Are Zoned Heating/Cooling Systems a Good or Bad Idea?

For starters, I live in Atlanta, Ga and I am not an HVAC pro so this is a serious question that I would like answered for one of my clients. I understand the premise of a zoned system and on the surface, it sounds like a good idea. Then I considered the fact that I have always told my customers that it is a bad idea to close off vents in rooms they are not in because of duct leakage. Also, the second law of thermodynamics simply states the hot goes to cold, so now the unheated areas are doing their best to rob warm air from the heated areas. Finally, if your zoning a single system, aren't you creating on oversizing issue because the unit (that was probably oversized in the first place) is now servicing a smaller area than what it was designed for?

I look forward to your input.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Blanchette on December 29, 2012 at 2:19pm

Overheating of the 2nd floor/Over-cooling the 1st floor is a valid concern with a zoned or 2 separate systems. The systems could be designed to "swap returns", the upstairs system gets it's return air from downstairs and downstairs gets return from upstairs. With the "swapped returns" it may be possible not to have ANY A/C required for the downstairs IF the returns were strategically located. The same could hold true for the upstairs, getting all of it's heat from downstairs.

The issue with "swapping returns" is in summer you want the return at the hottest point which is in the ceiling of the top floor and in winter you want to pull the cold air near the floor of the downstairs.

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