A short podcast episode by Derek Cole explaining residential HVAC zoning: why upstairs and downstairs have different heating/cooling demands (heat rises; attic heat load vs crawl space), the problem with single-zone systems forcing one level too cold or hot, and practical solutions—adding dampers and separate thermostats or using two units—to create two zones for improved comfort and energy savings.
Chapters
Hey, this is Derek Cole, your friend in comfort and energy savings, asking you to get into the zone. And no, I'm not talking about autozone, dude. I'm talking about zoning. Your H VAC equipment. You zone your plumbing, you zone your electrical. So you zone your heating and air. Same concept, only heat and cool the rooms you're in at that time and save you some money, be more comfortable. You have different demands upstairs than you have downstairs. So when you look at a house and think about it, heat rises, obviously, right? So when he arises upstairs, typically would be warmer than downstairs, right? So chances are I've seen this before. The thermostat is downstairs. You have a unit that runs the whole house up and down. So to get upstairs comfortable, you then have to make downstairs freezing. Zoning can fix this issue. We can actually take a thermostat and put it in that room or put it in another, add a damper or two, and we can guarantee comfort in those rooms. Downstairs, heat rises. You also have the attic upstairs. So you have these forces you're going against. You have the attic, you have windows, you have upstairs, heat rises. And downstairs, of course, cold air falls. And you don't have an attic downstairs. And the crawl space is not that much of a heat load compared to an attic. So it's different demand. So how you solve that problem is either two units or what we've done quite a few times, which is zoning. You make downstairs one zone, you make upstairs one zone. It's very simple. If you have a unit that covers up and downstairs right now, you can very simply make it a two zone system. That way you have a thermostat downstairs, you have a thermostat upstairs, you can keep it that temperature you want, you keep it that temperature you want, and it can make it work that way.
