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Heating & Air Conditioning

Keeping One Small Room Consistent Temp?

14 years ago

Hi,

We're just starting our new construction and trying to select an appropriate HVAC setup. The house is about 3000 sq. feet split about evenly between 1st and 2nd floor. Plan is at: http://www.erbmascio.com/shannon_lincoln.asp

We have pets that are reasonably sensitive to temperature and we like to keep their room between 67 and 72 degrees all year round. (The door to the pet room has to stay closed most of the time so that another pet doesn't eat them.) On the plan above, the room in question is labeled 'Study.' We live in the Philadelphia, PA area.

In our old house and our current townhouse, it is a struggle to keep that room the right temperature without overheating/cooling the rest of the house.

It's just the two of us and the pets, and we'd like to be able to heat/cool the rest of the house sensibly while keeping our bedroom and the pet room at ideal temperatures.

I thought the Infinity/Evolution system would solve this problem for us since I imagined making 4 zones:

1) Pet Room

2) Rest of downstairs

3) Master Bedroom

4) Rest of upstairs

The builder's HVAC contractor has been incredibly helpful, but he says that the pet room is really too small to be an effective zone and that we'd always be running the furnace on the lowest stage. He's recommending that we go with just a 2-zone (upstairs/downstairs) setup with 2stage/2speed.

Are there other ways we could solve this problem? I really like the idea of the communicating Infinity/Evolution, but don't want to waste money if its not actually going to improve our comfort and efficiency.

Thanks!

Warren

Here is a link that might be useful: House Plan

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Comment (1)

tigerdunes
14 years ago
tracyandwarren

I think you are making too much of the situation you describe.

If your new home has good building and insulation qualities along with an HVAC contractor who has demonstrated experience in zoning controls and ductwork sizing/design with the proper equipment selection, you should be just fine. That's alot to ask for. Generally speaking you will have better success with comfort and control with two separate systems over one with zoning controls. You need to thoroughly qualify your dealer in this area. It is generally regarded that the Infinity/Evolution systems with zoning controls is one of the best integrated systems from one HVAC manufacturer on the residential market.

As stated, the dealer has to know what he is doing as zoning controls are not for the inexperienced.

IMO
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