Central heating and air conditioning is one of the greatest inventions in the modern home (maybe not at the level of indoor plumbing, but we’re not here to debate old sayings). One comfort system can distribute cooled and heated air to rooms throughout a house.
But there’s a flaw in the standard way a central HVAC system is designed, which is that it’s an “all-or-nothing” proposition. On a hot day, when the air conditioner turns on, cooled air goes to every room. That sounds great at first—until you realize that some of these rooms aren’t occupied. This is an expenditure of energy the home doesn’t need.
And, thanks to the creation of zone control systems, it’s an unnecessary expenditure of energy. Zone control allows for better manipulation of how cooled and heated air is distributed around a house.
The Basics of Zone Control
To create “zoning” for a home’s HVAC system, technicians fit dampers into the ductwork capable of sealing off a section of the ducts leading to a room vent. The dampers each have a local thermostat to control them, and a central control panel to operate the network. The dampers open and close to allow air from the heater or AC to flow only to the rooms that have requests for temperature control, and the central control moderates how much the AC or heater runs in order to fill the temperature requests. Only the rooms (or “zones”) requesting heating/cooling receive it, and the HVAC system’s work is moderated based on how many dampers are open.
Why This Is Beneficial
You can probably already tell what some of the major benefits of installing zone controls are. We’ll run through the major ones:
- Energy savings: With zone control, only rooms that require comfort control receive it, and the heater/AC isn’t required to do extra work for the rooms that don’t require temperature adjustment. For homes with guest rooms or other rooms that are often unoccupied, this can mean a significant drop in energy bills. But almost any home will see a reduction in annual comfort costs.
- Personalized comfort: Because the temperatures in zones can be operated locally as well as through the central control panel, people in a house can manipulate temperatures to match their personal needs. This takes away squabbles over setting the thermostat because nobody can agree on how warm or cool the home should be.
- More even comfort: Zone control allows for the more even spread of heating and cooling around a house. For example, if cooled air is sent to all the rooms at once on a hot summer day, it can mean areas becoming too cold. Zone controls can be programmed to open up dampers in a succession that balances the temperatures around the house to eliminate cold spots.
You can have zone control done as part of a new HVAC installation, or you can arrange with us to have your current system retrofit with zoning. Simply contact us to find out more, and we’ll help you to the best solution for your home. We offer many different heating and air conditioning services to Burlington, VT and the Plattsburgh, NY area.
Red Rock Mechanical, LLC serves Northwest Vermont and Northeast New York. We have 24/7 emergency service available.
