Does this exist?

[SammyLJ]

Hey there guys. I'm new and don't know much about HVAC but I figure I'd ask.

Is there something out there that will allow you to set each room of your house to different temperatures and the furnace or ac will make each specific room that temp?

[George2]

Hey there guys. I'm new and don't know much about HVAC but I figure I'd ask.

Is there something out there that will allow you to set each room of your house to different temperatures and the furnace or ac will make each specific room that temp?

Yes. It's called zoning. Personally I've never been comfortable doing each room. I like to zone by sections of the home, i.e; first floor vs. second floor or say (with a ranch) one end vs. the other end and maybe the basement as well in either case.

[mchild]

Hey there guys. I'm new and don't know much about HVAC but I figure I'd ask.

Is there something out there that will allow you to set each room of your house to different temperatures and the furnace or ac will make each specific room that temp?

Heat pumps from several of the large Japanese manufacturers can have up to eight indoor units connected to a single outdoor. With indoor unit capacities ranging from 1/2 ton up to 3 ton you can dedicate an indoor unit to very small space or large spaces. Each would work as virtually a stand alone unit with individual temp, blower fan speed, and can even be turned off. Just condition the space that you want and at the temps you want without regard to the other space/zones. With a ducted zone system you would have problems making zones as small as you wish them to be and you can not turn zones off.

[skippedover]

Reality versus myth is sometimes hard to overcome.

Laws of thermodynamics.

1. Heat always flows from warmer to cooler.
2. The greater the temperature difference between hot and cold, the faster the heat flow from warmer to cooler.

So, unless the rooms in your home have all interior insulated walls and passage doors with the equivalent of outside weather doors, the ability to keep significantly different room temperatures within a home is greatly overblown. And the monetary savings is even less.

Example: A family grows up and the kids move out. The parents remain but now there's 3 empty bedrooms. They decide to save some heat and so they hire a company to disconnect the ducts feeding the 3 bedrooms. Winter comes and one day the mother enters one of the 'unheated' bedrooms and finds that while it's 25°F outdoors, it's 45° in the bedroom. Hmmm. The problem is, the walls are hollow and so's the door to the room. So with no heat source the larger temperature difference between the heated room on one side of the wall and the unheated room on the other side of the wall, draws heat from the heated room at an accelerated rate. The insulated outside wall in the unheated room slows the losses to the outdoors and that's why the room only falls to 45°F, instead of outdoor temperature.

So why bother with zones at all? The real reason behind zoned systems is to help maintain consistent temperatures throughout the structure. So a room that has a lot of glass and needs more heat cycles per hour can be accommodated, versus a room with one small window that needs much less.
Even temperatures, that's the goal.

Now if you want to maintain entirely different temperatures within your home and are able to do so with a zoned system, hey, its' you home, use the system any way that suits you. But just understand, that's not the purpose of zone controls.

[ChrisTechMech]

Yes. It's called zoning. Personally I've never been comfortable doing each room. I like to zone by sections of the home, i.e; first floor vs. second floor or say (with a ranch) one end vs. the other end and maybe the basement as well in either case.

I agree. Zone sections and not individual rooms. What did you have in mind? Kids' rooms and parents' room or some sort of working space?:cheers:

[mchild]

Reality versus myth is sometimes hard to overcome.

Laws of thermodynamics.

1. Heat always flows from warmer to cooler.
2. The greater the temperature difference between hot and cold, the faster the heat flow from warmer to cooler.

So, unless the rooms in your home have all interior insulated walls and passage doors with the equivalent of outside weather doors, the ability to keep significantly different room temperatures within a home is greatly overblown. And the monetary savings is even less.

Example: A family grows up and the kids move out. The parents remain but now there's 3 empty bedrooms. They decide to save some heat and so they hire a company to disconnect the ducts feeding the 3 bedrooms. Winter comes and one day the mother enters one of the 'unheated' bedrooms and finds that while it's 25°F outdoors, it's 45° in the bedroom. Hmmm. The problem is, the walls are hollow and so's the door to the room. So with no heat source the larger temperature difference between the heated room on one side of the wall and the unheated room on the other side of the wall, draws heat from the heated room at an accelerated rate. The insulated outside wall in the unheated room slows the losses to the outdoors and that's why the room only falls to 45°F, instead of outdoor temperature.

So why bother with zones at all? The real reason behind zoned systems is to help maintain consistent temperatures throughout the structure. So a room that has a lot of glass and needs more heat cycles per hour can be accommodated, versus a room with one small window that needs much less.
Even temperatures, that's the goal.

Now if you want to maintain entirely different temperatures within your home and are able to do so with a zoned system, hey, its' you home, use the system any way that suits you. But just understand, that's not the purpose of zone controls.


All good points. With my Daikin VRV system I used four indoor ducted units (not the eight total that could have been used) and zoned the home based on first/second floor and east/west. So I have two zones per floor one on the east and one of the west. I do maintain some temp differentials such as during the summer the second floor has a higher setting then the first floor during the day when there is limited activity in the bedrooms. In the evening the second floor temp is reduced to comfortable sleeping temps.

The primary focus of the zoning was to address the diversity within the home. Summer time in the afternoons the west side needs much more cooling then the east side. One zone needs more heating and it that can be accomplished without overheating other areas. Therefore, my reasons for zoning were comfort and operating costs.