Thank you for all your videos. I am a wood worker with basic electronic knowledge. I want to build a low EMF sauna for my wife. After watching your videos I came up with a number of ideas I would like to share with you and get your opinion on.
- Using twisted pair shielded cables inside of plastic conduit pig tailed to the infrared panels right at the panel itself.
- Locating the step down transformer externally by the outlet
- No Bluetooth, speakers, etc.
- Putting the seating maybe 6″ away from any of the panels / walls Any additional info or suggestions that I should or shouldn’t incorporate in the build would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks
Dan
Video Transcript (AI Generated)
Alright, today’s infrared sauna question is from Dan.
Dan’s doing a custom sauna build.
It says, “Hi Matt, thank you for all your videos.
“I’m a woodworker with basic electronic knowledge.
“I would like to build a low EMF sauna for my wife.
“After watching your videos, “I came up with a number of ideas “I would like to share with you and get your opinion on.
“Number one, using twisted paired shielded cables “instead of plastic conduit pigtailed “to the infrared panels right at the panel itself.
“Number two, locating the step-down transformer “externally by the outlet.
“Number three, no Bluetooth speakers, et cetera.
“Number four, putting the seating maybe six inches away “from any of the panels, walls.
“Additional suggestions that I should or shouldn’t “incorporate into the build, it would be greatly appreciated.”
Sure, I can help you with that.
Just wanted to repeat the questions for everybody that’s watching to understand the context.
And for you, Dan, it would be way too long for me to write an email, so I had to wait ’til I could do a video for you and get to this.
So number one, if you’re worried about low EMF, I wouldn’t bother making twisted shielded cables.
I would just buy a Moo cable or Moo cord.
You can get it from a couple different places.
Maybe I’ll source one and put a link in the YouTube description on where you can buy it.
That will take care of the magnetic and electric fields for you.
If you’re really concerned with low EMF, it’s gonna be a waste of time to try to build your own shielded conduit.
I would just use Moo cable or Moo cord.
That’ll take care of that.
“Locating the step-down transformer “externally by the outlet.”
Yeah, you could do that.
As long as, I mean, there are some tricks that you can do to the step-down transformer to eliminate some of the contaminant electric fields and things that can occur by those.
However, if something, I mean, I have no idea what you’re gonna use.
If you’re gonna buy a kit to build this thing, you didn’t say if it’s what type of infrared heaters you’re using or anything like that.
Generally, if the step-down transformer itself is causing some of the issue with EMF, whether it be magnetic or electric fields, in this case, probably electric fields, and that is being transferred on the lines to the heaters, moving the location of it is only going to reduce the magnetic fields, right?
So that’s a really hard question to answer.
I’m probably not the authority on that.
It’s getting, I mean, you’d wanna talk to an electrical engineer.
That’s getting outside of my wheelhouse to try and help you figure out.
So basically, if you have a step-down transformer that is giving off magnetic fields, right?
So generally, you don’t wanna place it close to the body or like on the bottom of the bench right near your butt because magnetic fields need a little bit more distance than that to dissipate.
And you’re not gonna be able to shield magnetic fields from a step-down transformer unless you wrap it in G-iron or something like that.
And if you did that, it’s probably not gonna block it completely, it’s just going to redirect it.
So you’re gonna change it into an oval shape the way it comes out and around whatever shielding you have ’cause you can’t encase it 100%.
It wouldn’t be able to breathe, probably overheat, wouldn’t be a good idea.
So that’s, you know, I don’t know.
It depends on how you’re setting this up.
I would have to have more details and know exactly what you’re trying to do.
No Bluetooth speakers, et cetera.
Well, you can put speakers in the ceiling to make it nice for her.
Just don’t stick wireless stuff in there.
Don’t connect it to the internet.
Don’t put, you know, any of that stuff in there.
You can have wired speakers with a little MP3 cord and play off an MP3 player.
You can play off a phone, outside the sauna, of course.
Just have the cord come up, you know, and over to the other side of the room or something like that, you’d be fine.
Putting seating maybe six inches away.
Now this is a great idea.
Something that some sauna companies should do is put the seating six inches away from the panels, exactly like you said, because with all of this stuff, our friend is distance, right?
If we can’t get rid of it, let’s just at least move a little bit away from it.
So six inches is not too far away to where it’s going to impact the effectiveness of the sauna or the amount that you sweat or anything like that, but it definitely will help with keeping you away from the panels.
Saying this, I’m assuming you’re gonna use some type of a carbon panel kit.
I’d have to know exactly what it is, Dan, to be able to say.
If you’re doing something like the heat lamp bulbs or, you know, something like that, you really don’t have to worry about most of this stuff ’cause the EMF is all on one side, but really make sure that you build an insulated enclosure if you’re doing that, because they just won’t generate enough heat to give a full body sweat if you don’t.
So I hope that helps.
I know I don’t feel like this was very helpful.
Just need more details.
And then some of the stuff that you’re asking is just way beyond my comprehension as far as, you know, modifying a step-down transformer.
Obviously not location-wise, just to tweak it.
But anyway, if there’s anything else that I can do, maybe there’s somebody that I know that can help you.
I’m not really sure.
At any rate, have a great day.
And if you have any other questions, let me know in the comments and I’ll see you in tomorrow’s video.