Disclaimer:
The information provided in this blog is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as, nor should it be considered a substitute for, professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The content may reference third-party research or studies and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Salus Saunas. No content on this site should be interpreted as a recommendation for any specific treatment or health-related action. Always consult with a licensed healthcare provider before using a sauna or making any changes to your health or wellness routine. Salus Saunas disclaims any liability for decisions made based on the information presented in this blog.
It usually comes up after the excitement of picking a model. You've measured the spare room, you've imagined the first cold-morning session, and then someone in the house asks the practical question: "Okay, but what is this going to do to our electric bill?" It's a fair question. A sauna heater is one of the more powerful appliances you can put in a home, and nobody wants a wellness habit that quietly turns into a monthly shock.
The good news is that the answer isn't a mystery. Electricity is billed in kilowatt-hours, and as the U.S. Energy Information Administration explains, one kilowatt-hour is simply one kilowatt used for one hour. With that, the heater size, and your local rate, you can estimate the cost yourself. This article walks through the math for traditional and infrared saunas at current U.S. rates, shows how much your state matters, and covers the costs that never show up on the utility bill.
The Only Formula You Need
Every running-cost estimate comes down to three numbers: how many kilowatts the heater draws, how many hours it runs, and what you pay per kilowatt-hour. Multiply the first two to get kilowatt-hours, then multiply by your rate. A 6-kilowatt heater running for one hour uses 6 kilowatt-hours; a 1.8-kilowatt load running for the same hour uses 1.8.
For the rate, we'll use the national figure. According to the EIA's Electric Power Monthly, the average U.S. residential price was 18.31 cents per kilowatt-hour in July 2026, up from 17.45 cents a year earlier. Your own bill lists your rate, so swap in that number for a figure that fits your home.
Traditional Saunas: What a 6 kW or 8 kW Heater Really Uses
Traditional saunas heat the air and a bed of stones with an electric heater, and that's where most of the energy goes. Salus's electrical guide explains that most home heaters are 4.5, 6, or 8 kilowatts and run on a hardwired 220/240-volt circuit. At the national average rate, a 6 kW heater running at full power for an hour uses 6 kilowatt-hours, about $1.10. An 8 kW heater comes to about $1.46 for that same hour.
Those are ceilings, not typical bills. Once the room reaches temperature, the thermostat cycles the heater on and off instead of running it flat out. To be conservative, imagine four sessions a week with the heater on for 75 minutes each time to cover warm-up and the session itself. With a 6 kW heater at full power the whole time, that's about 130 kilowatt-hours a month, or roughly $24 at the national average. Real-world use usually lands below that ceiling, which is why the same electrical guide says a traditional sauna can cost as little as $20 a month to run, depending on its size and how often you use it.
Infrared Saunas: Why the Numbers Get Much Smaller
Infrared saunas warm you with emitters rather than heating a room full of air and stones, and they plug into ordinary household circuits. That gives you a simple way to put a hard cap on the cost. A 120-volt, 15-amp circuit can deliver at most 1,800 watts (120 × 15), so even if a two-person infrared sauna pulled the circuit's full capacity for an hour, it would use 1.8 kilowatt-hours, about 33 cents at the national average rate. Larger models on a 20-amp circuit cap out at 2.4 kilowatt-hours, about 44 cents an hour.
Run the same four-sessions-a-week schedule, one hour each, and the absolute ceiling for a 15-amp model is about 31 kilowatt-hours a month, under $6. In practice the number is lower, because the sauna doesn't draw its circuit's maximum the whole time. Salus's electrical guide estimates 5 to 10 cents an hour for a two-person infrared model, and about 20 cents for its largest infrared saunas.
Where You Live Changes the Math
The national average hides a wide range. In the same EIA state table, July 2026 residential prices ran from 12.72 cents per kilowatt-hour in Louisiana to 48.00 cents in Hawaii. California came in at 33.61 cents, Florida at 15.03, and Texas at 15.88.
Apply those rates to one full-power hour of a 6 kW heater and you get about 76 cents in Louisiana, 90 cents in Florida, $2.02 in California, and $2.88 in Hawaii. If you live somewhere with high rates and plan to use your sauna almost daily, an infrared model or a smaller traditional heater can make a real difference over a year. If your rates are low, heater size matters far less to your budget than how the sauna fits your space and how you like your heat.
Putting It in Context: Your Whole Home's Electricity Use
A useful reality check is to compare a sauna with everything else in the house. According to the EIA, the average U.S. residential customer used 10,791 kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2022, about 899 kilowatt-hours a month.
Against that, our conservative traditional-sauna example of about 130 kilowatt-hours a month is roughly 14% of an average household's use, and the infrared ceiling of about 31 kilowatt-hours is around 3%. Your mileage will vary with heater size, how long you preheat, and how often you go in, but for most homes a sauna is a noticeable line item, not a budget-breaker.
The Costs That Never Show Up on the Electric Bill
Electricity is the smallest part of the budget. The bigger one-time costs are installation-related: a traditional heater needs a hardwired 240-volt circuit, and many larger infrared models need a dedicated 20-amp outlet. The Electrical Safety Foundation International recommends that all electrical work be done by a qualified electrician who is licensed, insured, and bonded in your state and pulls the required permits. Get a written quote before your sauna ships so there are no surprises.
After that, upkeep is modest: wiping down benches, letting the room air out, and checking the door, lighting, and controls from time to time. Outdoor models may also need a level base. Finally, read the warranty before you buy; the FTC advises checking what's covered, for how long, and who you contact for repairs, and assuming that anything not listed isn't covered. You can review Salus's terms on the sauna warranty page.
Owning Versus Paying Per Visit
Running cost matters most when you think about frequency. In the Finnish Kuopio cohort of 2,315 men, researchers compared participants who used a sauna once a week with those who went two to three or four to seven times a week, and the more frequent groups had lower rates of fatal cardiovascular events. It's an observational finding, not proof of cause, but it shows that the habit people study is frequent use, not an occasional treat.
That kind of frequency is hard to sustain if every session means a drive, a membership, and a schedule built around someone else's opening hours. At home, the marginal cost of one more session is roughly the electricity, often around a dollar for a traditional sauna and a fraction of that for infrared, and the commute is a few steps. The more often you'd actually use it, the more owning makes sense.
A Free Guide to Plan the Whole Budget
Running costs are only one line in the plan. Before you choose, it helps to see sizing, electrical requirements, and heat type side by side.
Our free Home Sauna Buyer's Guide walks through sauna types, temperature ranges, sizing, and electrical needs. Pair it with your latest electric bill and your state's rate from the EIA's price table, and you can estimate your own running cost before you ever talk to an electrician.
A Plug-In Infrared Sauna With a Small Footprint on Your Bill
If keeping running costs low is the priority, a two-person infrared sauna on a standard circuit is the simplest way to get there. The Reprieve Full Spectrum Infrared Indoor Sauna runs on a 120-volt, 15-amp dedicated circuit, so by the math above it can't use more than 1.8 kilowatt-hours in an hour, and it needs no 240-volt wiring. Its maximum setting is 150°F, and it typically reaches 135°F to 140°F depending on the room.
It measures 48 by 42 inches by 75 inches tall, built in natural Pacific cedar, with a removable bench for stretching, a roof vent, chromotherapy lighting with a red light feature, Bluetooth audio, and a clasp-together assembly. It carries a seven-year warranty. Because the front wall ships as one piece that can't be disassembled, measure your doorways before you order.
Explore other sizes and price points:
Prices shown reflect pricing on the date this article was published. Contact us for current pricing and more information.
Budgeting for the Purchase Itself
The Reprieve is $4,995, with the traditional, hybrid, and cold plunge options in the carousel above ranging from $6,495 to $8,995. On space, the Reprieve's 48-by-42-inch footprint takes about 14 square feet, small enough for a spare room, home office, or basement corner.
Salus Saunas works with Affirm and Synchrony, with Synchrony currently offering financing starting at 0% APR over 18 months for qualified buyers, roughly $278 a month for the Reprieve over that term before any down payment. Ask whether an offer is true zero-interest or deferred interest before signing. Salus also partners with Truemed, which determines individual HSA and FSA eligibility through a health survey; for the general rules on qualifying medical expenses, see IRS Publication 502.
A Few Dollars a Month for a Daily Ritual
The electric bill turns out to be the easy part of owning a sauna. A traditional heater at full power costs about a dollar an hour at today's national average, an infrared sauna on a household circuit costs well under that, and even a conservative monthly estimate is a small slice of what the average home already uses. The bigger decisions are the one-time ones: the right heater type, a safe electrical installation, and a model that fits your space. Check your own rate on your bill or in the EIA's state data, plug it into the formula, and you'll know your number in a minute.
If you'd like help matching a sauna to your space, your electrical setup, and the way you want to use it, our specialists can walk you through our traditional, infrared, and hybrid lines and give you real numbers for your home.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sauna Running Costs
1. How do I calculate how much electricity my sauna uses?
Multiply the heater's kilowatts by the hours it runs to get kilowatt-hours, then multiply by your rate. The EIA defines one kilowatt-hour as one kilowatt used for one hour.
2. How much does a traditional sauna cost to run per hour?
At most about $1.10 for a 6 kW heater and $1.46 for an 8 kW heater at full power, using the July 2026 U.S. average of 18.31 cents per kWh from the EIA.
3. How much does an infrared sauna cost to run per hour?
A model on a 120-volt, 15-amp circuit can't use more than 1.8 kWh in an hour, about 33 cents at the national average. See the EIA's guide to kilowatt-hours to run your own numbers.
4. Why does running cost vary so much by state?
Rates differ widely. The EIA's July 2026 data shows residential prices from 12.72 cents per kWh in Louisiana to 48.00 cents in Hawaii.
5. Will a sauna noticeably raise my electric bill?
It's usually a modest line item. The average U.S. home used about 899 kWh a month in 2022, per the EIA; a frequently used sauna adds a fraction of that.
6. Do I need an electrician to install a sauna?
For any new circuit or hardwired heater, yes. ESFI recommends a licensed, insured, and bonded electrician who pulls the required permits.
7. What should I check in a sauna warranty?
What's covered, how long it lasts, and who handles repairs. The FTC advises assuming anything not listed isn't covered.
8. How often do people use a sauna in the research?
In the Finnish Kuopio cohort, most men used a sauna two to three times a week, and some four to seven times, which is why low per-session costs matter.
9. Does a cold plunge use a lot of electricity?
A chiller on a 120-volt, 15-amp outlet is capped at 1.8 kW, like a small infrared sauna. Use the EIA's kilowatt-hour method with its run time to estimate cost.
10. Can I use HSA or FSA funds for a sauna?
It depends on individual eligibility. Salus works with Truemed, and the IRS Publication 502 explains the general rules for qualifying medical expenses.
