City Apartment - Pion

At last, it's safe for the kids to play on the floor.

Petra is a mother of two who had inherited a small flat in one of the Prague districts some years ago. Since then it has been a home for her and her two children – son Jenda (8) and daughter Veronika (5). It is not a large apartment, in fact it has only 62 m², just enough for a children's bedroom, a living room and a kitchenette. The family lives on the first floor of an apartment building erected at the beginning of the fifties, with some of the typical flaws of that era. For example, there is not enough sunlight in the flat and it is never quite warm enough, which negatively affects its inhabitants in their daily life. The kids, who naturally love to play on the floor, used to, up until recently, suffer from frequent colds, which had, quite understandably, been much worrying their mum. But there was more to worry about – the continually escalating heat cost, which in the season 2009/2010 amounted to as much as CZK 20,000!

The flat was originally heated by central heating (from the furnace located at the basement of the building) but it was not sufficient. And so, following advice given to her by a friend, Ms. Petra decided to try out PION, starting with two 1100 Watt units as a test run. To carry out this plan was by no means difficult; all she had to do was to hang the infrared heaters below the ceiling, which thanks to the included fixture set took just a couple of minutes, and then plug them in.

The trial run, which lasted two months, brought on an immediate effect: The floor always stayed warm and neither Jenda nor Veronika did once suffer from a cold that whole time, even though it was winter and the weather was harsh. But there was one more, rather unexpected improvement: they noticed the overall better mood among them – of course, now, with the improved indoor comfort they felt much happier at home. What used to be a somewhat inhospitable domestic environment was in no time as if magically transformed into a cosy, pleasantly warm flat – the kind of home everybody likes to return to.

After some time, when the flat was undergoing a major reconstruction, Petra, mindful of the positive experience with PION, did not hesitate one bit and replaced all the old radiators with modern PION infraheaters. Apart from the significantly improved climate comfort, which they all enjoyed every minute spent at home, there was one more improvement perceptible in their life, as it turned out later when the electricity bill for heating arrived at the end of the season: To her great surprise, Ms. Petra learnt that compared with the previous season her heating expenses were cut by nearly 6,000 crowns!

Cost analysis

In this case, the total wattage of all PION units installed in the flat was 5.06 kW, plus every room was equipped with a programmable digital thermostat allowing fluent temperature regulation. At the end of the heating season 2010/2011 (i.e. October to April) the total power consumption of heating came to 5,888 kW-Hr, which represents CZK 14,250 calculated at the unit price CZK 2,393.22 per megawatt-hour valid at the time according to Pražská energetika's pricing schedule (the electricity provider also known as PRE).

The total purchase cost for PION infrared heating units, including the thermostats, necessary wiring and work, came to CZK 48,248. In comparison with the purchase costs of other heating systems types that would be suitable for this particular flat, PION again ranks among the least costly ones.

The following chart clearly illustrates how using PION heaters positively influenced the operating cost by taking 25% off the former figure, which represented the cost of standard central heating. Compared to other estimated electric heating systems, you can expect to save as much as 50% (and just over 20% in case of gas heating).  

 Heating costs comparison

A practical example illustrating the layout PION of heaters in an actual space

Summary