The arithmetic and the evidence

Why this section exists

When we surveyed the publishers ranking for the main terms in this category, two things stood out. First, not one of them published running-cost arithmetic — the actual kilowatt-hours a session consumes at a named electricity rate. Second, several made confident physiological claims citing "a growing body of research" with no research linked at all.

Both gaps are cheap to fill honestly and expensive to fake, which is why this hub is the center of the site rather than an afterthought. Everything here either shows its arithmetic in full so you can redo it with your own numbers, or cites a specific, linked source for every claim it makes.

The cost pages

Sauna running costs works out what a session actually costs from the heater's kilowatt rating and your electricity rate, with the assumptions named so you can substitute your own. Cold plunge running costs does the equivalent for a chiller, which is a harder problem because chillers cycle rather than running flat out — and because almost no chiller listing publishes a wattage at all. Home recovery setup budget puts the whole picture together, including the electrical work that people leave out of their planning and then discover.

The comparison pages

Sauna vs steam room is the question most people are actually asking when they start looking, and the answer turns on humidity and on what you can install rather than on which is better. Sauna vs hot tub is largely a maintenance-burden comparison — a hot tub is a body of water you are responsible for forever, and a sauna is a room. Contrast therapy covers running both, which is where this site's two halves meet.

The evidence pages

Sauna benefits and cold plunge benefits are written to one rule: every physiological claim links to a specific study or review, and where the evidence is thin, contested or observational rather than causal, we say so in the sentence rather than in a footnote. They are less exciting than most of what is written on these topics. That is the point.

Cold plunge protocol and the sauna temperature guide cover the how — duration, temperature, timing relative to training — again from published sources rather than from anyone's routine.

What we are not doing here

• No medical advice. We are not clinicians and hold no credentials. Nothing here is a diagnosis or a treatment plan.
• No outcome promises. We report what a study observed in the population it studied. Words like 'detoxifies', 'cures' and 'burns X calories' do not appear on this site.
• No uncited claims. If we cannot link a source, the claim does not get made.
• No first-hand experience claims. We have not tested this equipment, and the guides are written from published specifications and published research — see our methodology.

If you want the buying side rather than the reasoning, the product hubs are infrared saunas, outdoor saunas, cold plunge, red light and accessories.