Learn The Basics of Zone Control

If you have one thermostat and one heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system in your Utah home, you have one option for temperature control.

The temperature you set applies everywhere. If you raise it, every floor in your home heats up.  Drop it a few degrees, and every room cools.

You need zone control if you want more options. It gives you the power to tailor the temperature to individual areas in your Salt Lake City home. You can easily send more heat to the family room while maintaining a lower temperature elsewhere. Or make an entire floor cooler than the rest of your home. 

Just Right Heating & Cooling can help you make it happen. Our NATE-certified professionals maintain, repair, and install zone control systems that improve comfort by customizing temperature control.  

What Is A Zone?

Zone controls work with furnaces, heat pumps, and air conditioners to distribute conditioned air through ductwork. 

The first step in creating a zoned HVAC system is identifying heating and cooling zones within your home. Each of these areas will have a thermostat for temperature control. You decide the location, size, and number of zones.

You might define the zones by individual rooms or groupings of rooms. Maybe one zone comprises the kitchen and family room, and another, the bedrooms. In a multi-story house, you might create a zone on every floor.

Our experts will recommend the best configuration possible, but ultimately zoning is up to you. You decide where you want to control the temperature inside your home.

Dampers Control Airflow 

Dampers strategically placed in your home’s ductwork do all the heavy lifting in a zone system. When you adjust the thermostat for a particular zone, corresponding dampers open or close to assist with airflow. When the air reaches the desired temperature, the dampers for that zone close. If you want more heat or cool air, the dampers open.

Adjusting the temperature in one zone does not affect thermostat settings in other zones.

Do I Need Zone Control?

Heating or cooling every room in your home at the same temperature may be wasting your money. Are you spending money to heat unoccupied rooms year-round? Instead, you could create one or more zones for those areas and save money on energy costs.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), heating and cooling represent 43 percent of a home utility bill. Zoning can help reduce energy use and cost.

Zoning can solve disagreements over the thermostat setting in your home. With just one thermostat and a single heating and cooling zone, family members are likely to battle over the temperature. Arguments typically end with someone donning a sweater. In a zoned system, everyone has temperature options.

Multi-story homes benefit from zoning because the heat rises, leaving upper floors hotter than lower levels. For example, if your attic bedroom heats up in the summer, you can cool it without freezing out other zoned levels.

If you have one or two rooms built on a concrete slab, you know how difficult it is to keep them warm in the winter without turning the rest of your home into a sauna. Rooms on a cold concrete base are perfect candidates for zoning.

Another good prospect for zoning is a room with ceiling-to-floor windows. Sunlight can raise the room temperature as it penetrates glass windows, heating a south-facing room faster than others. Any south-facing rooms with larger windows could create a zone.

Our experts at Just Right Heating & Cooling can help you plan and implement a zone system in your Salt Lake City home. If your home lacks ductwork, we can design a ductless mini split system and create zoned heating and cooling with a heat pump and several indoor air handlers. Each air handler has its own thermostat and blows warm or cool air directly into the surrounding area.

Zone Your HVAC System

Improve your comfort with zone controls. Ask us at Just Right Heating & Cooling how zoned -heating and cooling would benefit your Salt Lake City, UT, home. Call us at 801-302-1154 or request service online.