A Heating Zoning System Offers Whole-House Comfort
Do you have a one-thermostat home where every room heats and cools at the same level, all the time; 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, all year and in all weather?
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 throughout the house. The most common heating discrepancies happen in multi-level homes, where warm air collects in upstairs bedrooms, or the finished basement stays chilly and damp even on warm days. In other homes, the south-facing side of the house is consistently warmer than the north-facing side.
Why Houses Heat or Cool Unevenly
The reason this happens is because the only thermostat in the house is mounted on a wall in the living room or hallway on the home’s main floor, and it only registers the temperature from the surrounding air in that spot, which isn’t usually representative of the most extreme hot and cold spots in the house.
In this situation, when the air near the thermostat reaches the thermostat setting, the cooling or heating system shuts off 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:
- the thermostat being too great of a 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 (often dividing the zones by floors) has a thermostat connected to mechanized duct dampers for that specific area.
When the 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, until each zone reaches the desired temperature.
Many of these systems have central control consoles so you can manage temperatures from one place, just like you did with a single thermostat. 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. 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 or rooms whose temperatures are already in the comfortable range.
- Family harmony. You’ll have less squabbling if family members can control temperatures in their own area of the house, whether it’s the kitchen, upstairs bedrooms, basement rec room, family office, etc.
- Better use of space. The whole house will remain comfortable, rather than the common situation in one-thermostat homes where there are 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 company can help with a zoning system. Our Cincinnati HVAC installation experts here at Jansen Heating & Cooling are ready to help you make an upgrade to a system that’s a better fit for your home and your lifestyle. Call us here at Jansen Heating & Cooling to learn more about how to turn our expertise into your comfort.