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Hot yoga is a form of exercise done in hot & humid conditions. More importantly, it’s known to offer a wide range of health benefits like reducing joint inflammation, increasing flexibility, and improving your muscle flexibility.
Unfortunately, hot yoga is usually done in hot yoga studios, which can be a bit pricey. As a result, most people are opting to make their own hot yoga studio. In this guide, I’ll show you how to create a hot studio at home and the important factors you need to pay close attention to. On top of that, I’ll show you the best infrared heater for hot yoga at home to help find the perfect heating device for your studio!
How to Create a Hot yoga studio at home
In essence hot yoga is performed at a temperature of about 96 – 106 deg F, which is the temperature range of most hot yoga studios. Luckily, with a great infrared heater and the right setup, you can easily make a home hot yoga studio in no time. First, you need to ensure that your space is above room temperature. In addition, you need the right hot yoga humidity to create the ideal hot yoga environment. For instance, you can aim for the relative humidity to be at least 40% and a temperature of about 490 deg C.
2 popular types of hot yoga are commonly performed; Bikram and Vinyasa yoga. Bikram yoga is usually done at a temperature range of 105 – 106 deg F, and 40 – 5-% Relative Humidity.
Factors to consider when creating a hot yoga studio at home
As already mentioned, you can practice hot in the comfort of your home. However, there are some important factors you need to consider to create the right ambiance and temperature for your hot yoga room. These factors include;
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Room size
Room size plays an important role when creating a hot yoga studio at home since it determines how much heat you’ll need to create the right hot yoga conditions. In most cases, the spare bedroom in your home is suitable, unless you’re planning to host 5 – 10 yoga practitioners. This will help you to save the cost of IR heaters as well as installation and operating costs.
To determine if the room has the right square footage, think about how much space you will need to comfortably lay out the mat and do your yoga poses. In that regard, some people use large to medium size bathrooms. This makes it easy to reach 105 deg F with just one plug-in infrared heater. However, for a larger room or bedroom, you’ll need more power to reach the Bikram temperature.
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Heat Loss (Insulation)
Heat loss is usually ignored when determining the amount of heat needed for a heated yoga studio. Yet it’s one of the most important factors you should consider when setting up a hot yoga studio at home. In that regard, a room that works well for regular yoga may not retain enough heat for hot yoga.
Although some heaters can increase the temperature of a poorly insulated room up to 100 deg F, they’ll require a lot of energy to accomplish that. Therefore, it’s good to choose a well-insulated room since it will be cheaper and easier in the long run.
A room loses heat in various ways, including doors and windows. The perfect hot yoga studio should have small or no windows at all. As for the door, put a towel against the bottom of the door to prevent the room from escaping. Lastly, choose a small room with a low ceiling as it will require less energy and heat up more quickly.
Bearing that in mind, bathrooms and bedrooms are 2 great options for creating your home hot yoga studio. This is because they’ve no exterior doors and have smaller windows than other rooms in your home. In addition, bathrooms are well-insulated to prevent water and moisture from damaging the walls and are much smaller than bedrooms. However, you need to ensure that the room has enough space to lay out your yoga mat.
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Heat source
Hot yoga studios are usually maintained at a temperature range of about 80 – 100 deg F. Therefore, it’s important to find a heater for home hot yoga that can produce such high temperatures.
Interestingly, there is a wide range of heaters for hot yoga out there that you can use to warm up the room to some extent. For instance, you can use a forced air heating system that blows hot air in the room, thus causing the air temperature to increase. Unfortunately, most forced air systems aren’t designed to run at high temperatures. In addition, they’re loud, inefficient, and don’t create the right ambiance for hot yoga.
As a result, most home and commercial hot yoga studios have been replacing forced air systems with infrared heat for the last 10- 15 years. This is because infrared heaters operate at high temperatures without any issue and ensure silent operation. Best of all, they’re highly efficient since they directly heat objects and people in the room, instead of air.
At the same time, the physiological effect of these devices offers various infrared heat health benefits like detoxification and increased flexibility. Besides, they feel a lot warmer since they produce sun-like warmth.
But, what are the best infrared heaters for your hot yoga studio at home? Let’s find out!
3 Best Infrared Heat for Hot Yoga at Home
1. DR Infrared DR-998 Advanced Dual Heating System with Humidifier
Key Features
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Design
At first glance, the DR-998 Infrared heater has a rectangular, wooden casing measuring 12 X 12 X 15”. However, it’s solidly built and quite sizable, so it will not take up a lot of space in your hot yoga room.
On its front, this device features an LED display and large, easy-to-read control buttons, making it easy to program. Even better, it comes with a remote control that you can use to adjust the settings from a distance.
Talking of settings, this infrared heater has low and high heat settings. On top of that, it has an eco mode that uses an inbuilt thermostat to automatically maintain the selected temperature. Alternatively, you can use it in fan-only mode and set it to oscillate up to 360 deg for more uniform heat distribution.
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Heating Performance
One of the most unique features of this unit is that it has a dual heating system, meaning it has both ceramic and infrared heating elements. The ceramic heating element produces forced heat, while the quartz tube produces an infrared heater. Afterward, the oscillation function ensures that the produced heat is quickly and uniformly distributed around your hot yoga space.
As a result, this unit can increase the temperature of a 15 X 10-foot hot yoga room by up to 4 deg F when operating on a high heating setting. Overall, this 1500 W IR heater can operate at a temperature range of between 50 and 85 deg F.
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Portability
Considering this unit only weighs about 25 lbs, it can be quite heavy to lift and move across the room. However, it comes with 4 durable caster transportation wheels, making it easy to roll into a closet or across the floor for storage. Plus, it has an automatic shut-off and tip-over protection that protects it from overheating.
Benefits
- Dual heating system
- Can be used as a humidifier or fan
- 4 caster wheels for convenient transportation
- Comes with a remote control
- Overheat & Tip-over protection
- Eco mode to save energy
- 50 – 85 deg F temperature range
- Up to 12-hour programmable timer
2. LUWIOR Infrared Ceramic Space Heater
Specifically, it can reach a maximum temperature of up to 150 deg F and features a 90-degree oscillation that distributes the heat across the room. Even better, you can also use it as a standard fan to cool the same during the hot summer months. As for safety, this device will automatically turn off when it’s tipped over or overheats.
Key Features
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2-in-1 heater
Unlike most space heaters, this unit from Luwior can be used throughout the year, including during the winter and summer seasons, since it acts both as a fan and heater. Plus, it has 2 heating modes (1500W high heat & 750W low heat), making it easy to set the ideal temperature based on your needs. In addition, the natural wind mode allows this device to supply a stream of cool wind into your room. Therefore, this heater will ensure that your hot yoga room stays comfortable, regardless of the outdoor weather conditions. At the same time, it has a compact and portable design, making it extremely easy to lift and move around the room.
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Ease of use
Another interesting feature about this infrared heater for hot yoga at home is that it’s extremely easy to use. Moreover, it comes with a smart remote and panel control, allowing you to control its setting conveniently. You can easily change the heat mode, set the time, or select oscillation and swing angle using the remote at a distance. And when the remote is not around, long press or touch the control panel to adjust these settings.
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Heat Output
When it comes to heating performance, this 1500 infrared ceramic heater produces instant heat of up to 150 deg F in less than 3 seconds. For that, it’s ideal for heating a relatively medium hot yoga space at home like an office or bedroom. To be precise, its powerful heating capacity enables it to heat a room of up to 340 sq ft in a matter of minutes!
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Safety
Like any other modern infrared heater, this unit comes with various safety features, making it ideal for indoor use. These features include; tip-over protection, overheat protection, and a programmable timer function. As a result, it will automatically shut off when your pet or kid knocks it down and when it overheats.
Benefits
- 2/4/8 programmable time
- Pet- and kid-friendly
- Ideal for 340 sq ft hot yoga room
- Features remote and panel control
- 90-degree oscillation for all-round warmth
3. CostWay Infrared Electric Quartz Tower Heater
If you’re looking for an affordable infrared heater for your home hot yoga studio, this unit from CostWay is an excellent option. This tower heater model is equipped with a quartz heating element that produces a warm, gentle heat and it’s only 22” tall. In addition, it has both high and low operation modes as well as a simple turn dial for regulating the temperature.
The only drawback with this infrared heater is that it lacks some advanced features found in other high-end models. For instance, it doesn’t have a digital control pad, advanced temperature controls, and eco mode. Other than that, it provides a quiet and reliable operation, making it ideal for indoor use.
Key Features
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Compact and portable design
Since this infrared heater has a compact tower design, it takes up a small amount of floor space. Plus, it’s lightweight and even comes with a handle, making it easy to move around your home’s hot yoga room.
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Automatic thermostat
This portable infrared heater uses its indoor temperature automatic cycle switch and inbuilt thermostat settings to maintain a consistent temperature across the room. On the other hand, the low noise operation increases your comfort and maintains the desired temperature to ensure that it will not distract you while doing your hot yoga. Also, this makes it ideal for use in other applications like reading, work, and bedroom.
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2 energy modes
To help save energy, this unit comes with 2 heating modes (600W and 1200W). More notably, it’s equipped with a knob at the top that you can use to regulate the heating power. Besides, consider this unit is an infrared heater, it directly heats objects instead of the whole hot yoga room, thus reducing your electricity bill.
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Fast Heating
Lastly, this tower infrared heater delivers more uniform and faster heating than conventional quartz heaters. Thanks to the high-quality infrared heating element and radiation wave heating technology. In addition, it doesn’t produce toxic fumes, chemicals, or odors, keeping your yoga room warm and comfortable at all times.
In terms of safety, this unit has a tip-over protection mechanism that turns it off when it overturns to prevent fire accidents. Similarly, it will automatically shut off when its internal components overheat!
Benefits
- Comes with important safety features
- Quiet operation
- Simple controls
- Affordable
- 2 heat settings
Best Infrared Heater for Hot Yoga at Home Buyer’s Guide
After selecting the room you’ll convert into a home hot yoga studio, the next step is to pick out the best infrared heater. While doing so, there are 3 important things you need to consider. Otherwise, you may end up choosing an infrared heater that doesn’t create the desired hot yoga room conditions. These factors are;
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Heat capacity
As you know, different heaters are intended to heat different spaces. For instance, 1500 W heaters can efficiently heat a room with a floor space of about 150 sq ft.
As I mentioned earlier, hot yoga is usually performed at temperatures of between 80 and 100 deg F. However, most IR heaters are not designed to produce temperatures above 100 deg F. To solve this issue, choose a heater that is designed to heat a larger room than your home’s hot yoga studio. This will increase its chances of heating the studio effectively, even if it can push temperatures above 100 deg F.
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Safety Features
Although infrared heat is generally considered safe, the heater can easily overheat and become a fire hazard. For that, you should always look for a device that is equipped with safety features such as automatic shut-off overheating and tip-over protection. That way, the device will automatically shut off when its heating element overheats or gets knocked over.
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Heater type
There are 4 main types of electric heaters that you can use in your home hot yoga studio. That is; radiant/ infrared, convection, PTC, and fan-forced heating system. Fan forced heaters to use coils to heat the air and spread it uniformly across the room, while convection heaters provide quiet, gradual heat. On the other hand, PTC heaters use aluminum and ceramic heating elements to heat the air, producing quick, powerful heat. Lastly, infrared heaters provide targeted heat with their glowing elements, heating objects and yogis in the room instantly.
Final Word
As the popularity of home workouts continues to grow day by day, you can now add hot yoga to the list. After all, you only need to create a hot yoga studio at home, either in the bathroom or bedroom, and get the right infrared heater for your space. Luckily, choosing the best infrared heater for hot yoga at home is relatively easy since they’re various styles and sizes to choose from.
FAQs
1. What is the right temperature for infrared hot yoga?
Most commercial hot yoga studios have far infrared ceiling panels that gently radiate heat. This heat then penetrates the skin and encourages yoga practitioners in the studio to sweat intensely while working out. More importantly, the room is usually set at a temperature of about 38 deg C.
2. Can you do hot yoga at home?
Yes, you can do hot yoga at home, provided you’ve got the right heater and yoga studio. Interestingly, you can easily create a yoga studio at home since the workout doesn’t need a lot of space. This will allow you to lock in all the heat within the yoga space using less energy.
3. How do you heat a home hot yoga room?
To recreate the hot yoga conditions at home, put your IR heater a few feet away from your yoga mat, with the heating element facing you. Let the room heat up for about 20 minutes then do your hot yoga session at home.