A Zoning System Offers Whole-House Comfort
Do you have a one-thermostat home where every room heats and cools at the same level; where if it’s 72 degrees Fahrenheit in the living room, it’s the same temperature in the finished basement, the bedrooms and the kitchen?
No, we didn’t think so.
The reality is that in most homes, for a variety of reasons, a significant variance occurs between rooms and areas. The most common factor happens in multi-level homes, where warm air collects in upstairs bedrooms, or the finished basement stays chilly and damp even on warm days.
Why houses heat or cool unevenly
The reason this happens is because the one thermostat mounted on a wall in the living room or hallway on the home’s main floor only registers the temperature from the surrounding air in that spot.
When the nearby air reaches the thermostat setting, the thermostat shuts down the cooling or heating system for the entire home until the surrounding air signals it to turn on again. This happens even though the finished basement might still be cold in the winter or the upstairs bedrooms too warm in the summer.
Other factors that can result in temperature variations in a home include
- thermostat distance from the central HVAC equipment,
- issues with the duct system,
- the type of building materials or windows in certain rooms or areas, or their orientation to the sun.
Zoning system to the rescue
The good news is that a zoning system, utilizing one or more thermostats in different parts of the house, usually will solve this problem.
With a zoning system, each designated climate zone in a home (the usual system divides the zones by floors) has a thermostat connected to mechanized duct dampers for that area.
When air in that area reaches the thermostat setting, the thermostat signals the damper to close, cutting off the cool or warm air to that room or floor. Meanwhile, the rest of the house is still receiving conditioned air.
Many of these systems have central control consoles so you can manage temperatures from one place. Nearly all of these systems include programmability in the thermostats.
Benefits of a zoning system
- Energy efficiency. There’s nothing efficient about heating or cooling an entire house with just one thermostat to control temperatures. A lot of rooms will get conditioned air whether they need it or not. That costs money. With a zoning system, you can easily shut down or lower the heating or cooling to unused rooms.
- Family harmony. You’ll have less squabbling if family members can control temperatures in their own environment, whether it’s the kitchen, upstairs bedrooms, basement rec room, family office or whatever.
- The whole house will remain comfortable, rather than the common situation in one-thermostat homes – areas that nobody hangs out in because they’re too cold or too warm.
If you’re tired of accepting a situation where parts of your home hardly ever get comfortable, the best Cincinnati HVAC companies can help with a zoning system.