You deserve to feel 100 percent comfortable when you’re at home—but that’s hard to do when you’re dealing with inconsistent heating and cooling that creates hot or cold spots. If this sounds familiar, you’ve come to the right place. Our Carrier® experts are sharing the ins and outs of zoning, and what you need to know to make your home more comfortable.
What Is Zoning?
Zoning is an HVAC technique that allows you to control comfort in different areas—or zones—of your home rather than trying to heat and cool it all to one temperature. This gives you control to tailor individual areas according to room conditions and to suit your needs.
For example, if your bedroom is always hot and the neighboring guest room is always cold, zoning would alleviate the inconsistency by giving you separate control over each room’s temperature. It even lets you control the timing of your system operation to complement your family’s schedule—this means round-the-clock comfort and money savings by only heating and cooling rooms you want, when you want.
How Does It Work?
Motorized dampers are installed in either your ductwork or your air vents to allow and stop the flow of air, based on your thermostat settings. This keeps conditioned air from entering areas you don’t want it to, like empty or unused rooms. With zoning, you can set your thermostat to cool certain rooms, and only the specified dampers will open to let air flow where it’s needed.
It’s important to note that just closing your home’s air vents is not DIY zoning, and it’s NOT recommended. Simply closing registers can cause your comfort system to work harder, operate inefficiently, and even break down in certain cases.
Top benefits of zoning include:
• Control temperature by area to feel more comfortable
• Lower operating costs by directing conditioned air where it’s needed
• Eliminate wasted energy by not heating or cooling empty rooms
While zoning costs a bit more upfront because of the additional materials, it can be worth it when installed in the right situation. If you think zoning may be a good idea for your home, our experts would be happy to help you weigh your options.