Heating and Cooling Info From Warmair.net
Zoning
If a house has one thermostat that controls the heating and cooling for the
entire structure, it has one zone. If the house has more than
one thermostat, each thermostat is controlling a selected area
or zone. Zoning offers more control over the comfort of the entire
space.
The benefits of zoning depend on the size of the house, the style of construction,
and the type of system. A 1000 square foot ranch may not be cost
effective to zone for forced air heat, but would be efficiently
zoned room by room with electric heat. A cape with a small second
floor would be difficult to zone with a forced air system, but
easy with hot water baseboard.
There are two common ways to control the comfort of a home. One way is to
install separate systems for each area, allowing each area to
be independent of the other for heating and cooling demands. Another
method is to use one piece of equipment and create zones. A forced
air system uses a control panel and motorized dampers
working in separate trunk lines to make comfort zones. A hot water
system uses zone valves or circulators feeding individual loops
to form individual comfort zones.
Zoning is ordinarily used to separate sleeping quarters from living areas,
or first and second floors. Multi-level structures have different
demands on each level, and zoning increases the comfort control.
In a central system using one unit for heating and cooling, the
full output of the machine can be directed to each zone to deliver
maximum capacity when needed. This means that a house cooled with
one four-ton system can have all four tons delivered to each zone.
The same house cooled with two 2-ton systems can only deliver
2 tons of cooling to each zone.
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