whole home Zoning
Is it a never-ending battle among the people in your home over the “right“ temperature to set on the thermostat? Does it constantly feel like some rooms in your home are too hot and others are too cold? If this sounds like your household, a zoned HVAC system could be the answer to your temperature problems.
What is HVAC zoning?
An HVAC zoning system divides your home into multiple zones, each controlled by its own thermostat. This allows you to set each room to the ideal temperature for you, instead of having to heat or cool the entire home to just one temperature. A zoned HVAC system can give you more control over your comfort, provide energy savings and, perhaps most importantly, eliminate daily arguments over the thermostat!
How does an HVAC zoning system work?
The first step in setting up a residential HVAC zoning system is to actually divide your home into zones. Once your home is divided into two or more zones (more on what zones are and how to create them later), a thermostat will be installed within each. While each thermostat controls its own zone, they’re all connected to one central control panel in your home.
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From there, HVAC zoning dampers, which are valves or plates that regulate airflow inside a duct, will be installed in the ducts of your home. If you’re using a multi-zone ductless cooling system instead of central air conditioning, dampers will be installed at the air outlet directly on each system. Dampers open and close. When a certain zone needs air flow, the dampers will open and allow cool or hot air to pass through. When the zone has reached the desired temperature, the dampers will close and stop air flow. Multiple dampers can be programmed to be controlled together, if they all serve the same zone in the home.
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When you change the temperature on the thermostat in one zone of your home, a message is sent to the central control panel. If you raise the temperature, the central control panel will tell your heating device it’s time to go to work. If you lower the temperature, the central control panel will signal for your air conditioner to turn on. As soon as the heating or cooling device kicks on, the central control panel will open all the ducts associated with the zone requiring a temperature change, but keep the ducts of the other zones closed. This allows each zone to have its own temperature based on your needs.
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How many zones do you need?
The best way to determine how many zones you need in your home is to talk to an HVAC professional. If you find that your home has vastly different temperatures upstairs and downstairs, one zone for each floor could be the right fit for you. Alternatively, you could set a zone for different sections of your home, or even a zone for each room in your home. There’s no limit on how many zones your home can have!
How to monitor and control temperatures in each zone
When it comes to a zoned HVAC system, all you need to do is control the thermostat in each zone of your home. Beyond that, let your HVAC system do the heavy lifting. Temperature control is based on your individual preferences. If you like to drop the temperature when you go to bed at night, but have your coffee in a warm kitchen in the morning, you can program your upstairs temperature to be lower than your downstairs one.
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Once you change the temperature on the thermostat, your HVAC system will take care of the rest. Plus, you can change the temperature in each zone at any time, depending on when you might be feeling a little too hot or too cold. Zoning doesn’t require any extra AC maintenance, which means there’s no extra work on your part to monitor and control temperatures with zoning.
When does AC zoning make sense?
Now that you know what a zoned HVAC system is, the next step is determining if it makes sense for your home.
If you have a multi-level home
Because heat rises, it can often feel hotter upstairs than downstairs in a multi-level home. Few people enjoy sleeping when it’s hot, but it’s even worse to get out of bed when your home is freezing. If you have a multi-level home that experiences temperature fluctuations, investing in a zoned system is a troubleshooting solution that will allow you to set different temperatures for the upstairs and downstairs portions of your home, instead of attempting to control both levels with one thermostat.
If you have a home with high ceilings
If your home has tall ceilings, oftentimes heat rises and gets trapped all the way at the top, leaving you shivering at the ground level. A zoned HVAC system allows you to fix this problem by raising the room’s temperature more frequently, so heat can circulate more, making the room warmer overall. Creating a separate zone in a room with high ceilings means the temperature there can be comfortable, without making it too warm elsewhere in your home.
If your home has picture windows, bay windows or large glass windows
Sunlight can play a huge role in setting the temperature of a room. If you have any kind of large window, like picture windows, bay windows, or floor to ceiling windows, an increased amount of sunlight is likely entering the room and raising the temperature. AC zoning allows you to make rooms with many windows their own zone, so you can lower the temperature in that space without having to change the temperature in the entire house.
If rooms in your home are always at different temperatures
If none of these conditions necessarily apply to your home, but your home still seems to be a different temperature throughout each room, a zoned HVAC system might be right for you. There are hundreds of reasons why your home could have different temperatures throughout, and controlling each room with only one thermostat isn’t going to fix the problem. Investing in a zoned HVAC system will let you keep a consistent temperature throughout your home, or to change the temperature in each room to anything you desire.