Tag: Multi-Zone Systems

Series: Pro Training – Non Disposable A/C Units

Pro Training Blog Series

I don’t know about you, but I can say comfortably that I do not find myself in the position of having thousands of dollars I want to dispose of. If you find yourself in a different position, please contact me and I will be happy to help you relieve yourself of those burdensome funds. I am using that statement because I know we can all never agree on the exact “average” cost of a Ductless AC installation, but I feel confident we can all agree that the number is over $1000. My point being that the price point means I am not interested in just “throwing it away” at the first sign of trouble. These machines or appliances are not disposable. They can be maintained, and they can be repaired. However, both of those concepts must begin with us doing something that many of us feel uncomfortable with … opening the machine up. 

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Series: Pro Training – Ductless Drain Safety Installation

Pro Training Blog Series

The United States market has come a long way on embracing ductless HVAC units. From 20 years ago when you would occasionally see a unit installed on a sunroom to present day when this technology is regularly used to combat discomfort in bonus rooms, additions, garages, and even whole home applications. Along the way code has had to change in order to adapt to the more widely used ductless technology. One of these areas of adaption is in the protection of a wall mounted indoor unit from condensation overflow. Unlike traditional installations where auxiliary drain pans are widely used, the standard wall mounted indoor unit only has the internal drain pan. This design leaves open the possibility of wall and/or flooring damage should the drain line become obstructed.

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Multi-Zone Systems: The Good, The Bad, and The Conflicted

Zoning. The concept makes perfect sense, different areas within a location usually have two different attributes:

1). The thermal gain or loss differs between areas inside the same building envelope.

2). The occupants of the space have different comfort levels.

Therefore, the ability to control heating and cooling independently is a very appealing concept. The devil however lies in the details. Traditional unitary systems are designed for generally larger areas. Zoning incorporates the ability to isolate areas of the duct system and control the flow of conditioned air to those areas. One main flaw with this is that while the areas requiring conditioned air may vary, the capacity of the system remains the same. This can become a major issue when you have a system producing 1000-cfm of conditioned air, and one zone requiring only 300-cfm of conditioned air is calling. What do we do?

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