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Efficient Number of Zones

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Alan_Koziol
Alan_Koziol Member Posts: 10
edited March 2019 in Gas Heating
Hi HH Forum,

Have an old Colonial with Gas , FHW baseboard heating. Currently, there are 2 zones... 1 for the 1st floor and 1 for the 2nd. The house is currently configured as living space downstairs, bedrooms upstairs.

Considering the conversion back to a 2 family residence. The 1st floor would consist of 6 heated rooms and a heated entryway , the 2nd floor has 6 heated rooms and a heated hallway.

Here's my question: Would changing the number of zones on each floor, so you have the option to only heat the area you need, rather than the whole floor be worth the expense? AND would I recover the expense in savings over time?

Based on the layout of the dwelling..... I'm thinking 3 distinct zones per floor.

Any feedback would greatly be appreciated

Comments

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,544
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    You would not get any measurable savings. Interior walls are uninsulated so while keeping the bedrooms a little cooler for sleeping could be done by rezoning you can also control this by closing dampers on your baseboard or wrapping some tin foil around part of the baseboard element
    Canuckerkcopp
  • John Mills_5
    John Mills_5 Member Posts: 951
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    Heat from one room goes to the next. Up/Down is the best bet. Also, short cycling from more than 2 zones can chew up savings as well.
  • SuperJ
    SuperJ Member Posts: 609
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    This is a good read.
    https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/duct-design-6-determining-zones

    Often people over zone (I'm guilty). But mainly houses could get along with just a couple zones, probably at least one per floor and additional zones for additions are rooms with significantly different heat loss/gain profiles (maybe a big family room with lots of windows and exterior walls). Similar rooms like bedrooms can probably be combined without giving up any comfort.

    Turning off heat in individual rooms tends to affect the the comfort more than it helps save money. The exception might be a little used basement or addition with a door.
  • Alan_Koziol
    Alan_Koziol Member Posts: 10
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    Thank You to the ones who commented, gave food for thought, but here is 1 aspect I didn't think of while writing the post.

    The house has way too many doors in my view, believe I counted 35 total. Example, upstairs is 6 rooms and a hallway. If I start from the backstairs on the 1st floor, go upstairs and loop through the entire upstairs... I encounter 9 doorways(LOL).

    3 of them are doorways to rooms ... w/o doors. The others can be closed off... that's where the thought of zoning for the doored areas came to be.

    Once again Thanks

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