zoning system

Air Conditioning

What Are High-End Air Conditioners?

What Are High-End Air Conditioners?

When you’re looking for a way to combat the summer heat without having high cooling costs, look for a high-end air conditioner. Its upgraded standard features increase its energy efficiency and your comfort.The U.S. Department of Energy requires all HVAC equipment to be evaluated for energy efficiency. They measure the efficiency of central air conditioners by testing them over a simulated cooling season and measure the amount of electricity they use.The minimum stands energy efficiency rating stands at 14 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) for air conditioners in Oklahoma. A high-end A/C will have a 15 SEER rating and higher. It may also carry the familiar Energy Star logo. High-end HVAC systems do cost more initially but make up for their high price in lower energy bills and reduced maintenance costs.The features to look for in high-end air conditioners and heat pumps to look for that that increase the SEER include:

Dual-speed compressor.

Such a compressor can adjust its running speed from low to high, depending on how much cooling your home needs. The compressor uses the most electricity of any other air conditioner part. When it runs on low, it uses less power, which saves you money.

Variable-speed air handler.

A variable-speed motor in the air handler will blow the air throughout your home at different speeds based on its need for cooling. They also ramp up and slow down slowly. The longer running time distributes all the cooled air from the ductwork that would otherwise be wasted.

Zoning systems.

A zoning system lets you control the temperatures individually in each room of your home. They use dampers in the ductwork and individual thermostats so that each area of your home will be a comfortable temperature, instead of having a single thermostat setting for the entire home. Zoning eliminates hot and cold spots throughout the house.Because summers are hot and fairly long in this region, a high-end air conditioner will pay for itself in lower energy costs and greater comfort. For more information, contact Air Assurance, providing HVAC services for Broken Arrow homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Featured, HVAC system, Zoning Systems

Could a Zoning System Save Energy in Your Home?

Could a Zoning System Save Energy in Your Home?

If you're using just one thermostat to regulate temperatures in your Oklahoma home, you're likely losing energy. Your house also isn't as comfortable throughout its interior as it would be with a zoning system. This is particularly the case with larger homes or those with more than one level.

How Does a Zoning System Work?

First, the house is divided into separate climate zones. This might be as simple as creating a separate zone for each floor of the house. This is usually a good plan, since upper floors tend to heat quicker than the main floor or a finished basement. For example, in the summer, while the basement family room is cool and comfortable, the bedrooms upstairs will likely need extra cooling due to heat rising. On the other hand, in the winter, the finished basement will need more heat than elsewhere in the house, while upper floors will warm up relatively easily. Other good reasons for separate zones include rooms with lots of windows or southern exposure, or rooms added onto a house. It's virtually impossible to effectively heat and cool all parts of a larger or multi-story house with just one thermostat.After the zones are established, a programmable thermostat and controllable duct dampers are installed in each zone, so that if one zone requires heating or cooling, the HVAC system will direct conditioning to that zone without affecting the heating or cooling in any other zone.

Benefits of a Zoning System

You'll save energy with a zoning system, since it guarantees that only parts of the house that need conditioning will receive it. In a single-thermostat house, the whole house receives cooled or heated air, regardless of whether all rooms need it.Comfort and convenience also will be served, since a family member in one room can set the temperature to his or her preference without affecting the temperature in other rooms, where a family member there might have different ideas about comfort.

To discuss adding an energy-saving zoning system in your Broken Arrow area home, please contact us at Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Angela Waye/Shutterstock”

Zoning Systems

The Well-Designed Zoning System: Key Principles

The Well-Designed Zoning System: Key Principles

Homeowners with multiple-story or larger houses can benefit greatly from a well-designed zoning system. These sophisticated home temperature-control systems allow you to divide your home into separate areas, or zones, that are controlled by individual thermostats. A series of motorized dampers in the ductwork system opens or closes the ducts to provide heating or cooling as desired within each zone.Here are some key principles for designing and implementing a well-designed zoning system in your home:

  • Keep zones to an area no larger than a single floor: Zoning systems work best in smaller areas such as individual rooms. If you put more than one floor of your home in a single zone, you'll lose the primary benefit of the zoning system as rising warm air and sinking cool air will continue to cause inconsistent temperatures.

  • Put newly constructed or remodeled rooms in the same zone: Newly constructed or remodeled rooms will probably have better levels of insulation and other thermal characteristics than older rooms, so keep them within the same zone.

  • Put zone thermostats in the room that is used most often: It makes sense to keep a zone's most-used room comfortable and to install the temperature controller there. Thermostats in hallways won't always give the best level of temperature control since they might be affected by factors such as sunshine or extreme outdoor temperatures.

  • Put rooms with outer perimeter walls in separate zones: Rooms with walls that make contact with the outdoor environment are more likely to be affected by exterior temperatures, resulting in inconsistent heating and cooling.

  • Combine rooms with similar heating loads within the same zone: Rooms with different heating and cooling loads will still have inconsistent temperatures if they are placed within the same zone. Keep rooms with similar thermal characteristics in the same zone as much as possible.

Air Assurance has been a professional heating and air conditioning services provider in the Tulsa area for more than three decades. Contact us today for more information on well-designed zoning systems and the many benefits they can provide.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Zoning Systems

Control Your Home's Cool Air With A Zoning System

Control Your Home's Cool Air With A Zoning System

When you turn the air conditioning on, do you feel comfortable in every room? If you don’t have a zoning system, chances are each room is a different temperature. Rooms on the sunny side of the house are warm, rooms on the shady side are cool and rooms on the second floor are downright hot.This doesn’t mean your HVAC system is broken. Actually, it’s probably doing the best it can under the circumstances. Like most houses, yours probably has only one thermostat. When your system is operating with a single thermostat, it can’t detect the temperature in rooms without one. Meanwhile, family members are suffering in rooms that are either too hot or too cold.With a zoning system, your home is divided into zones where rooms with similar cooling needs are grouped onto the same thermostat. By using as many zones and thermostats as needed, along with motorized dampers, your HVAC system now has the ability to balance temperature and airflow to keep the entire house comfortable when the Oklahoma sun beats down.A zoning system puts you in control of your home’s cool air. Each thermostat can be set at a different temperature to make sure that everybody is comfortable. If certain areas of the home are unoccupied, those thermostats can be set to minimize the amount of A/C used there.With a zoning system, your HVAC system works more efficiently and runs less. This combination will give you more comfort for your money, lower your energy bills and decrease the need for maintenance and service calls for your equipment.For more information, contact the professionals at Air Assurance. We've been providing comprehensive heating and air conditioning, refrigeration and air quality services to customers throughout the Broken Arrow/Tulsa area since 1985.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our current promotions and get started today