I have talked openly on the topic of how incredibly stupid
closed air vents system is, especially when you are considering it for saving
from your HVAC cost, including energy bills. However, I can guarantee you that
closed vents HVAC
system is not efficient, at least not to the extent you think it is.
The reason is – even though you have closed vents to a room that you no longer
need heating and cooling,
your air conditioner or a heating system like a gas furnace or Heat Pump
doesn’t know that. So, the energy consumption isn’t decreased.
Whenever I talk about closed vents not being efficient, I
get asked – “then what is?”.
My answer to that is Zoning and today I’ll talk about what
you’ll need to zone your existing HVAC system.
But before I get into how to zone your HVAC system, I should
remind you why would you want to zone your heating and air conditioning
system in the first place.
Why you want to Zone you HVAC system
1.
Convenience
The main reason
why you would want to zone your air
conditioning units or
heating system is the convenience that comes it. Let me explain.
When you zone your
HVAC system, you can stop heating and cooling for a particular area of your
house. For example, say you are going to bed and doesn’t need heating and air
conditioning in your kitchen and living. You can turn it off with your zoned
HVAC system. You don’t have to go to each room to shut off or change the temperature
settings on the individual air conditioners or you don’t have to change the
setting of your central
Air conditioner completely. You can do it from your bedroom – convenience at
its best.
2.
Comfort
For the same
reason, you can make comfort more comfortable. What I am trying to explain is –
since you can control the environment is individual areas of your home, you
will be comfortable all the time. For example, say you are in the kitchen and
the temperature is set by someone else in the living room. Since the temperature
in the kitchen is higher, it needs a slightly different temperature setting.
And this can be done with a zoned HVAC system. That means – comfort of heating
and air conditioning is made more comfortable.
3.
Efficiency
Since you can stop
heating and cooling in particular areas, you can also save energy cost and HVAC
cost in general.
What do you need to Zone your existing HVAC system?
Now, let’s get into what you would need to zone your HVAC system
–
I.
Zone Control Panel
II.
Thermostats
III.
Zone Dampers
IV.
Bypass Damper
1.
Zone
Control Panel
The Zone control
panel can be called as the brain of your zoned HVAC system. It works similar to
how the human brain works to control our body.
Basically, the
control panel controls all the thermostats, dampers and your HVAC system
itself. This is definitely the most important component to zone your AC and heating
system.
2.
Thermostats
Thermostats are
the key component of the zoned HVAC system because it is a must have to ensure
different controls on different parts of your home.
The function of
thermostats is to measure the temperature of the room. And when the temperature
falls down or rises, it sends signals to the control panel. Based on the signal,
the control panel then decides between heating and cooling.
3.
Zone
Dampers
These Zone
dampers are used for the air ducts. They are installed in the air ducts to regulate
and thus, control the overall air in different zones of your home.
These damper devices are mostly wired to a particular zone on
your control panel. According to the signals sent by thermostats, these dampers
are closed and opened automatically. Basically, these dampers control the air
flow of different zones.
4.
Bypass
Damper
Sometimes the air
pressure in the air ducts can cause problems. This is where the bypass dampers
come in. They basically bypass the pressure from air ducts. Otherwise, you would
have to go through air duct system maintenance and air duct cleaning more frequently.
How to Prepare for AC repair situations for you Zoned Heating and Cooling
system
When it comes to AC
maintenance & repair, the preparations and AC Repair costs are pretty much the same.
But since you would
need additional equipment to zone your HVAC system, you might need to worry
about the AC services more than you would for a Zone-less central AC unit. Also,
you would want to keep the AC maintenance and services on hold until HVAC
experts come because there is simply nothing you can do about the damaged
zoning equipment if you are not familiar with zoning at a technical level. However,
this slightly extra hassle is worth the comfort, convenience and efficiency.
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home?
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