The New England coast is beautiful and varied, from the dramatic rocky shores of Maine to the sandy beaches of Cape Cod to the rocky moraine of Long Island’s north shore. The one thing New England’s coastal waters are not is warm. I remember swimming in Maine when I was in art school in Portland: I would get all hot and sweaty by running or biking to the beach and jump in and swim a brisk few hundred yards, to the astonishment of onlookers who dared not go past their knees. For most people the swimming season in Maine consists of two weeks in August.
It is no wonder that my last several mobile saunas have found homes near the coast—what a perfect way to extend the swimming season! Cold water and saunas traditionally go together. Ideally the sauna is situated so one can plunge into a lake, pond, stream, or ocean after each round. With a sauna on wheels, you can pull up to your favorite dipping spot and indulge yourself anytime of year. There is nothing like the thrill of jumping through a hole in the ice or plunging next to a waterfall in the whiteness of winter.
The mobile unit is fairly clandestine—once the stove reaches temperature, the chimney smoke is invisible; no one will suspect you are nearly naked inside, basking until you burst out and head for the water. I haven’t had the pleasure of sauna-ing next to the ocean, but one of these days, I’ll have to travel back to Higgin’s Beach in Maine, sauna in tow, and give onlookers a thrill as I defy the icy winter water with a post-sauna dip.
You ask how or why electric mobile sauna? There are a number of reasons why going mobile makes sense, especially if you rent. No permits or special permissions are needed. You just park it in your yard and use it. You can take it with you on vacations or just for a Saturday down by the lake; you can even enter it in a parade. But why electric? Electric is no longer the inefficient dark horse of the energy world that it once was. It can be generated cleanly by wind or solar and is cheaper, cleaner, and easier to use than gas or oil. Although any purist will tell you a wood-burning sauna is the real deal, in some places, wood is not so easy—firewood may be hard to come by and difficult to store, and your neighbors may be too close for comfort or offended by the occasional whiff of smoke. Since I’ve eliminated gas burners from my repertoire (for reasons I won’t go into here), an electric mobile sauna is the next best thing. All you need is a place to plug it in.
When clients ask me to create a sauna, they often push me to do things I might have never considered doing. I’ve gotten requests to make saunas in spaces I thought were too tiny, on trailers, deep in the woods next to a pond, or to convert a cheap shed or laundry room. The most recent project to leave the shop is an electric mobile sauna. The owner has a Tesla electric car, so an electric sauna just seemed to make sense. She also wanted the benches to flip up so it could be a mobile hot-yoga studio. The colors were more of an emotional choice: I painted it Sea Reflections blue like the ocean, where she likes to swim all year, with a Bonfire Red door to beckon her into the warmth of its interior and Vanilla Ice Cream trim because, well, who doesn’t like ice cream, especially after a sauna?
The how is simple: an 8 KW heater with a standard RV type hook up and a fifty-foot, very-heavy extension cord that connects to a standard car charging port (or special outdoor outlet). This will also work in many campgrounds with RV hookups. In a pinch, it can also be run off an 8500-watt generator.
This sauna also has a solar-powered low-voltage lighting system, just so there can always be light and because low-voltage systems are safer and more versatile than 120-volt lighting. I’ve been using these in some mobile wood burners and freestanding units. The neat little solar panel is a conversation starter; people are suddenly aware that the unit is more than a fancy tool shed trailer. When I tell them it’s an electric sauna, the little 25-watt solar panel gets a second glance.
I envision a fully solar electric sauna next (but probably won’t consider doing unless a client pushes me). It would have to use Tesla’s 270-pound Powerwall home battery, which has an 8kw output capacity. I imagine the entire sauna roof would a have to be a solar panel, but I haven’t done the engineering on this. This would not be cheap, but if someone out there who wants to be the first…. give me a call.
My latest mobile sauna project started when a customer contacted me wanting a mobile sauna she could use for hot yoga (Bikram). It’s my standard 5’x8′ trailer sauna but without the benches. The arched roof allows for plenty of room for stretching out, and the floor is soft cedar. The heat comes from a Scandia propane-fired heater. It’s a cute little unit that weighs under two-thousand pounds. Tow it to the next yoga retreat and show off your downward dog.
When the client for my latest mobile sauna project contacted me, he told me he needed something that would look and feel like a sauna from back home in Finland. He wanted it to be wood-fired and to get really hot. He wanted the clean lines and rustic charm of Finnish design and even requested a traditional pine tar finish like what the Vikings used on their boats. As small as it going to be, it was to have the standard two rooms: the sauna room and a dressing room. He also wanted to use the latest solar technology to light it with a soft glow.
But working for an American company where he might get moved from time to time, he wanted it to be untethered to his house and portable, so he could always bring it with him like a cherished possession.
I enjoy challenges. In fact, I thrive on them. One of the advantages of having my own company is that I get to decide how much to put into each project and which projects to really focus on. On some projects, like this one, I get to expand my repertoire. The goal, as always, was to bring my client’s dreams into reality. The result did just that: a mobile sauna on a 81″x120″ trailer, under three-thousand pounds, with a dressing room, solar-powered lighting, custom wood stove, northern white cedar interior, and pine tar exterior finish. I created a little oasis—a reminder of Finland—that my client can park in his back yard. A dream come true.
Saunas are like that. When you have your own, it is a dream come true, a special place to escape into, to relax and unwind. Though tied to old traditions, for many, sauna is a new experience and can be life-changing. As designer and builder, I get to be the midwife for people’s dreams and help them usher in a new way of living or rekindle a past love. As we turn the page to a new year and think about resolutions, what dreams do you want to come true?
Mobile sauna by Rob Licht Custom Saunas.Solar powered lights on mobile sauna by Rob Licht Custom Saunas.
All summer long, I have eagerly anticipated this week. I have a cottage rental on the lake. It’s the highlight of my summer, and a much-needed break from all of the projects I have going on. This year, in addition to the usual activities—swimming, canoeing, beach fires, collecting beach glass, and just staring into the waves while sipping wine—I’ve added one more Sauna! I’ve brought my wood-fired trailer sauna with me and parked it ten feet from the water’s edge. Nothing beats coming out from the hot steam of a good löyly and jumping into the cool, refreshing lake. It is perfection.
Mobile Sauna by Rob Licht Custom Saunas on Cayuga Lake
