Reference Guide

The Braeburn Zoning Reference Guide 2 Part No. RG-0508-001
Energy Savings Up to 30 percent of the costs of heating and cooling can be reduced by
making sure areas are not over or under air conditioning. Usually, parts
of buildings are improperly air-conditioned when the centrally located
thermostat responds to the temperature around the thermostat and areas
away from the thermostat are already too hot or too cold, or do not need
to be conditioned.
Costs are also increased when the areas away from the thermostat are not
occupied. Without zoning control, the average heating or air conditioning
system will send conditioned air throughout the entire house or building
even if there are no plans for the area to be occupied or used.
Zoning solves this problem by guiding conditioned air to the areas that are
in use or actually require air-conditioning. Using setback thermostats will
result in additional savings by making sure the zone panel only calls for
conditioning at the right time. The result can be up to a 30 percent savings
in energy costs.
What is a Zoning System?
A zoning system is made up of the following items:
THERMOSTAT in each zoned area.
The thermostats can be off-the-shelf, single stage,
programmable or non-programmable units. They do not need
any special connections or settings.
ZONE CONTROL PANEL with a power transformer.
Zone panels run off the same kind of power transformer as
thermostats and air conditioning equipment. The zone control
panel is the “brains” of the system, and has a built in computer
to monitor the thermostats, the HVAC equipment and to open
and close the dampers. The transformer is the usual 40VA,
24 VAC type.
DAMPERS for each of the zoned areas.
Dampers are usually wired and powered directly from the zone
control panel. The job of the dampers is open or close and let
conditioned air fl ow to where it is needed. The dampers can
be either power open-power close or spring return with power
close.