HVAC SERVICES
Air Zoning
What is Air Zoning?
For decades, homes have been temperature-controlled with one central thermostat. With this traditional set-up, all rooms are maintained at the same temperature regardless of how and when they are used. The problem is, what’s comfortable in the main living areas may be too warm or too cool for the bedrooms. In addition, certain areas of the home don’t need to be heated or cooled 24/7. Both of these scenarios waste energy and money.
Air zoning directly addresses the fact that rooms in your home are used at different times and have different heating and cooling requirements. Air zoning is an efficient, affordable and economical way to tailor the temperature throughout your home. By decentralizing the control of your system with multiple thermostats, you can maintain different temperatures that meet your comfort needs, and save money by not overheating or overcooling areas of your home.
How Does Zoning Work?
Air zoning groups areas of your home that share similar heating and cooling requirements. For example, zones could be created for living areas which are used primarily during the day and sleeping areas which are primarily used at night. Or zones might be created for rooms that aren’t used every day, such as a formal living room and dining room. Separate thermostats control each zone, allowing you to program them individually.
The zones are created with automatic dampers in the ducts. The thermostat for each zone controls its damper. The heating/cooling unit provides heated or conditioned air only to the zones requiring it. The dampers to the zones that are at the correct temperature will close, saving energy.
A commonly held belief is that leaving your home at a constant temperature is most efficient, but this is a misconception. Today’s equipment is so efficient that it costs much less to heat up a cold house (or cool a warm house) where the thermostat has been off than to leave the setting the same all the time.
What are the Benefits of Zoning?
Save Money and Increase Comfort.
The energy savings with air zoning can exceed 30% when optimally operated. This is greater savings than you would achieve by simply upgrading to more efficient equipment. By combining air zoning, programmable thermostats, and high-efficiency equipment, however, you can achieve energy savings in excess of 40%. All this, of course, translates to lower energy costs for you.
