By following best practices for zoning system design in your Los Angeles-area home, you’ll experience superior home comfort, maximize energy savings and save wear and tear on valuable HVAC equipment.
There are three primary factors that go into optimal zoning system design:
- Energy audit: It’s vital to perform an energy audit of your home prior to installing a zoning system. Every home is unique in terms of floor plan, system airflow, window coverings, appliance usage, and the temperature preferences and habits of its occupants. A thorough home energy audit by an HVAC professional points out the trouble spots in your home and allows you to correct them, increasing comfort and energy savings. It can also help determine efficient zones.
- Grouping zones: Since warmer air always rises and cooler air sinks, designate all areas in a single zone to the same floor of living space (for homes with multiple floors). Take solar heat into consideration by separating sun-facing rooms from rooms that receive very little sunlight or no sunlight at all (regardless of window coverings). If your home has room additions or retrofitted spaces, those areas should be in separate zones from original structure. Different building materials are often used, including the foundation, which affect heat gain/loss.
- Installing zoning components: Each zone contains a thermostat and automatic duct dampers. Install the thermostats on interior walls in the areas most commonly occupied for each zone. Avoid installation near air-supply registers, windows, appliances, outside access doors and direct sunlight. It may be worthwhile to install programmable thermostats, or perhaps a multi-zone thermostat, for added convenience, comfort and energy savings. Automatic duct dampers are most effective and promote efficient airflow when installed as close as possible to the air handler. If you install the dampers near the air-supply registers, air backs up within the ducts, hindering smooth airflow.
Contact Around the Clock Air Conditioning and Heating today. We provide homeowners in the greater Los Angeles area exceptional service and the highest standards, and we have since 1967.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Los Angeles, North Hollywood and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about zoning system design and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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