Zoning question - New construction

[imureh]

Is the purpose for zoning to overcome exposure issues as recommended by your contractor or is it something you came up with?

If single stage/speed equipment is your only option your contractor should be able to design a system that is zoned in a way to overcome inadequate exposure diversity. There are a lot of variables that cannot be addressed via this forum.

It's something that was offered as an option and I thought it may be a good idea for the media room and the one bedroom that will get max heat exposure in the evening.

[tedkidd]

The builder uses manual J and is an energy star builder as well as a platinum level Environments for living builder.

But is this house going to be energy star RATED. Energy star builder is pretty meaningless unless the house is actually getting RATED.

Imagine going on a diet with a weight goal, then not having to step on a scale at the end. Did you get there? If you have no quality control how do you know you received quality?

You really don't want to put any zoning on an oversized system. If this home is not going to be rated, it's pretty much a guarantee your equipment will be grossly oversized.

Don't have to believe me. Check out this Rater blog, some great posts where they talk about all the crap these energy star homebuilders try to get past them...

[tedkidd]

Hmmm, here's a good one from that on zoning.

[tedkidd]

Oh, and discussion of oversizing;

You may think that having a bigger system is better, but the Texan way doesn't always prevail. In the case of air conditioning, oversized cooling systems result in:

-A clammy house because they don't run long enough to dehumidify the air
-Shorter lifetime for the system because it turns on and off frequently (also called short cycling). Since it's so big, it doesn't take long to cool off the house.
-More expensive to install. That extra size isn't free.

High performance homes can be as high as 1500 or 2000 square feet per ton. That means that a contractor using 500 square feet per ton is installing an air conditioner that's 2, 3, or even 4 times larger than it should be.

and look, you can have them do j, s, t, and d for you.