Is an infrared sauna cheaper to run than a traditional one?

Usually, but by less than people expect at Ontario rates, and at light usage the traditional room can actually win. An Ontario dealer publishes $2 to $16 a month for an infrared cabin. A 4.5 kW traditional heater doing four one-hour sessions a week at the 12 cent Tier 1 rate is about $9.36 a month, which lands inside that range. Push it to six ninety-minute sessions a week on the 20.3 cent on-peak rate and it climbs to about $35.63, at which point the infrared cabin is clearly cheaper. Usage and rate plan decide this, not the technology.

Why do the two publish their running costs so differently?

Because they are sold differently. A traditional sauna is specified by heater rating, so its cost is a rating multiplied by a rate multiplied by hours, and you can work it out yourself. An infrared cabin is sold as a finished appliance and its supplier quotes a monthly electricity figure with no kilowatt rating on the page at all. There is no honest conversion between the two, so this calculator brings the traditional side up to a monthly number rather than pretending it can turn the supplier's monthly figure back into a rating.

How hot does each one actually get?

That is the real difference and it is bigger than the cost gap. A traditional sauna runs at 158 to 194 degrees Fahrenheit. An infrared cabin runs at 104 to 140, which is a different room entirely rather than a slightly cooler version of the same one. An infrared cabin also comes up to temperature in 10 to 20 minutes against 30 to 45 for a traditional heater, because it has no stone mass to bring up with it.

Does an infrared cabin need a 240V circuit?

Often not, and that is where the real money is. A plug-in infrared cabin that can use a 120V circuit already in the room is published at $0 to $400 of electrical work by one Ontario contractor. A traditional heater needs its own hardwired 240V circuit, published at $800 to $1,800 up to 6 kW and $1,500 to $2,800 for 8 to 9 kW in Toronto. On a modest project that difference is larger than the difference between the two cabinets.

Which one should I buy?

This calculator will not tell you, because the honest answer depends on something it cannot measure: whether you want a 190 degree room or a 120 degree one. What it can settle is everything around that. It tells you what heater your room would need, what each side costs to run at your usage and your rate, what each costs to buy from published Ontario figures, and what the electrical work costs on each route. Decide the room you want, then use the numbers to check it is affordable.

Are the purchase prices here comparable?

They are published ranges for comparable Ontario products, both quoted by Toronto contractors as supply figures, and they overlap. A 1 to 2 person infrared cabin is $3,000 to $6,500 and a 3 to 4 person one $5,500 to $10,000. A small prefab Finnish kit is $5,000 to $12,000. What the overlap hides is that the traditional kit is a kit rather than a finished appliance, so it needs labour and a circuit on top before it works, and the infrared cabin usually does not.

Infrared or Traditional: Put Both in Dollars a Month

Last updated: September 13, 2026By The SaunaIndex Bench

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These two get compared constantly and almost never in the same unit, because a traditional sauna is sold by heater rating and an infrared cabin is sold with a monthly electricity figure and no rating at all. This calculator brings the traditional side up to a monthly number so the two can sit side by side without either being converted through a figure nobody published.

Both sides in dollars a month

Room length (ft)

Room width (ft)

Ceiling height (ft)

Minutes a session

Sessions a week

Infrared cabin size

Electricity price

The two land inside each other's range here: $9.36 a month for a 4.5 kW traditional heater against a published $2.00 to $16.00 for the infrared cabin. Running cost is not what decides this one.

The two purchase ranges overlap: $3,000 to $6,500 infrared against $5,000 to $12,000 traditional. What separates them on a quote is the 240V circuit the traditional room needs and the infrared cabin usually does not.

Traditional sauna

$9.36 a month

Heater this room needs: 4.5 kW
Per session: $0.54 / 4.5 kWh
Per month: 78 kWh over 17.33 sessions
Runs at: 158–194°F
Pre-heat: 30–45 min
Electrical: own 240V circuit
To buy: $5,000 to $12,000

Purchase range: RenoHouse (Toronto) - Basement Sauna Installation 2026.

Infrared cabin

$2.00 to $16.00 a month

Rating: quoted as a monthly cost, not a kW figure
Per session: not published separately
Per month: the supplier's own figure, whatever the usage
Runs at: 104–140°F
Pre-heat: 10–20 min
Electrical: often a plug-in 120V circuit
To buy: $3,000 to $6,500

Monthly figure: Wellness Shop (Ontario Clearlight dealer).

The two sides publish their running costs in different units, so the traditional side is brought UP to a monthly figure rather than the infrared side being converted down. A month is 52/12 weeks. The traditional figure assumes the heater draws its full rated output for the whole time it is on, which is the ceiling rather than the average, and it is the energy line of the bill only.

Method

Why the answer flips on how often you use it

The traditional side scales with usage. The published infrared figure does not.

The asymmetry in this comparison is worth understanding before you trust any result from it. The traditional side is computed: rated output, times hours on, times sessions a month, times the Ontario Energy Board rate you are actually on. Every one of those four can move, and the answer moves with them. The infrared side is not computed at all. It is a range an Ontario dealer publishes for its cabins, $2 to $16 a month, and it does not scale with anything, because the dealer does not say what usage it assumes.

That is why the verdict changes so sharply. A 4.5 kW heater doing four one-hour sessions a week at the 12 cent Tier 1 rate comes to about $9.36 a month, which lands inside the published infrared range and settles nothing. The same heater doing six ninety-minute sessions a week on the 20.3 cent on-peak rate comes to about $35.63, which is more than double the top of the infrared range. And a light user, one short session a week, drops under $2 a month and beats the infrared cabin outright. Anyone who tells you flatly that one of these is cheaper to run has not asked how often you plan to use it or which rate plan you are on.

None of which is the real decision, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. A traditional sauna is a 158 to 194 degree room with water going on hot stones. An infrared cabin is a 104 to 140 degree box. Those are different products, not two price points for the same one, and the electricity gap between them at Ontario rates is a few dollars a month either way. Where the money genuinely differs is on installation: a hardwired 240V circuit against a plug-in cabin is a published $800 to $2,800 against $0 to $400, and that gap dwarfs several years of the running-cost difference.

Sources

Infrared sauna cost guide - the published monthly electricity range, the cabin purchase ranges and the plug-in electrical figure, from Relaxacare, the Wellness Shop, SaunaFin, RenoHouse and Ottawa Electric.
Indoor sauna cost guide - the traditional kit price and the two Toronto 240V circuit rows.
The Sauna Place (Cookeville, Tennessee) - the operating temperature bands and pre-heat ranges for both.
Northern Lights Cedar Saunas (Canada) - the heater sizing rule behind the traditional column.
Ontario Energy Board, Regulated Price Plan, prices set for November 1, 2025 - every rate in the menu.

Read off the pages they cite in August 2026. Where a figure was published only for one side, SaunaIndex shows it on that side and says so rather than estimating the missing half.

Frequently asked questions

Is an infrared sauna cheaper to run than a traditional one?: Usually, but by less than people expect at Ontario rates, and at light usage the traditional room can actually win. An Ontario dealer publishes $2 to $16 a month for an infrared cabin. A 4.5 kW traditional heater doing four one-hour sessions a week at the 12 cent Tier 1 rate is about $9.36 a month, which lands inside that range. Push it to six ninety-minute sessions a week on the 20.3 cent on-peak rate and it climbs to about $35.63, at which point the infrared cabin is clearly cheaper. Usage and rate plan decide this, not the technology.
Why do the two publish their running costs so differently?: Because they are sold differently. A traditional sauna is specified by heater rating, so its cost is a rating multiplied by a rate multiplied by hours, and you can work it out yourself. An infrared cabin is sold as a finished appliance and its supplier quotes a monthly electricity figure with no kilowatt rating on the page at all. There is no honest conversion between the two, so this calculator brings the traditional side up to a monthly number rather than pretending it can turn the supplier's monthly figure back into a rating.
How hot does each one actually get?: That is the real difference and it is bigger than the cost gap. A traditional sauna runs at 158 to 194 degrees Fahrenheit. An infrared cabin runs at 104 to 140, which is a different room entirely rather than a slightly cooler version of the same one. An infrared cabin also comes up to temperature in 10 to 20 minutes against 30 to 45 for a traditional heater, because it has no stone mass to bring up with it.
Does an infrared cabin need a 240V circuit?: Often not, and that is where the real money is. A plug-in infrared cabin that can use a 120V circuit already in the room is published at $0 to $400 of electrical work by one Ontario contractor. A traditional heater needs its own hardwired 240V circuit, published at $800 to $1,800 up to 6 kW and $1,500 to $2,800 for 8 to 9 kW in Toronto. On a modest project that difference is larger than the difference between the two cabinets.
Which one should I buy?: This calculator will not tell you, because the honest answer depends on something it cannot measure: whether you want a 190 degree room or a 120 degree one. What it can settle is everything around that. It tells you what heater your room would need, what each side costs to run at your usage and your rate, what each costs to buy from published Ontario figures, and what the electrical work costs on each route. Decide the room you want, then use the numbers to check it is affordable.
Are the purchase prices here comparable?: They are published ranges for comparable Ontario products, both quoted by Toronto contractors as supply figures, and they overlap. A 1 to 2 person infrared cabin is $3,000 to $6,500 and a 3 to 4 person one $5,500 to $10,000. A small prefab Finnish kit is $5,000 to $12,000. What the overlap hides is that the traditional kit is a kit rather than a finished appliance, so it needs labour and a circuit on top before it works, and the infrared cabin usually does not.

Who supplies each of these in the GTA?

Plenty of Greater Toronto Area companies sell both, and the ones that only sell one will tell you that one is better. SaunaIndex lists 38 sauna companies ranked by the published SaunaIndex Score, each profile carrying its own quote request.

Browse sauna companies What each build needs from the house Price the whole project