Overview
Sauna Dekor builds thermal areas end to end — design, manufacture, installation and commissioning under one contract. The company started in 1987, is in its 40th year, manufactures in İkitelli, Istanbul, and has completed projects in over 35 countries.
This project is an infrared cabin for a private home in Munich, Germany. The owner is notnamed; the page records the city, the property type and the work. The zone listed for theproject is an infrared sauna.
Scope of work
An infrared cabin rather than a stone-heater sauna: the cabin structure, internal liningsand seating, the emitters and their control, glazing, lighting, and the electrical interfacewith the house. Manufactured and dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop, then dismantled,numbered, shipped and installed.
What an infrared cabin is, and what it is not
An infrared cabin and a Finnish sauna are different products that happen to share a shape.A stone-heater sauna heats the air and the stones, runs hot, and takes water — the loyly burstis the point of it. An infrared cabin heats the body more directly with radiant emitters, runsat a much lower air temperature, and takes no water at all. Pouring water in an infrared cabinis not a mild version of an Aufguss; it is a fault. Clients who want both usually end up withtwo rooms, or with a hybrid cabin that carries a stone heater as well as emitters. Being clearabout that at specification stage prevents the most common disappointment in this productcategory. Seeinfrared sauna andinfrared versus traditionalsauna.
Emitter class and placement
The emitters are the whole product. Their class determines the wavelength and therefore howthe cabin feels; their placement determines whether it feels even. Emitters go where a seatedbody actually is — behind the back, at calf level, and in front — rather than distributedevenly across the panelling, because a body seated on a bench does not present a flat surface.Distance matters too: too close and the sensation is uncomfortable on the skin nearest thepanel, too far and the cabin feels weak. This is why an infrared cabin is designed around theseat position rather than around the room. We make no health claims for the product; what wespecify is the equipment and its geometry.
Wiring, ventilation and build-up
An infrared cabin draws far less than a stone-heater sauna, so it will often run on astandard domestic circuit — one of the practical reasons clients choose it — with theconnection made by a local electrician to the national wiring rules and equipment carrying CEand EN 60335 certification from its manufacturer. It still needs ventilation: an air path keepsthe cabin fresh and lets it dry between sessions. The build-up is a lined timber box withconcealed fixings, kiln-dried and low in resin, and because no water is used the vapour load onthe house is much lower than a traditional cabin’s. Seewhat is an infrared sauna.
What we solved on site
The room available was a compact one, which for an infrared cabin is a placement problemrather than a heat-load one: the emitters have to sit at the right distance from the seat, andin a small cabin the seat position is what has to be fixed first. We set the seating, worked theemitter positions from it, and sized the cabin around both — then dry-assembled and numberedeverything in our Istanbul workshop beforeshipping. See alsoinfrared sauna design ideas.
