How a Zoning System Can Benefit Your Texas Home Year-Round

What if everyone in your home was completely content and comfortable with temperature settings day and night and in any season? What if this didn’t cost you a nickel in extra heating and cooling bills? In fact, what if your household enjoyed maximum comfort and lower energy bills? Those lofty questions can be answered in three words: zoning system benefits.

Why Zoning Systems Make So Many Wish Lists

For many homes, uneven temperatures, drafts and poor airflow are par for the course. Sun-facing rooms may be too hot in the summer, and shaded and north-facing rooms are often too cold and damp in the winter. Homes with multiple levels of living space experience extreme levels of discomforts to push anyone’s hot button, considering upstairs rooms may be 10 to 15 degrees warmer than lower level rooms.

To complicate comfort and home efficiency issues more, household occupants often prefer or need different comfort temperatures. A temperature comfortable to one member may make it difficult for another to fall asleep at night. On the other side of the coin, in homes with extreme heat gain/loss issues, comfort may take a back seat in order to save energy.

All homes and occupants are different, but comfort and home efficiency problems are quite similar. That’s why zoning systems are getting more popular every day.

How Zoning Systems Work

A zoning system is an add-on system of multiple thermostats and automatic duct doors configured to regulate airflow to each zone of the home. Airflow is circulated, adjusted and restricted based on each zone’s thermostat settings at any given time of day or night. Zones are configured by an HVAC professional based on occupant preferences, heat gain/loss issues of the home, number of floors and dozens more factors.

For instance, a two-story home may be fine with a simple two-zoned system—one zone for upstairs and one for downstairs. Larger households may opt for a more sophisticated system connected to the home’s WiFi network for ultimate home environmental control, connecting and managing as many as eight zones. Each zone is custom-designed to serve a household’s comfort, efficiency goals and lifestyle.

Zoning System Benefits

It’s clear that zoning systems boost comfort and decrease temperature squabbles by offering multiple zones with independent temperature control. Energy gains are readily available by conditioning only the occupied zones of the home at any given time, which benefits your wallet. So, you may be perfectly content with these zoning system benefits, however, there are more:

• HVAC performance – Zoning systems are typically used to cool and heat fewer zones at any given time rather than the entire home. That’s their purpose. This design, if followed, helps reduce wear and tear on the A/C, heat pump and furnace. Lighter cooling and heating loads means less work, fewer repairs and longer lifespan.
• Better air quality – Free airflow is a problem in many households, which contributes to poorer indoor air quality. Correctly designed zoning systems boost airflow with a return grille for each diffuser. Multiple return grilles ensures optimal airflow while each zone is active. Free airflow also balanced air pressure in the home, which prevents pressure drops at the air handler.
• Linked comfort systems – The performance of each system under the roof, including the roofing system, are connected. If one system is inefficient or under-performing, such as air leaks in the home shell or a dirty A/C  filter, one or more other systems are generally affected, too. Zoning systems help all HVAC systems, such as a whole-house humidifier and condensing furnace, work together more efficiently, which benefits the entire home system.

Home Efficiency Assessment

Zoning systems aren’t necessarily for every home. There could be other solutions and alternatives to optimize your specific comfort and home efficiency issues. You may wish to check your home’s efficiency regarding air leakage and insulation levels through, to and inside the attic. Schedule an appointment with a reputable HVAC contractor to discuss and explore your options.

For instance, if you’re considering a zoning system as part of an HVAC upgrade or new home design, you certainly want to make sure you’re aware of all the heating, cooling and ventilation possibilities. Zoning systems are available in radiant heating systems, too, which could be combined with a high efficiency variable-speed A/C unit.

For more details about zoning system benefits for your Sugar Land home, please give us a call at Conditioned Air TX, and speak with our friendly and qualified HVAC professionals. We proudly serve Sugar Land, River Oaks, Bellaire and surrounding communities.

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