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rflemming

Zoning design advice

17 years ago

I'm in the process of obtaining quotes for rezoning my house and the designs being proposed are different so I'm looking for advice as to which is the better approach.

All I'd like is to have to the upper and lower floors made into different zones. The lower floor only has 3 vents each of which is a separate duct. The upper floor has ~9 vents which are fed via different duct configurations.

Two contractors have proposed disconnecting all of the existing duct work and reconnecting them so that each floor is fed via it's own large duct and installing 12"-14" dampers in each of those. One is including a bypass damper and the other says they'll test it out and if one needs to be added they'll add one. I'm not sure if these are barometric or electronic.

A third contractor is suggesting installing 7-9 smaller dampers in the individual ducts themselves. His logic is that given that my existing single speed furnace/AC (5 ton) can move 2000 cfm of air, restricting the flow by combining ducts is asking for trouble. He has also proposed adding an electronic modulating bypass to help with the problem.

All of the quotes include a 2 zone controller and wireless thermostat.

The quotes range from $2600 - $4100. The contractor with the more elaborate proposal has been quite forthcoming with explaining why he is proposing what he is and seems very knowledgeable, but I don't know if he's trying to sell me something I don't really need.

Any insight or recommendations are certainly appreciated.

Comments (2)

  • PRO
    17 years ago

    The lower level only has 3 vents so you must have a bypass damper.when upper level is off 2000 cfm will try to flow out lower level, extremly loud and noisy.a large bypass will slow the air down.I mostly install 2 main ducts with it own zone dampers.I would go that route. And i would question the guy who suggested no bypass and wait any see.

  • 17 years ago

    I wouls be skeptical of any of these proposals.
    There are 2 problems with 2 zoning from one zone, namely
    If only one is calling, then the airflow to that zone would be too high and cause excessive noise which necessitates bypass ducting which the bidders correctly mentioned
    What they did not mention was that the furnace was designed for total load and as a consequence you will encounter higher than normal temperatures across the heat exchanger when only one zone is calling, causing high temperature furnace cutout and possibly premature failure of the heat exchanger.
    Cooling by this method would cause its own set of problems.
    If your reason for 2 zones is that there is an imbalance then I would not do it, but instead install individual dampers to balance the loads. Otherwise, if you want to totally shut down one of the zones at times then the only way you can reasonably do it without major ductwork changes is to change the blower to variable with all the other features suggested.But this is an additional cost to an already costly problem.
    Bottom line Furnaces and A/C systems are poor candidates for changing to 2 zones. Sometimes it is even more cost effective to install another furnace and underfire the existing one to take care of the two zones.