Zoning systems are sophisticated home temperature control systems that let homeowners control what areas of the home receive heating or cooling. They deploy a series of individual thermostats and motorized dampers that let you divide your home into different areas, or zones, that can be heated or cooled without affecting temperatures in other areas of the home. Here are some tips that will help you when designing a zoning system.
- Do not create zones larger than a single floor. Zoning systems are most effective when the zones cover smaller areas, such as individual rooms. Putting different floors into the same zone risks defeating the primary benefit of a zoning system since rising warm air and sinking cool air may still cause inconsistent temperatures.
- Combine rooms with similar levels of insulation or construction features within the same zone. For example, newer construction or remodeled rooms are likely to have better thermal characteristics and levels of insulation than older rooms.
- Install thermostats in the room that is used the most often in the zone. Avoid putting zoning-system thermostats in hallways or in locations where they can be affected by factors outside the zone, such as sunshine or extreme outdoor temperatures. Make sure each zone has at least two registers for better flow of conditioned air.
- Make sure rooms that have one or more walls that are part of the perimeter of the house are kept in separate zones. Rooms with walls that contact the exterior environment will be more likely to have inconsistent heating and cooling levels caused by outdoor temperature extremes.
- Keep rooms with similar heat loads within the same zone. Putting rooms with varying heating loads in a zone will mean inconsistent temperatures within that zone. For example, east-facing rooms that receive a lot of sunshine will have different heat loads than shaded rooms facing west.
Since its founding in 1963, Arpi’s Industries has provided professional HVAC, plumbing and indoor air quality services for clients in Calgary and surrounding areas. Contact us today for more information on zoned heating and cooling and for expert advice on designing a zoning system.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about zoning systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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