Principles Of Zoning System Design You Should Know Before Installing One

Although zoning systems do offer substantial benefits to your home’s comfort levels and overall energy usage, their effectiveness can sometimes be hampered because of poor zoning system design. To get the maximum benefits from zoning, you should be aware of several zoning system design principles before having one installed.

• First and foremost, a good zoning system design will take into account differences in heat loss or gain between rooms. Some rooms lose more heat to the outdoor air, and require more air from the furnace to replace that heat; others gain heat due to sunlight shining through windows or because of indoor appliances (like the kitchen stove). Rooms that have similar amounts of heat gain or loss should be grouped together in zones. Some examples:
  • West-facing rooms with large windows should generally not be in the same zone with north-facing rooms that receive no sunlight, or east-facing rooms that are heated by the sun at a different time of day.
  • Central rooms that do not share an exterior wall have very little heat loss or gain, and should get their own zone.
  • Rooms that were built using different materials or insulation standards (such as home additions or garage conversions) should be zoned separately from the rest of the house.
  • Since hot air rises, upstairs rooms gain heat from the rooms below them. A single zone should therefore not cover more than one level of the house.
• Rooms that sit empty for long stretches of the day (such as the living room when everyone is asleep) should be put in separate zones, so that you can use a programmable thermostat to save energy during those vacant hours.
• For each zone, the thermostat should be placed in the part of the zone that is occupied the most.
• Preferably, each zone should have at least two air registers to aid with circulation (and to keep the air flowing if one of the registers gets covered accidentally).

For a truly professional zoning system design, contact us at Marsh Heating & Air Conditioning in the Twin Cities. We’ll be happy to help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Minnesota’s Twin Cities about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about zoning systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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