The Benefits of Zoning Systems for Home Heating and Cooling

If you live in an old house—or this might ring true even in many newer buildings—you probably have “hot spots” or “cold spots” in your home: rooms or corners that heat or cool unevenly. Maybe your living room over the garage doesn’t heat up as well in the winter, but turning up the heat enough to make it comfortable in there would make other rooms in the house swelter. Perhaps your bedroom manages to stay the same temperature as other parts of the house, but your preferred sleeping temperature is different than what others want in their rooms, or throughout the rest of the house.

Houses like these can benefit from zoning systems, which can be installed by professionals. Let’s dive into what they are, how they work, and why you should consider upgrading your home air system.

What’s a Zoning System, and Why Is It Important?

A zoning system divides a home into different “zones” that can be controlled individually when it comes to the heating and cooling provided by your HVAC system. As opposed to the single thermostat that controls the temperature in the entirety of some homes, using a zoning system provides more precise control over the comfort level in each area of your home.

The reasons that most homes experience temperature inconsistencies are numerous, but largely come down to factors of layout, insulation, and airflow. Upstairs rooms tend to be warmer than downstairs ones, since heat rises, and rooms with more windows are probably draftier and hold less heat than interior rooms. As a result, parts of your home heat and cool at different rates, and a zoning system allows you to address them individually to give them the heating or cooling they need without doing so at the expense of comfort in another room.

It’s more than simply a convenience to utilize a zoning system in your home; it also helps increase energy efficiency in your home. Wasting less energy, protecting the environment, and saving money in the process? Yes, yes, and yes please.

How Zoning Systems Work

The key components of zoning systems are individual thermostats, dampers, and a control panel.

We’re all familiar with thermostats, but in a zoning system, there isn’t just one. There’s one of these devices in every “zone,” whether that zone is a single room, a whole floor, or something in between. Thermostats sense the temperature in their zone and tell the HVAC system to heat or cool according to the desired temperature the user has set. Those messages arrive in the control panel, which then orchestrates the system to cool or heat only the right areas by having the dampers open or close accordingly. Dampers are motorized devices that are installed in the ductwork that either block off or allow airflow to particular zones.

In practice, all of this happens behind the scenes. Let’s say it’s winter and you have the kitchen and the living room set to 67 degrees. But you’d like to turn up the heat just in the living room to 70 degrees. After you change the thermostat in that zone, your control panel takes care of the rest. When the kitchen reaches 67 degrees, the dampers will close off that area of the ductwork while warm air continues to flow toward the living room. That keeps the kitchen from becoming overheated and prevents unnecessary energy usage.

The Benefits of Zoning Systems

Utilizing a zoning system has many benefits, some less obvious than others!

• Comfort: Well, this one is obvious. It’s the main reason most people upgrade their HVAC system to use zones. Rooms heat differently, and zones account for that and allow you to keep them all in comfortable ranges. Each thermostat continuously monitors the zone it’s tied to and adjusts as needed to maintain comfort without affecting other zones. Sudden drops or spikes in temperature are common with single-thermostat systems while the use of zones reduces those instances.
• Energy efficiency: Cool or heat only the rooms that need it. Changing the temperature in any room uses energy, so the overcorrecting or under-addressing of particular rooms requires more work from your HVAC to fix. That requires energy that you simply don’t have to use with zoning systems; the HVAC unit pumps out cool or warm air only for the rooms that need it, and no more.
• Cost savings: This is directly tied to energy efficiency. After all, when you waste energy, you’re also wasting money. Most homes that install zoning systems and properly utilize them see lowered utility bills as a result.
• Improved HVAC lifespans: Finally, a significant but underappreciated benefit of zoning systems is that they will often increase the longevity of your HVAC unit. With only needed heated or cooled air being produced and then funneled to the right zone, the strain is significantly lessened on the system since there’s less wasted energy—leading to fewer maintenance issues and longer lifespans.

Professional Installation is a Must — Call Us Today!

While zoning systems are a breeze to operate, installing them requires professionals on-site. This ensures the installation can be done properly, enabling optimal performance and enhancing the safety of your system. Only certified HVAC technicians should install and service zoning systems; improperly installed systems lead to inefficiencies at best, but could easily result in system damage, costly repairs, or create unsafe conditions at your home just as with any heating or cooling system.

Ready to take the leap into a more comfortable home? Just want to learn more? Call us today and our experts will be happy to walk you through our options and assess if a zoning system is right for your home!