It is not uncommon for a home to have some areas that are cooler or warmer than others. Part of this is due to the fact that heat rises. A second story of a home will typically be warmer than the main level or the basement of a home. To overcome this inequality in temperatures from one area to another within your home, many people choose to have their heating and cooling system ‘zoned’ and a separate thermostat installed for each zone.
With a separate thermostat located in each zone, you are no longer dependent on the temperature of just one area of the home to control the heating system for the entire house. However, if you still have only one furnace to heat the entire home, when the furnace turns on and off or the air conditioning kicks in or off still must be controlled by only one thermostat, so what do the other thermostats do? How do multiple thermostats affect the temperature control of a home that only has one heating and cooling system?
The answer lies inside the ductwork. Dampers are place within the different zones of the ductwork. When one area is calling for more heat and a second area does not need heat, the thermostats open the dampers for the area needing heat and close them for the area that has already reached the desired temperature. Zoning your heating and cooling system with multiple thermostats to control the system can also help your system to be more energy efflicient.
Zoned heating and cooling systems are best installed during the initial installation of your residential HVAC system or during an HVAC system replacement, but they can be installed on extisting systems in many cases. Talk to your HVAC contractor about your options.
