Zoning Your HVAC: Personalized Comfort in Different Areas of Your Home
Improve your home comfort by upgrading your HVAC to a zoned system. With a zoned system, you can program each part of your house to whatever temperature you desire. You can eliminate hot and cold spots and ensure every part of your house is fully comfortable.
How HVAC Zoning Works
Most homes have a single-zone HVAC system, controlled by a centrally located thermostat. The thermostat signals the AC or heating to run as needed, and the HVAC system always supplies conditioned air to every room at the same time. A zoned HVAC system essentially splits the home up into smaller areas that are each controlled by their own thermostat. In more technical terms, a zoned system splits the home’s ductwork up into different zones. This is done by installing metal gates, known as dampers, at the point where the smaller branch ducts that supply different parts of the home connect to the main trunk duct.
Each of the dampers is individually controlled by the thermostat in whichever zone the damper is for. Once any of the zones is warmer or cooler than it should be and the thermostat in that zone calls for heating or cooling, the HVAC system will kick on. If only one zone is calling for heating or cooling, all of the dampers except for the damper for that zone will remain closed. The HVAC system will only send air to whichever zones are currently warmer or cooler than your desired temperature. If multiple zones are calling for heating or cooling, each of the zone dampers will close as soon as that zone reaches the correct temperature. Nonetheless, the HVAC system will continue running until all zones are at the correct temperature.
In most cases, the HVAC system will only rarely supply air to all zones at the same time since different parts of a house typically don’t heat up or cool down at the same rate. For instance, the upper floor in a multi-level home will usually stay warmer than the lower floors due to the heat from the lower floors rising. That means the zone or zones on the upper floor will be open more often during the summer so that they can stay sufficiently cool and open less often during the winter.
Another reason that your HVAC system often won’t need to supply air to every zone at the same time is that you may want to set the thermostat in some zones to a different temperature than the others. For instance, it’s a good idea to set your bedrooms to a higher temperature during the summer or lower temperature during the winter in the daytime/early evening when they’re not in use so that you can save energy. In this case, your bedrooms won’t receive heating or cooling as frequently as the rooms that get more use during the day and early evening.
How Many Zones Can a House Have?
In theory, you could make a separate zone for each room in your house. However, it’s not as simple as that, since not every zone can have a “control” thermostat that can signal the HVAC system to run. Generally speaking, a control zone should never be under 25% of the total size of the house. If you have any control zones that are smaller than this, it will usually lead to your HVAC short-cycling or constantly turning on and off.
Let’s say that all of your bedrooms are in the same part of the house and you want each one to be its own zone. If your master bedroom was the control zone, it would be the only one that can tell your AC or heating to run. Each thermostat in the other bedrooms would then only control the damper in the duct that supplies that bedroom. That means you could end up with the other bedrooms being too warm or too cold since they would only get cooled or heated when the master bedroom was also calling for cooling or heating.
This issue is why it’s usually more effective just to have several larger zones instead of many small zones. That could mean having your bedroom area as one zone and then having another zone for your kitchen and living room. Another good option is just to have one zone for each floor so that your basement is never too cold or the upper floor doesn’t get too hot.
Benefits of Having a Zoned HVAC System
While upgrading your existing HVAC to a zoned system isn’t necessarily inexpensive, the benefits it provides can make it well worth the cost. One of the biggest ones is that a zoned system can greatly reduce your energy bills by eliminating the need to always heat or cool your entire house at the same time. Zoned systems are variable speed, which means they can automatically adjust how fast they run so that they only supply however much heating or cooling is currently needed. Even if every zone is open, the system will rarely need to run at full power. The system will also use much less energy whenever it is running at a lower speed, especially when it’s only needing to heat or cool one zone.
A zoned HVAC system also provides you with far greater control over your home’s temperature and enables you to keep each part of your house exactly as warm or cool as you want at the time. With a single-zone HVAC system, it’s often impossible to keep every room at the same temperature since the thermostat only registers the temperature in the area it’s in. That means you’ll typically end up with rooms that are warmer or colder than the temperature your thermostat registers.
Another advantage of a zoned system is that it often results in an increased life expectancy for your furnace and air conditioner or heat pump. That’s because your HVAC often won’t need to stay on as long when it’s only heating or cooling some parts of your house. Variable-speed systems are also under less strain and experience less wear and tear whenever they’re not running at full power.
With two decades of expert service, Black Lion Heating & Air Conditioning is one of the most trusted HVAC companies in Kirkland and the Puget Sound area. You can count on our team of experienced technicians if you want to upgrade your home with a zoned HVAC system or if your existing heating or AC needs to be serviced or repaired. As a Bryant Factory Authorized Dealer, we’re also the company to turn to for your HVAC replacement or installation needs, such as a ductless mini-split. We also install equipment from other top brands like Mitsubishi Electric and Aprilaire, and our team can work on equipment from any other brand as well. To schedule a consultation and learn if a zoned HVAC system is right for your home or to schedule an appointment for any other HVAC or electrical service, contact Black Lion Heating & Air Conditioning today.