Here are a few upgrade options to consider:

• MERV 16 filters – This type of system is also separate from your A/C, working with a dedicated air handler that draws air out of the air stream to provide top air-cleaning technology. At Jon Wayne, we recommend the leading IQAir Perfect 16 for maximum filtration.
• Electronic/Media filters – Need a better air filter installed in your air conditioner? An electronic/media hybrid one will last longer than disposable types and can trap 94 percent of all pollutants. The Bryant PerfectAire uses U.S. Department of Defense technology to capture and kill airborne microbials.
• Extended life filters – Usable with your standard equipment but only at your technician’s recommendation, extended filters can last for up to a year.
• Ultraviolet lights – For optimal control over problems caused by high humidity, UV lights target mold, bacteria and viruses.
• Zoning system – Expand your cooling system’s capabilities by going with a zoning system. A zoning system allows you to group your home into individually controlled areas. For example, your bedrooms upstairs can have one set temperature, while your living room and kitchen downstairs have another.

Consider adding humidity-control or filtration equipment when you’re replacing your air conditioner. To talk to an expert about upgrade options, contact Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning. We have served greater San Antonio since the mid 1970s.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about air conditioners and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Find out the five main benefits zoning systems provide, and ask yourself if you deserve the optimal home comfort and energy savings that these systems afford.

• Comfort: Zoning systems allow you to prioritize which areas of your home will receive conditioned air. With motorized dampers and separate thermostats controlling each zone, zoning systems help maximize comfort.
• Energy savings: Because a zoning system allows you to set temperatures in each zone according to its heating and cooling needs, or just to your comfort levels, you can save energy by closing off unused zones. As a result, you don’t pay to heat and cool rooms that you don’t use very often.
• Design elements: A lot of newer homes, especially, have larger windows, higher ceilings, and other architectural features that impact airflow significantly. Having a zoning system installed in your home will allow you to program the zone with the high ceilings, for instance, to receive more cooled air in the summer, so you’ll be able to keep that area at a comfortable level — and you’ll enjoy being in that space more often.
• Cater to preferences: It’s likely that your family consists of people who like a home that’s toasty warm, while others prefer a cooler atmosphere. Well, zoning systems help you to manage individualized preferences, as much as possible.
• Environmentally friendly: When you can maximize the efficiency of your existing HVAC and ductwork systems with zoning equipment, you use less energy. And those actions help you to decrease the contribution of your home’s energy consumption and reduce your carbon footprint.

Want to get in on the benefits that zoning systems provide? The experts at Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning are standing by, ready to answer your questions. Just call us today for a free consultation. We’ve served countless homeowners in the San Antonio area, starting in the mid-1970s, and our proven track record of excellence continues today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Zoning systems image via Shutterstock

Zoning systems give you the ability to set different temperatures for different rooms, or “zones,” throughout the house. They send warm or cool air where it’s needed and close dampers on zones that don’t need an adjustment. By preventing you from using energy you don’t need, they save energy and money.

Some rooms in your building may accumulate more heat, while others can’t seem to hold onto it. For example, an upper-story, south-facing bedroom will probably be warmer than a north-facing room on the first floor. There are also architectural design elements that can make some places in the building hard to keep comfortable. Zoning systems can be especially helpful in:

• Homes with more than one level.
• Homes with one sprawling level.
• Recent additions.
• Open areas such as lofts, foyers or vaulted ceilings.
• Rooms with glass doors, walls or many windows.
• Rooms that are often empty, such as guest rooms.

With zoning systems, multiple thermostats or sensors are placed throughout the house. When an area needs an adjustment, the HVAC system kicks on, but the dampers only open to that area.

Different areas of your home can be grouped together in a single zone. For example, the bedrooms could represent one zone. You could program them to get warmer in the morning, then prevent unnecessary heating when the household is empty during the day. This can be a convenient way to keep children’s rooms comfortable without allowing them access to the controls. The kitchen, which is often warmer when you’re cooking, could represent another zone.

Some homeowners have reported savings of up to 30 percent with zoning systems. If you’d like to learn more, contact Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning. We’re proud to help San Antonio stay comfortable while saving energy!

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about zoning systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County.  Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!

Many people have larger home with many rooms, some of which are not used much of the time.  Why heat and cool these areas when no one uses them?  You can shut off the vents to these rooms or close the doors, but it still isn’t as effective as having a separate thermostat for each area so that you can control which rooms air gets distributed to.

Some of the benefits of zoning systems include:

• You can have these systems installed to existing homes; if you have a room that you want to cool, you can set that area at a lower temperature than the rest of your home.
• Energy is saved because as the sun rises and crosses the sky throughout the day, the heating/cooling load shifts with the sun.
• You can experience energy savings of as much as 30 percent when you heat or cool only selected rooms or areas in your home.
• Programmable thermostats allow you to control each zone; you are able to preset what time of day you want certain areas to reach the temperature you desire for sleeping or upon waking in the morning.

Just as you wouldn’t use a single light switch to control all the lighting in your home, why run your cooling system around the clock in areas that aren’t frequently used?  Zoning systems just make good sense.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning serves San Antonio and surrounding areas.  We invite you to contact us for any questions you may have about heating/cooling your home.

Our goal is to help educate consumers about home comfort and energy issues (specific to HVAC systems).  To learn more about zoning systems and other HVAC topics, please download our free Home Comfort Resource Guide.

In basic terms, a zoning system is an HVAC division that allows you more accurate control over specific rooms or areas in your home. Each zone in your system is controlled by a separate thermostat, allowing you to heat or cool only the parts of your home that you’re using, or the parts that aren’t as warm or cool as you’d like them. This happens frequently in the upper stories of homes during the summer; hot air rises, making the upstairs bedrooms warmer than the rest of the house. Zoning systems can be designed to provide separate control for the downstairs and the upstairs, allowing you to run the air conditioning in the upper floor only when rising hot air has made it sticky, humid and too warm for comfort. Another scenario for which zoning is highly effective is in those homes, either single story or multi-level, with windows on the southern and western exposures. Windows, even the most efficient low-e double pane models, account for around one half of a home’s requirement for cooling BTU’s. A zoning system can effectively “follow the sun” around your home as the day goes by placing the cooling where it is needed most. Rather than over cooling (or over heating) certain areas of the home just to make the “sunny” side comfortable, you can put the comfort right where it is needed throughout the day.

The benefits of zoning systems are both financial and environmental. They allow you to heat or cool only the parts of your house that aren’t already at the right temperature and free you from the financial burden of manipulating the temperature of rooms people aren’t using. Over time, zoning systems can reduce the cost of running your HVAC system by as much as 20 percent (or more). In fact, a good zoning system will eventually pay for itself, as you’ll recover your initial investment through energy savings.

You’ll also be doing the environment a favor. By reducing the amount of energy you’re using to heat or cool your home, you’re cutting back on the pressure your local power grid faces to meet consumer demands.
Zoning systems take a little planning, and the professionals at Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning are happy to help. Call us with any questions or for expert advice.

Typically, with forced air systems there is only one thermostat to control the heating and cooling for the entire home.  Once that thermostat calls for heating or cooling there is virtually no way to control the temperature in each room of the house except by manually closing off the outlets in each room. This manual method is time-consuming and can cause harm to the HVAC unit, as closing off too many outlets can reduce the airflow.  This could shorten the life of the furnace, air conditioner or heat pump.

Zoning solves this problem.  It also allows you to save energy (and therefore money) by not heating or cooling rooms when they don’t need it.  If, for example, you live in a two-story home and don’t use the upstairs very much, you can set the thermostat upstairs so that it doesn’t call for heat or cool air very often.

A zoning system is a professionally installed control system consisting of a damper and thermostat for each room or zone of the house.  This control system is wired into a central control panel that sequences each thermostat’s call with the zone dampers in the ducts and the HVAC system.

HOW DOES ZONING WORK?

Zoning is a simple product and concept.  Zoning provides the ability to only condition those rooms that need heating or cooling and does not allow conditioned air into those zones not requiring it.  Zoning does this through a series of components, the first being motorized dampers that open and close based on the demands of the zone thermostats.  These dampers insert into the ducts or can be installed at the air outlet for each room or zone.  Multiple dampers can be controlled together for a single zone if multiple ducts serve a single room or zone.

The next key components are the zone thermostats.  In existing homes, the existing thermostat can be used as a zone thermostat.  As each zone is divided, each zone uses a thermostat to control the heating, cooling and fan operation for its individual zone. The zone thermostats and dampers are wired into a central control panel.  The panel then also connects to the thermostat connections on the HVAC Unit. Instead of using one central thermostat, the control panel allows the unit to be controlled by multiple thermostats.

As each thermostat calls for heating or cooling, the panel takes the first call from any zone.  If it’s heating, for example, it will keep open the damper to the calling zone, close the dampers to satisfied zones not calling for heating, activate the furnace or heat pump and begin supplying air only to that zone.  If during this call other zones call for heating, those zone dampers would open and heated air would be supplied to those zones as well.  Once all heating calls are satisfied the panel will shut off the furnace or heat pump.

To understand why zoning makes sense, think of it like having a light switch in every room of the house.  You wouldn’t install just one light switch to turn on and off all of the lights in the house, would you?  The same is true for heating and cooling. One thermostat turning on the heating or cooling for the entire house, when you only need it in one room or zone, wastes energy.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about how HVAC zone systems work and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County. To get started, check out our website or see our current promotions.