That makes the evaporator coil get colder, and the colder it gets, the less efficient it becomes. Throwing cold air directly into the return plenum reduces the temperature of the air coming in to be cooled.On one point, though, they both agreed: Bypass ducts should never be used. Chitwood likes them and says when done right, they provide exceptional performance. Proctor’s take is basically that zoned systems are horrible and shouldn’t be used. When the system is running but not all zone dampers are open, the bypass duct-in theory-is supposed to relieve the extra pressure and maintain good air flow throughout the duct system.Īt the Affordable Comfort conference this year, I went to a talk on zoned duct systems where John Proctor and Rick Chitwood discussed the pros and cons of these systems. If only 1 or 2 of the zones are calling for air, most air handlers will create extra static pressure because 1 or 2 of the pathways are closed off. Depending on the needs of the house, any combination of 1, 2, or 3 zone dampers may be open and sending conditioned air to their respective zones. In the photo above, the three green lights are part of three zone dampers that control the flow of air to three separate zones. “Come on, man, just tell me what the flaw is!” In a ‘zoned system,’ a single heating and air conditioning system is controlled by multiple thermostats in multiple zones. The home is zoned, but the HVAC system is not. In most homes, each thermostat is connected to its own heating and cooling system. The other way that the term ‘zoning’ is used is to describe a single duct system attached to a single HVAC system that serves multiple zones. If you have a two-story house, for example, you probably have at least two thermostats - one upstairs and one downstairs. That is, they have more than one thermostat so you can control the conditions separately in different parts of the house. The word zoning is used in more than one way in the context of heating and air conditioning systems in a house. However they described it, there’s one piece they absolutely should NOT have installed.įirst of all, let’s be precise in our language and clear up exactly what we’re talking about. Or maybe your HVAC installer described it as the bee’s knees, the eel’s ankle, or the elephant’s instep. Ah, so what exactly is this hidden flaw? “My HVAC guy put a zoned system in my house and told me it was the cat’s pajamas,” you may be thinking about now.
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