Hey guys, i wanted to do another video on zoning. I did a video not that long ago, and i wanted to do this video, where we're going to talk a little bit more in depth, because in that video we were just kind of talking about in scenarios where it makes sense to do zoning and scenarios where It does not make sense to do zoning, so if you haven't seen that video go check it out, but i wanted to talk about real, quick, just diving into it. A little further as time has gone on you know, years ago, when we would install systems and you would install zoning. You were installing it for one of two reasons: you were either installing it, because you wanted more comfort in certain rooms or parts of the house.

So, in other words, if it's zoned you might be able to you know this thermostat might call and it might cool the space and then this thermostat might be a little higher. So it's a little bit warmer in that space. You know based on what you're doing in those different spaces the idea was. You would get more comfort out of that.

Another scenario that i touched on in the last video - and that is, if you have a two-story house right. So if you have a two-story house with only one system in a lot of cases, you'll see two separate systems. But let's just say it's one system and you might zone that because heat rises - and there will be times when your thermostat upstairs is calling for air or heat versus downstairs. And you know they might be doing two different things.

One might be running more than the other in certain times of the season, and then the second thing, aside from the comfort, is efficiency. So you know the idea: was you have parts of your house that you don't need to necessarily cool or heat during certain times of the year? I've even had customers turn off the air in certain parts of their house. I wouldn't recommend that, and we can talk about that in a different video, but i wouldn't recommend shutting it off entirely. You want that system to be able to breathe and all that good stuff.

As long as it's installed right, you shouldn't have any issues, but most of them are not installed right, but getting back to the efficiency. The idea was, if you let's say you, have a three zone system and you spend way more time in this zone than these two well, we'll just shut those off and you'll. You know heat or cool that one space system comes on, makes that space comfortable and then it shuts off. You know it never touches those other two systems.

So those were the two reasons back in the old days that you would usually pick. Zoning in your house - and i would still say to this day those two are a concern, but i believe - and i you know i get guys commenting on my videos all the time telling me how stupid i am. I believe that those matter less than they used to, and let me tell you why the first reason is as far as comfort goes: if a system is installed properly and you have an inverter system, you know very efficient system and it's doing all the right things And all your ductwork was sized properly and so on. I would say in a lot of cases you know you don't need to spend the extra money for zoning, because you already have a very efficient system.

That's going to keep the house comfortable even with all zones calling right, so we did away with that three zone system and made them all just one zone even with that one zone calling it's not like. It's going to just dump all kinds of air, and the last thing i'll say is instead of having to pay. Somebody like me tons of money to put in a super fancy zoning system. Let's be honest, a lot of registers just have dampers on them themselves.

So if you have a part of the house that you rarely use again, i wouldn't close them off entirely, but you can close them a little bit to push more velocity to other parts of the house that you spend more time in and the second thing i Would say, as far as today goes when it comes to efficiency, is systems are becoming so much more efficient? You know we're talking about. You know. Inverter systems, communicating technology things that when i first started out, they were just being talked about, or i think in some cases they weren't even around yet right. You know certain brands.

I think one brand in particular was starting to dabble with variable speed stuff, and you know coming out with this or that, but in general you know we were all back then installing you know 10 12, 13 seer and you didn't really see anything on the market. Higher than 15 seer - and so you know these days when we're talking about zoning, you know the fact that you're going to spend all that extra money to have getting back to that three zone scenario, even if you're shutting off those two zones and only running that One: it's not that big a deal if you just leave those zones on turn those three into one zone and run it. The efficiency of the systems are so much better than they used to be. So i think the question becomes: are higher seer systems eliminating the need for zoning in certain houses, and i think the answer to that is yes in some houses.

Yes, absolutely again, i'm sure somebody is going to comment and say what about this? What about that? I i'm just saying in general, yes, there are houses where it will make sense, because you're installing a more cadillac of a system instead of that ford, taurus you're, installing a nicer system, and because of that, you have less need for zoning than you used to again. Every house is different and you know i'm sure, there's something i'm missing, i'm sure some of you guys that are smarter than me. You know you can comment below. I i don't think i'm the smartest heating and air guy on the internet or out there.

I do think i'm the most informative one uh. So that being said, if one of you guys catches this video - and you want to just put down in the comments below why it would make sense or certain scenarios that maybe i haven't touched on when it comes to zoning, then feel free and the last thing I'll say is, you know, we're seeing now this is again years ago. This was not a thing, and that is zoning in a different way. So you know used to be zoning meant you were going to control the air in that system and push air to certain parts of the house based on what was being called, but now we're seeing with many splits.

You know, of course, there's ductless mini splits that either hang on the wall or on the floor, but there's also systems that you know we call them pancake air handlers where they're just they look like a pancake, they're kind of real low and they're smaller in capacity In some cases - and you know, we've done houses where they might do. You know a pancake air handler there. A wall hung mini split there, and even now there are certain systems, including the daikon vrv life, which is one of my favorite setups. For a number of reasons, one day i'm going to do a video just on the vrv life, but you can even pair that with a standard air handler or gas furnace setup with a coil and there's not a lot of systems out there.

That can do all of those on one outdoor system. I hope that makes sense. I know it kind of rambled there if you're, looking at zoning trying to decide if you need to spend the extra money again, i think every house is different and i would defer to your local professionals, but i'm just trying to give you something more to think About things that used to apply years ago, i'm not saying they don't apply at all these days, but they're less of a concern. That's for sure, and then.

Finally, if you are in the market for a new heating and air system, if you're in the middle peninsula or northern neck of virginia give us a call griffin air, we would love to earn your business. But if you're not in our coverage area, you're somewhere else in the country - and you are in the market for a new heating and air system before you spend thousands check out my new website, it's called new hvac guide, dot com, i'll, put a link to it Down in the comments and this website, i basically wrote a book made it a guide, put it on this website and instead of having a book that would be outdated within a year or two, i'm able to constantly add things on there. If new things come out and the other thing is i've even put information on there that people in our industry don't even want you to know so. I've got a whole page called no nose, and you know just things to stay away from, and so on.

That being said, thanks for watching hit that subscribe button, we'll see you next time you.