xehsufrutu

Here’s my update, for any curious home Bikram practitioners.

Bottom Line:

A small bathroom can easily be converted into a temporary Bikram studio.

Bathroom Size:

5′ wide x 9′ high x 10.25′ long

Equipment:

Vornado MVH Whole Room Vortex Heater ($60, Amazon). Up until now, the Vornado has stayed on the entire session (usually about an hour). I like this heater because it is diffuse heat: you can stand right in front of the heater and not feel like it’s burning you. It’s kind of a warm wind, but it does — as the product advertisement touts — heat up the room.

AND

Holmes Personal Heater with Manual Controls ($20, Amazon). The problem is that it shuts off if it gets too hot. That being said, even when it has shut off, I have finished my session pretty happy with the heat. Still, I am getting another Vornado to replace, or supplement, this one.

Thermor Bios Indoor Hygrometer with Thermometer (Aluminum Face, 3-Inch x 3.125-Inch x 1.5-Inch) ($23.50, Amazon). The temperature was within 1 – 1.5 degrees of my home thermostat, so I feel good that the temperatures are correct. I bought a second unit and verified that at least the product itself is internally consistent. It was showing the same relative humidity on each unit. Check out the product reviews. Someone else also confirmed that the units are consistent with each other.

Air-O-Swiss AOS 7135 Ultrasonic Humidifier ($170, Amazon)

Temperature?

I pre-heat the bathroom for about 20 minutes. It’s between 92-94F. By the end of an hour, it’s between 98-100F.

Humidity?

Solution 1: run a hot shower, as needed, to maintain desired humidity. Pros: massive humidity. Cons: you will probably overshoot and get the room too humid.

Solution 2: prime the room with a hot shower for 5 minutes and then run your Aero Swiss on high. This actually worked really well. Cons: the Aero Swiss is pricey, and I’m not quite sure it was as humid as the reading said.

Note, with the shower option, you can really crank up the Relative Humidity for readings of  60-75%. That’s way over what a Bikram room is, so it just depends on your personal preference.

Fresh Air

For my first session, I put a towel under the door, so no air could flow in. Big mistake!

I got the room to 105, but I felt faint after a while. I’m pretty sure it was lack of oxygen. I learned my lesson next time by simply letting the air flow in freely under the door. My temperatures since have never gotten above 100F, but I can breathe easily.

I shut off the central air vent in the ceiling. Heat rises, so I figured that I would keep more heat in by not letting it escape. There is also a bathroom vent that probably leaks heat as well. I have small bathroom windows above the shower, so there is probably some leakage there, but minimal.

Gradients

Think of the room as a cube of air that is not heated evenly. The upper half is warm and toasty. The bottom half is unsatisfactorily cool (from all the cool air coming in from under the door).

Solution: place one heater on the floor. If you do this, be extra safe: make sure your humidifier does not tip over and spill water everywhere. The one heater on the floor counteracts the draft under the door. The only problem is that you only have one heater heating the top half.

Bonus Solution 1: add a third heater on the floor. You might need to plug into another outlet via an extension cord. To summarize: two heaters on the sink counter, one heater on the floor. When the Holmes stops working, you still have two heaters going.

Bonus Solution 2: Vornado on the sink, Holmes on the floor. The Holmes does not stop working because the draft from under the door keeps it cool. Downside: the room does not get as hot.

Conclusion

Bikram at home is totally possible with just a Vornado and a Holmes.

Please share your experiences. I am always trying to optimize my setup.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by xehsufrutu.