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ELECTRONIC ZONING FOR YOUR HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEM.
 An example of a typical furnace with zoning added.
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If you're like most
homeowners, temperature differences in various parts of your home are more than
an annoyance…you find yourself constantly fiddling with the thermostat, space
heaters and fans. You can fix that problem while making your home more energy
efficient and saving money by installing a Honeywell zoning system.
How it works: A Honeywell zoning
panel is the heart of the system. Thermostats, located in various areas of your
home feed information to the panel, which opens and closes dampers located in
your heating and cooling ducts to control the temperature in every part of your
home.
How it saves money: When used with
programmable thermostats, Honeywell zoning can save you up to 30% on heating and
cooling costs, adding up to hundreds of dollars in savings per every year.
How it improves comfort: By zoning
your home you can customize each zone's climate. Keep the bedrooms cooler at
night, adjust your living room temperature to account for large windows, or help
control the temperature difference between floors. How you customize your home
is up to you.
Virtually anyone
who wants to be more comfortable, more consistently, at home can benefit from a
Temperature Zoning System. But if your home — or your lifestyle — has
certain characteristics, you’ll find a zoning system particularly worthwhile.
Use this checklist to see if
zoning is right for your home:
Zoning is highly recommended if your home has:
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Multiple levels
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Sprawling design (wings or
“ranch” style)
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A room(s) with large
expanses of windows
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Large open areas (vaulted
ceilings, foyer, atrium, solarium, etc.)
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Room(s) in a finished
basement or attic
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Room(s) with exposed
concrete floor
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An indoor swimming pool or
hot tub
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One or two outside walls
(earth-shelter design)
Zoning is highly recommended if
in your lifestyle:
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You do a lot of entertaining
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You’re busy in the
kitchen, cooking and baking
-
You work out of a home
office
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You occasionally enjoy
activities in a hobby room or play room
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You prefer to sleep at a
cooler temperature, while others remain active
-
Some family members occupy a
room in the attic or basement
WHAT DOES ZONING DO IN EVERYDAY TERMS?
If zoning can be installed in a typical (3) story home for
instance, it will give the homeowner (3) thermostats or more if desired . One in
the basement, one on the main floor and one on the top floor. (You know, during
the summer it is hottest on the top floor and coolest in the basement. In the
winter the reverse is true.) The same thing can
be done with long sprawling ranch style homes that may have long duct runs and
therefore poor air flow to certain rooms. Other reasons for zoning could be
different lifestyles or temperatures desired by different occupants of the home
or building. One example could be a home business with computers and printers
running and creating heat in certain rooms while the rest of the home is normal.
Different construction factors such as good insulation in one area
and poor insulation in others. Skylights, large amounts of glass and many other
factors could be other reasons to name just a few! While a home or building is
being built you can install smaller, less expensive equipment since all areas of
the building will not need heating or cooling at the same time. This will save a
huge amount of money up front as well as on operating costs!
CAN ZONING BE INSTALLED IN ANY BUILDING OR HOME?
No. For each zone required we need to have at least one more
supply air trunk and many times more return trunks. This may not be possible once the sheet rock is done. However,
in the case of a furnace in an attic, an unfinished basement or a crawl space it MAY be feasible? An on
site evaluation will be needed.
WHAT COMPONENTS ARE INVOLVED?
Below are some pictures of a few of the main components that we
are about to install in a commercial building. We will be adding an air
conditioning system in the attic of the building where there was nothing before.
The building occupants have (2) separate areas that need (2) different
temperatures. Zoning is the ONLY answer here! We will show the entire
installation later, but for now here are some of the components.
The shot below is the TZ4 Panel, the brain of the electronic zoning system. It
is capable of up to (16) zones if need be. It has LED lights on the front
panel that let the client know what zone is calling for heat or air conditioning
as well as many other functions.
Below is the inside of the panel. As you can see it is a delicate
piece of electronic equipment and must be installed correctly. This panel is the
most expensive panel available from Honeywell but in our opinion the one that
works best. This panel works with almost any 4 wire thermostat. Many panels on
the market make you buy "special" thermostats which actually makes the
installation cost MORE! This panel works with gas furnaces, oil furnaces and
heat pumps.
Below is a Zone Damper. As the thermostat calls for heating or
cooling the TZ4 Panel sends a signal to the small box at the bottom to all zones
that are not calling for heat or cooling which closes all the unneeded zones. When the room reaches temperature, the thermostat stops
the signal to the panel and the panel tells the damper to open.
Many H.V.A.C. Companies don't install the component shown below.
This is a BIG mistake! Here's why. The control below is called a
Barometric Bypass Relief Damper. It installs between the return air trunk and
BEFORE the zone dampers which will be installed in the supply trunks. It's purpose is as follows. Your furnace and air
conditioning system has to move a certain amount of Cubic Feet of Air per
Minute. On air conditioning we need to move 400 C.F.M per Ton of air
conditioning. If only (1) small zone is calling for air conditioning you won't
achieve this 400 C.F.M. per ton and the evaporator coil freezes solid. When this
happens the oil from your compressor just "LAYS" on the bottom of your
evaporator coil and never returns to your compressor, this is like running your
car with no oil! This relief damper has an adjustable weight on it's side that
we adjust so that if only (1) zone was calling it "BYPASSES" some air
back to the return duct to keep the coil from freezing. The similar thing
happens when on the heating mode and keeps the furnace or heat pump from overheating which
will lead to a failure with the heat exchanger or compressor.
Below, inside the Barometric Bypass Relief Damper. Note the high
quality gasket inside. This gasket seals any air leakage when it is not open.
Some companies use an electronic version of this damper, which we don't like
because it COULD burn out! This damper is not operated by electricity and works
only by the weight. It costs more to do a zoning job right but if you aren't
going to do it right, why bother? We have talked to some installers who have no
concept of how any of this works, so ask questions before deciding on a
contractor! We have even seen a zoning system installed with no panel, no relief
damper and simply a system where the building owner had to go in the basement
and pull a series of chains to open or close dampers!
Below is a shot of Zone # 1 installed in the top supply trunk.
Below is Zone #2 installed in the bottom supply trunk.
We had to turn the supply trunk 180 degrees so that we could get to the other
end of the attic where most of the supply registers are being installed. All the
trunks have to be wrapped with foil faced duct insulation to stop sweating when
the A/C is on and keep from losing heat during winter.
The insulated return plenum is shown in the foreground. Some companies don't
insulate returns, another big mistake!
Below, the final system installation is done and running. The
relief damper is installed in the large insulated pipe on the top of the unit.
You can see the weight at the far end of this large duct. Note
the (2) P.V.C. drain lines at the bottom of the unit. One is the primary drain and the other is a
secondary overflow drain line in case the first one plugs up. We don't want
water leaking onto the sheetrock ceiling below us. We haven't installed it yet
but there is also a third safety we are installing. It is a safety pan under the
unit. It will have a float switch in the pan so that if water collects in the
pan the switch will shut the outdoor unit off! This extra work may cost a bit
more but weigh that against the cost of putting up a whole new ceiling. You get
what you pay for, right?
The zone panel with it's LED indicator lights on.
The middle thermostat is the one we installed. It is digital and
programmable. The building also has a swamp cooler (top thermostat) and a boiler
for heat (bottom thermostat). Each zone has it's own thermostat allowing the
occupants to have (2) separated temperatures off the same system!
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