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View Full Version : Home Heating - Zones



Bob Moyer
06-03-2008, 1:21 PM
I live in a rancher, forced oil heat; living on a wooded lot provides me with a good source of firewood (oak); when I use the fireplace located in the living room as is the thermostat; our master bedroom obviously gets cold. Is it feasible to get this area zoned?

Jeffrey Makiel
06-03-2008, 2:02 PM
I'm no expert, but here's my shot...

Hot air heat is difficult to zone. Modifications to the duct work, the addition of zone dampers, and a probable changeout of the blower and/or entire furnace to support a varying load would likely be required. It would probably be easier and less expensive to add supplemental heating (electric or other) to the defficient zone.

If you have hot water heating (hydronic), it is much less costly and difficult to zone....but I assume that you have hot air.

Perhaps other with more knowledge can chime in.

-Jeff :)

Joe Pelonio
06-03-2008, 2:08 PM
The easiest solution to that problem is to move the thermostat, or add a second thermostat. It's usually low voltage, just one pair of thin wires that can be easily routed through the home. If you wire two of them in parallel, whichever is set higher will cause it to kick on.

Al Willits
06-03-2008, 2:33 PM
Zoning with a single stage furnace may cause problems, if you zone so just the bedroom needs heat or cooling, you then have a furnace/AC designed to heat the whole house, heating/cooling just one room.
Usually bypassing dampers are used so if just the bedroom gets heat, the other rooms will still get some.
You still have the chance that the furnace will cycle off the limit in heating and freeze the A coil in cooling.

A small heater my do better.

Al

Mitchell Andrus
06-03-2008, 3:24 PM
I would install a small electric baseboard unit to boost the heat, and use a timer thermostat. Cycle times for an air system can be a problem if not designed for short cycles. If hot water, zoning is easier, but you should consider a controller and storage tank to buffer the cycles.

Tom Godley
06-03-2008, 5:49 PM
Zoning does work -- but is rarely done correctly. Large ranchers are often great candidates for zoning but it is unlikely that the ducts are set up correctly in your house. Some modern systems can modulate output making them better for zoning. Short cycling can be a problem with an oversized oil burner.

A dedicated electric for a single room would be a lot cheaper.

Ben Grunow
06-03-2008, 8:23 PM
I agree with all above and would like to add that I have seen an Honeywell programmable tstat that is like a remote control. It replaces the existing wall unit and can be carried anywhere within range to solve issues like yours (no wiring, just move the tstat to the bedroom when you light a fire and back in the am)

Cliff Rohrabacher
06-04-2008, 12:38 PM
I live in a rancher, forced oil heat;

You mean forced water oil heat?


Is it feasible to get this area zoned?

Yes and you can do it yourself.

Mike Henderson
06-04-2008, 1:23 PM
I agree with all above and would like to add that I have seen an Honeywell programmable tstat that is like a remote control. It replaces the existing wall unit and can be carried anywhere within range to solve issues like yours (no wiring, just move the tstat to the bedroom when you light a fire and back in the am)
I had never heard of this, Ben, but I went and did some seraching and found the Honeywell T8665A, which is a wireless thermostat and does what you mentioned. Thanks for posting that info.

What would be even better for my situation is to find a dual wireless thermostat system where I could permanently install two wireless thermostats and switch between them. That is, I'd use the main thermostat during the day and the bedroom thermostat at night, switching between them at bedtime and in the morning. Anyone know of such a system?

Mike

[Added note: I found a product made by Venstar (http://www.venstar.com/Thermostats/WirelessR/) that will do what I need.]

Mike Sheppard
06-06-2008, 8:25 AM
If you have a duct system you could let your furnace fan run at the slowest speed it will go, that should even out the heat in the house.
Mike

Al Willits
06-06-2008, 8:47 AM
If you have a duct system you could let your furnace fan run at the slowest speed it will go, that should even out the heat in the house.
Mike


Mike may have the easiest way to go, if the furnace came with A/C the "fan on" switch will run the blower continusly usually on high speed, it could be wired to run the blower on the low speed.
You'd end up with a summer/winter switch but it'd be cheaper than zoning.

Find a good HVAC guy and have him look at it, a bit of creative wiring and it could almost be a automatic fan speed set up.

Al

Peter Stahl
06-07-2008, 8:33 AM
I would just run the fan in the on setting. I do this when starting up the AC for a couple hours as it exchanges the air and evens it out quicker. Your heater won't come on if the temp is reach but the blower will keep circulating the heated air around. Getting the fan changed to a lower speed shouldn't be hard to do for a HVAC guy.

Ben Glaser
06-07-2008, 9:07 AM
I just recently put this Arzel system in my 2 story with gas forced air. It is amazingly simple, no extra duct work, no wiring (runs off of compressed air), no problem with short cycling, wireless programmable t-stat, etc. I have a lot of glass facing West and get tons of heat gain in the afternoon - especially upstairs. This spring when it was still cool outside I could heat the downstairs and cool the upstairs in the late afternoon (my work office is up there) and the Arzel system made the switches from heat to cool smoothly. Now that it's warmed up I have 71º balanced temp throughout the house at all times - never more than 1º variance. I'm a very happy customer. Here's a link to their site http://www.arzelzoning.com/