Residential Multi-zone advice

[bwalkwill]

What are you guys doing for zoning in residential applications. I do commercial HVAC and am not familiar with products for doing this in a house. I would like to do this with one air handler if possible. There is natural gas available for heat. Just looking for recommendations from those of you that do this and know more than I do. Thanks in advance.

[VTP99]

New installation or after though ?

[bwalkwill]

New install. Sorry.

[pecmsg]

2 floors
2 systems

[Cbryan9109]

I would suggest one zone per floor of the home. Or if the home is an irregular shape with a very long length, multiple zones may be used. I live/work in an area where we have a lot of retirees. They tend to purchase a larger home than needed and we end up zoning a portion of the house that will not be used often. This allows them to set the thermostat accordingly. When zoning, most residential contractors prefer multi-stage equipment. As long as the 'low' stage of the system is capable of heating/cooling the smallest zone, then you are set up perfectly when using a multi-zone and multi-stage control board. Just size your duct accordingly and you should be fine. Not knowing the natural gas rates in the area versus the electric rates makes it difficult to suggest a particular type of system.