Saunas in Atlas cedar, built to the room

Cedar, and when not to use it

Atlas cedar is local, aromatic and beautiful, and it belongs in a sauna as lining and as screens. What it is not is a bench material for heavy commercial use — for that we go to thermo-treated aspen, which stays cooler to the touch and is more dimensionally stable through the cycle.

So a typical cabin here is cedar walls, aspen benches and a cedar screen. It smells like Morocco and it behaves like a Finnish sauna, which is the combination people actually want.

Sizing without the altitude correction

Marrakech sits at about 466 m, so unlike our sites in the East African highlands there is no meaningful altitude penalty on the heater. The sum is volume at roughly 0.85 kW per cubic metre of insulated cabin, plus capacity for glass, which loses heat far faster than a wall.

Anything above 8 kW wants a three-phase supply. Morocco's low-voltage network runs 220 V single phase and 380 V three phase in the older standard, 230/400 V in the newer one, and ONEE will tell you which you have.

European equipment, no duty

Morocco's free trade agreement with the European Union means Finnish heaters, Scandinavian thermo-treated timber and Italian fittings enter duty-free with a certificate of origin, against MFN rates that would otherwise start at 2.5 per cent for industrial goods (trade.gov). VAT at 20 per cent still applies (PwC Tax Summaries).

That is a genuine cost advantage no other market we work in has, and it is why we specify European equipment here rather than the cheapest available.

In short

• Atlas cedar walls and screens, thermo-aspen benches for the hot surfaces
• 0.85 kW per m³ plus a correction for glazed area; no altitude penalty at 466 m
• Above 8 kW, three-phase — 220 V single / 380 V three phase on the older ONEE standard
• European heaters and timber enter duty-free under the EU agreement