A/C Went Out

[Dimsumkid]

What do you mean by zoning one unit

How do you get the rest of the house cool when you need it? PS... we need it most of the time because my kids are in their rooms upstairs... my wife is in her studio upstairs, I am downstairs watching TV or in the bedroom...

I'm familiar with zone heating with a boiler. Each zone is controlled by a separate thermostat tied to a automatic damper and to one heating system. It can control zone 1 heat only, zone 2 heat only or both zones together.

Here's a link to one zone controller I found (there's a 4 zone unit too):

HVAC 2-Zone Controller - Smarthome

 

[Calico]

I have my HVAC guys come twice a year for maintenance - once for AC and once for the furnace. Being on this plan bumps me up to the head of the line if I ever do need an urgent repair, which is the main reason I do it. When they did the AC check a couple of months ago they said the capacitor "would need replacing soon." In the real world this means that the AC would probably die on July 4th when it is 102 degrees (NC). I went ahead and had them replace the capacitor - $93 for peace of mind. We've just had a string of killer 100+ degree days, so it was money well spent.

 

[Texas Proud]

I'm familiar with zone heating with a boiler. Each zone is controlled by a separate thermostat tied to a automatic damper and to one heating system. It can control zone 1 heat only, zone 2 heat only or both zones together.

Here's a link to one zone controller I found (there's a 4 zone unit too):

HVAC 2-Zone Controller - Smarthome

Wow... interesting.... I know they had them on the water systems, but did not know they had them for forced air for the home...

I wonder if my ducts are set up separate enough to do this...

 

[Dimsumkid]

Wow... interesting.... I know they had them on the water systems, but did not know they had them for forced air for the home...

I wonder if my ducts are set up separate enough to do this...

Yes, surprised me too but your comments made me curious, so I checked around. Makes me want to look into this setup. It's a lot cheaper than adding another HVAC system. I talked to 4 companies when I replaced my AC unit and mentioned the temp change issue between the 2 floors and none of the installers ever brought something like this up.

Check your ducts on your system. If the installers did it correctly, your duct would be have two main trunks that separate the floors. You may have manual dampers so you can limit air flow, tweaking the dampers may provide the adjustments you need. My dampers are setup this way and most room have dampers too. As I mentioned before they don't shut off flow 100%.

I had an auto damper setup on my exhaust from the boiler when I replaced it back in the early 90's. This supposedly made it more efficient reducing heat loss, worked for 2 years then started having problems and triggered the safety limit switch multiple times preventing the boiler from heating and it had to be replaced at my cost since it wasn't covered by the boiler warranty. I ended up not replacing it when told these items break down frequently. Maybe they've improved since then.

 

[LakeTravis]

Zoning is such an inexpensive yet effective solution that most HVAC companies would prefer NOT to talk about it.

 

[Texas Proud]

Zoning is such an inexpensive yet effective solution that most HVAC companies would prefer NOT to talk about it.

I did some research and found 3 firms that are advertising it near me.... they all seem to be using the same web format, so they are probably linked by some major distributor....