Zoning in on the Perfect Balance of Comfort and Efficiency in your Home
Whether your home is old or new chances are it can be hard to find just the right temperature for your needs. Maybe it gets way too hot upstairs, but downstairs feels arctic? Or maybe you’ve thought about becoming a little more efficient, and you’ve thought about all of the energy and money you could save if you didn’t have to heat or cool that room that no one ever goes into.
If you fall in either of these camps, we have an answer for you: zone control
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Simply put, a zoning system for your HVAC system is a way to control the temperature for each area, or “zone” in your home, rather than having to heat or cool the whole house to be the same temperature.
How does zone control work?
Traditionally, homes run on one thermostat that controls heating and AC for the whole house. With these forced air systems, there’s no way to control the heating or AC from one room to another unless you manually shut vents in certain rooms. Not only is this inconvenient, it can actually cause damage to your HVAC system by disrupting airflow.
Zoning provides the ability to only condition those rooms that need heating or cooling and does not allow conditioned air into those zones not requiring it. Zoning does this through a series of components, the first being motorized dampers that open and close based on the demands of the zone thermostats. These dampers are inserted into the ducts or can be installed at the air outlet for each room or zone. Multiple dampers can be controlled together for a single zone if multiple ducts serve a single room or zone.1 Then, each new zone will need a thermostat to control its own fan and damper. In many homes, the existing thermostat can be used as a zone thermostat.
But wait! There’s another way to zone your home.
Adding zones to existing HVAC systems has never been easier. Installing a damper and different thermostat settings are some of the most popular ways to zone-control your home, but another option is through a mini-split system.
The benefit of using a mini-split system is to add another heating and cooling zone that is more efficient and easier to control. Mini-splits do not use any air ducts and do not need to be connected to existing HVAC equipment in any way, which makes the install easy and good for use in a room that does not have existing ductwork. This makes mini-split systems ideal for things like older homes where the current system is undersized or a basement or attic where there is no ductwork.2
Heating and AC zone control offer greater comfort throughout the home as well as increased savings on heating and cooling. When deciding if the traditional zoning or the mini-split system is the best for your home, give Commercial Service a call at 812-339-9114, and we’d be happy to help match you with your best system.
