specified from the start, since it is a mounting decision rather than an accessory.
Distance, and why it sets the room size
Panel manufacturers quote irradiance at a stated distance. That figure holds at that distance and nowhere else, which makes the distance the single dimension the room cannot compromise on. The room has to give the stated distance in front of every panel, plus room for the user to stand or sit at it without touching the opposite wall, plus circulation behind, plus a door that does not swing into the measured zone.
In practice this is why red light rooms are drawn deeper than they first appear to need. A designer who allocates the smallest plan that will physically contain the panel and a person will produce a room in which the only usable position is closer than the panel was specified for. Where a scheme has a fixed envelope and the distance cannot be met, the correct response is a different panel with a different rated distance, not a shorter distance with the original panel.
Two-panel and facing-panel layouts change the geometry again: the setting-out has to keep the user at the rated distance from both faces at once, which fixes the room width as well as its depth. Any mirror, glass or polished metal in the panel’s line of sight is removed at this stage rather than at fit-out, because a specular surface puts light where the geometry did not account for it.
Surfaces: walls, floor and ceiling
The walls facing the panels are specified matt and light, in a finish that is dimensionally stable at normal room conditions and cleanable between sessions. Mirrors do not belong on the panel-facing walls. Where a mirror is wanted for the room to function as a changing or preparation space, it goes on the wall behind the panel or in a lobby, not opposite the panel face.
The floor is a dry-area floor. A red light room is not a wet room, and detailing it as one adds falls, gullies and tanking that the room does not need and that complicate the panel mounting. A slip-resistant, cleanable dry finish with a coved or sealed junction at the wall is enough. Where the room sits directly off a wet circuit, the transition is handled with a threshold and a dry-off zone outside the door rather than by making the red light room itself wet-rated.
Timber, where it is used for warmth or to match adjacent rooms, is specified for a dry, temperate room. Sauna-grade timber selection and detailing solve a different problem and are not transferable here. Acoustic treatment on the ceiling is worth specifying if the room is small and hard-surfaced, because a small room with four hard walls reads as clinical however well the lighting is handled.
Ventilation and the room’s heat load
A red light room is dry, so it has none of the vapour-barrier and condensation-control requirements a steam room or a hammam carries. What it does have is a continuous internal heat gain: the panels and their drivers reject heat into a small, usually enclosed room, for the full length of every session, back to back through the booking day.
Mechanical supply and extract are therefore specified for the occupancy and for that gain together, and the room is included in the cooling load calculation for the spa rather than treated as an unconditioned store. Supply is positioned so that air is not delivered across the user’s face; extract is taken high. Where the room is unoccupied for long stretches, the ventilation is interlocked with the booking or the lighting so that it runs when the panels do instead of running continuously.
The door is a normal, well-sealed internal door with privacy provision. It does not need the heat-and-vapour detailing of a sauna door, and specifying one adds cost and a maintenance item for no benefit.
Electrical provision, drivers and access
Panels are fed from dedicated circuits sized to the total connected load of the panels and their drivers, with the isolation and protection required by the regulations that apply on the project. The connected load is taken from the panel data sheet, and the circuit is sized for every panel in the room running at once, because that is how the room will be used.
Driver position is the detail most often left to site, and it is the one that causes trouble later. Drivers need a ventilated position and they need to be reachable, so they are drawn into an accessible service void, a ceiling access panel or a dedicated cupboard at the same time as the panel layout. A driver concealed behind a fixed panel is a wall-opening job on its first failure. Cable routes are drawn with the mounting so that the panel positions are not compromised by cables arriving in the wrong place.
Room lighting is specified separately from the panels and on a separate circuit, dimmable, so that ambient light can be brought down for the session and back up for cleaning and changeover without touching the panel supply.
Where the room sits in the circuit
A red light room is dry, quiet and booked by appointment, which places it downstream of the wet rooms and off the dry circulation with its own door. It does not need to sit beside the sauna or the plunge, and putting it there routes wet traffic past a room that has no reason to get wet. In a compact scheme it sits next to the relaxation area; in a larger one it is usually grouped with the treatment rooms, because it is scheduled the way a treatment room is.
It is worth being explicit that it is a separate room from an infrared sauna. The two are regularly conflated at brief stage because both are described in terms of infrared. An infrared sauna is a heated cabin, built, insulated and ventilated as a heat room. A red light room is unheated and is built as a dry treatment room. Where a client wants both, they are two rooms with two specifications and two ventilation strategies, and the programme should say so before the areas are allocated.
Background on the modality itself is collected in our red light therapy guide, and the way a dry room of this kind is placed within a residential scheme is set out on our private spa page.
What belongs in the tender
A red light room tender that only names a panel model will be priced four different ways. The package that prices consistently sets out: the panel model and quantity with the manufacturer’s rated distance; the mounting method and the wall or ceiling backing required for it; the internal setting-out dimensions that hold the rated distance; the wall, floor and ceiling finishes with the specular-surface exclusion stated; the supply and extract rates with the panel and driver heat gain given as an input; the electrical connected load, circuit arrangement and driver positions; and the access provision for driver and panel maintenance.
Scope splits are worth naming in the same document. Where the panels are a client-supplied item, the tender says who receives, stores, mounts, connects and commissions them, and who holds the warranty interface afterwards. Where they are contractor-supplied, the data sheet the room was drawn against is issued with the tender so the substitution conversation happens before the room is built rather than after.
Our design and implementation services cover the room side of that package: the envelope, the finishes, the setting-out against the panel data sheet, and coordination with the mechanical and electrical scope.
Frequently asked questions
What is a red light room?
A red light room is a dedicated dry room built around wall- or frame-mounted red and near-infrared panels. The room itself carries no equipment function: it fixes the mounting geometry, the distance between panel and user, the surfaces, the air path and the electrical provision so that the panels can be run at the settings their manufacturer specifies.
How is a red light room different from an infrared sauna?
An infrared sauna is a heated cabin: its emitters raise the cabin and occupant temperature, and the cabin is built and ventilated as a heat room. A red light room is not heated. Its panels emit in the visible red and near-infrared bands, the room runs at normal comfort temperature, and its ventilation is sized for the heat the panels and the luminaires reject into the space, not for a sauna heat load. The two rooms are specified separately.
What distance does a red light room have to allow?
The distance is set by the panel manufacturer, not by the room designer. Panel output is quoted as irradiance at a stated distance, and that figure only holds at that distance. The room has to give the stated standing or seated distance in front of every panel, plus circulation behind the user, plus a door swing that does not cross it. Drawing the room to the minimum footprint and then hanging the panels is the sequence that produces rooms that cannot be used as intended.
What surfaces suit a red light room?
Matt, light, dimensionally stable surfaces on the walls facing the panels, with no mirrors or polished metal in the panel’s line of sight, since specular surfaces put light where the geometry did not account for it. Floors are specified as slip-resistant dry-area finishes; the room is not a wet room and should not be detailed as one. Timber, if used, is specified for a dry, temperate room rather than a sauna.
What ventilation does a red light room need?
Mechanical supply and extract sized for the occupancy and for the heat the panels and drivers reject into the room. The room is dry, so there is no vapour barrier requirement of the kind a steam room or hammam has, but the extract still has to run because the panels are on for the length of every session and the room is usually small. Supply is placed so that air is not blown across the user’s face, and extract is placed high.
What electrical provision does a red light room need?
Panels are fed from dedicated circuits sized to the total connected load of the panels and their drivers, with the isolation and protection required by the local regulations that apply to the project. Cable routes and driver positions are drawn with the panel layout rather than resolved on site, because drivers need ventilated, accessible positions and a driver buried behind a fixed panel becomes a maintenance problem on the first failure.
Where does a red light room sit in a spa circuit?
Downstream of the wet rooms and off the dry circulation, with its own door. It is a dry, clothed-or-robed, low-noise room, so it does not want wet traffic passing through it and it does not need to sit next to the sauna or the plunge. In a compact spa it works next to the relaxation area; in a larger scheme it is often grouped with the treatment rooms because it is booked by appointment in the same way.
Who builds red light rooms for hotels and spas?
Sauna Dekor designs, manufactures and installs spa and thermal rooms, and integrates red light rooms into those schemes for hotel spas, wellness centres, gyms and private residences. We have manufactured in Istanbul since 1987 and have delivered projects in more than 35 countries. Sauna Dekor holds TS EN ISO 9001:2015 certification for the manufacture of sauna and spa products and after-sales service; the panels themselves carry their own manufacturer’s certification.
Talk to us about the room
If a red light room is being drawn into a spa, a gym or a private wellness suite, we can take the room specification from the panel data sheet through to installation. See our services, our private spa work, or our thermal suite page for how a dry room of this kind is planned alongside the heat and cold rooms around it.
