Service, Tri-Cities
Zone Control Systems for Tri-Cities homes
Separate temperatures for separate parts of the house, from one system.
Chapter 01
Why one thermostat cannot serve two floors
Heat rises and cold settles, so a two-story house pulls itself apart. The upstairs bakes on a July afternoon while the downstairs is comfortable, and by the time the thermostat in the hallway calls for enough cooling to fix the bedrooms, the living room is cold. One sensor in one place can only average the house.
Homes with big windows, high ceilings, a slab foundation or a finished attic show the problem most, and so do houses where the family agrees on nothing except that one room is wrong. Air-Tech, working out of Pasco, installs zoning so that each part of a Tri-Cities house gets its own setting instead of an average.
A condenser installed on a pad at the side of a house
How zoning works
In a ducted house the crew installs motorized dampers in the ductwork and a control panel near the furnace, then puts a thermostat in each zone. When a zone calls for heat or cooling, the panel opens that zone's damper and closes the others, so the air goes where it is wanted. A zone can be a room, several rooms or a whole floor.
Shutting registers by hand is not zoning. It pushes pressure back into the ducts, can make them leak and can starve the equipment of airflow. A zone panel does it properly because it also tells the furnace or air conditioner when to run and when to stop.
Where a home has no ductwork, the same idea works with ductless heads. Each indoor head has its own thermostat and acts as a zone, so several heads on one outdoor unit can split a large house into rooms that each keep their own setting. The ductless systems page covers how that install runs.
Chapter 03
Living with zones
A new zone system needs balancing. The installer sets airflow so a single small zone calling alone does not push too much air through a short run, and a bypass damper or similar relief keeps pressure in the ducts in range when most zones are closed. Those settings are where a well-installed system separates from one that whistles.
Dampers are moving parts, so the upkeep visit includes checking that each one still opens and closes fully. A rattle in the ducts or a damper that stops responding is worth a call to Air-Tech at (509) 392-2021, and Air-Tech runs 24-hour emergency service for breakdowns outside office hours.
Licensed and insured. WA contractor licence AIRTESF899MN. Oregon CCB 228495. Call (509) 392-2021.
No ductwork
Zoning a house that never had ducts
A house without ducts can still be zoned. Several ductless heads, one in each area that needs its own temperature, do the work of dampers and a panel. Read how ductless systems are installed and serviced, or see the AT Advantage Program for the yearly visits.