Independent research · Saunas and outdoor structures
Backyard structures cost as much as a car, are governed by building and electrical codes, and are documented almost entirely by the people selling them. There is no independent test house for pergolas. We read the code, the manual and the engineering report, record what each one actually says, and publish the disagreements.
NEC 210.8(F) reaches outdoor sauna circuits. Harvia, Tylo and Saunum instruct against GFCI protection, and several void the warranty if you use one. The word sauna appears nowhere in the National Electrical Code, which is why the decision falls to your inspector — and why electricians have been arguing about it on professional forums since 2021 without resolution.
An entry-level louvered kit is reported at 14 to 18 pounds per square foot. Denver's ground snow load is roughly 30. Buffalo's is roughly 50. The Index holds the published figure for each model alongside the document that backs it — an ICC-ES report, a Miami-Dade NOA, or nothing at all — because a self-declared number and a certified one are not the same kind of claim.
Search for what a pergola costs, or whether a sauna needs a GFCI, and every result on the first page is published by a manufacturer, a dealer or an installer. That is not a conspiracy; it is simply who has an incentive to write. But it produces a market where the same footprint is quoted at two thousand dollars and at sixty thousand, where a kit engineered for Phoenix is sold to a buyer in Buffalo, and where a product manual and a code section give opposite instructions without either acknowledging the other exists.
What we do is narrow. We read the primary documents, record what they say, and show our working. You are meant to be able to check us.