This book has a very focused look at using the principles of thermodynamics to create the best experience in sauna possible. It was inspired by the North American sweat lodge and how the thermodynamics worked then. The book makes a comparison of the traditional vs the air dam style developed by the author.
Perhaps it was the spirit of Red cloud himself who inspired Jimmy. Since the location of the sauna is just below the mesa where Red Cloud and his warriors monitored the calvary. Jimmy mentions that just because people were primitive it bears no measure of their intelligence.
One could say this design based on the prehistoric Native American style is the reinvention of that style in the Americas and while mostly synonymous with Finnish and Russian style it is uniquely Native American.
Jimmy Creel shows us how we can get fresh breathing air with very low CO2 and how to create hotter, temperatures at the floor, all with a balanced trifecta of the three forms of heat transfer. He calls this the balanced heat experience. Jimmy also tests the system and shows his work.
The book also delves into the home built stove, the bio-char, and the secret to its phenomenal clean burn. When coupled with the concepts shown, it can deliver heat as high as 139 F on the floor while the ceiling is only at 185 F.
Jimmy’s testing of ancient methods and techniques from Native Americans gave him the idea of the air dam.
In the Native American’s sweat lodge, the fresh air was brought in via an underground tunnel under the rocks to provide a hot clean fire to get the rocks super heated and the wood burnt to white ash. This prevented smoldering. When the skin dome was placed over the pile of superheated rocks, the fresh air came up through the rocks and the vents were along the bottom. This was probably how the prehistoric smoke sauna operated as well.
Jimmy noticed that this worked with the laws of nature, not against them. He just needed to figure out how to make the sauna or white banya, with a stove, work the same manner. He succeeded!
After he tested the CO2 of the new method, he could see how the prehistoric people could all breathe fresh air and not succumb to the CO2, that would be prevalent in such tight quarters.
The more Jimmy studied the prehistoric system, it was easy to see what prevented recycling of the CO2, a thermocline of fresh air created an air dam and helped push the stale air out through the gaps between the hide and the ground.
This book shows how to recreate this prehistoric method in modern sauna.
Creel shows the ancient German log building style. This creates a sealed tight, and insulated log sauna or white banya. It uses vertical log corners with horizontal log walls, utilizing mortises and tenons.
A side benefit of the system described, is that more and hotter thermal layers are created, ceiling to the floor with less fugitive heat losses. This equates to hotter floors and warmer feet.
Creel puts to rest some myths about the sauna being a wet place, despite throwing all the water you want. He used clever metrics to study the relative humidity and dew point at various temperatures.
Jimmy also discusses health and sauna from his personal experience. He also delves into the ice tub, discussing some do’s and some very hazardous don’ts.
After all that, Mr. Creel shows the reader several sources of historical information on the study of sweat in the Americas. How Native Americans were banned from sweat, while the Finnish in the North East were enjoying the experience.
It could be argued that this design has a longer track record than the historical white banya or sauna, as it replicates in modern sauna, a prehistoric system of working with nature, not against it.
This book is written to honor the ancestors of old who lived with nature. Perhaps that’s what makes good sauna a spiritual experience after all?