In this podcast, John Maher and Jesse Corso from N.E.T.R., Inc. explore the benefits of zoning and control with ductless heat pumps. They discuss how individual zones allow for customized temperature settings in each room, enhancing comfort and energy efficiency. Jesse explains how multiple indoor units can connect to a single outdoor compressor, control options like remote and WiFi, and the energy-saving advantages of load shedding by only heating or cooling occupied areas.
John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I’m here today with Jesse Corso, Comfort Consultant with N.E.T.R., a heating and cooling company in Massachusetts with a focus on ductless heating and cooling products. Today our topic is ductless heat pump zoning and control. Welcome Jesse.
Jesse Corso: Hi John.
How Does Ductless Heat Pump Zoning Work?
John: How does ductless heat pump zoning work in a home?
Jesse: Zoning is a neat thing. It’s unique to ductless units, this type of zoning where you can have multiple indoor units on the wall in different parts of the home where they’re all able to be controlled to individual set points, and then you can potentially have those even connected to one central AC pump compressor on the outside of the house. It works well because sometimes you want parts of the home at different temperatures than other parts of the home. Essentially every indoor unit you install in the house is its own zone, which allows for a lot of flexibility.
Benefits of Zoning Your Home
John: Talk a little bit more about that and what some of the benefits are of zoning your home.
Jesse: Say you had bedrooms on the second floor and different people like to sleep at different temperatures, you can set each bedroom for its own temperature set point. If somebody likes to sleep colder and another person likes to sleep a little hotter, they can manage their own temperatures that way. And if you have units on the second floor that are bedrooms or units on the first floor in a living room or dining room or something, and nobody’s upstairs during the day because nobody is sleeping in the bedrooms, they can set those back, turn those off, or adjust as needed and just use the ones in the first floor, stuff like that. Ultimately different temperatures in different parts of the home at whatever time is a benefit.
Multiple Indoor Units on Each Outdoor Compressor
John: Right. Now you mentioned that you can have multiple indoor units connected to one single compressor on the outside of the house. Even when you have that one compressor on the outside of the house in a multi-zone system, you can still have each of those indoor units set at a different temperature?
Jesse: Yes, exactly. Even though you have one single condenser outside feeding up to sometimes eight indoor units, you can still set all eight of those indoor units, if you have eight, at different set points. I think I touched on this maybe last time we spoke, the only thing you can’t do is simultaneously heat and cool in a residential application, which is few and far between.
Cooling vs Heating Mode on Ductless Heat Pumps
John: The outdoor compressor can only be in cool mode or heating mode, so you can’t have two of your units cooling the basement and then another two heating the first floor or something like that-
Jesse: Exactly.
John: … it all has to be on one? But you’re right, most of the time you’re either in that fall and winter mode where you’re heating the home or you’re in that spring/summer mode where you’re cooling the home and you generally wouldn’t need to have both.
Jesse: Exactly.
Thermostats for Controlling Ductless Heat Pump Systems
John: Right. What about thermostats for controlling these? Does each indoor unit have its own control and is there any way to centralize that and make it so that I can just control all of the units in my house from a central place?
Jesse: Ductless units, they have a few different types of controls. All ductless units come standard with a wireless remote control like a TV remote. You get a wireless remote control, looks like a TV remote, with every indoor unit. After that you can upgrade from there. They have wall-mounted thermostats for each indoor unit that you can install if you wanted something that feels or is a little bit more permanent. It mounts right on the wall like a regular heating and cooling thermostat would to control the indoor unit that way. If you wanted some sort of centralized control or even control from when you’re not in the house, they have WiFi adapters that you can install on the indoor units, or some indoor units even come standard with WiFi built in. That way, say you had eight indoor units in your house, you can bring up your cell phone, see all eight indoor units in one spot right on your cell phone, change set points, change modes of operation, everything from one central location through an app.
Controlling A Ductless Heat Pump System Remotely
John: That would be really handy for if you go away on vacation or something like that and you forgot to turn down the heat, you could just go ahead and get on your phone and turn down the heat. Or maybe you’re at work and you wanted to warm up the home before you get home, you could go ahead and do that from work before you head home. Things like that.
Jesse: Exactly, things like that. Sometimes it’s even as simple as, hey, I don’t want to walk around to all eight units and change the temperature one by one. It’s just convenient so I can have it all on my phone, do it from my couch, people are still in the house. Peace of mind also, if you go away on vacation for a week, two weeks. In the middle of the winter you go down to Florida and you want to make sure your house is maintaining set point, you can bring it up, just check in on things, make sure everything’s where it’s supposed to be.
Limitations to Zoning on a Ductless Heat Pump System
John: Are there any other limitations or challenges to zoning with ductless heat pumps other than what you mentioned before, which was that you can’t heat and cool at the same time? Any other things like that that people should be aware of?
Jesse: Limitations and challenges to zoning. There’s, let’s say, a few challenges where if we have a tiny, tiny room and somebody wants that on their own zone, if it’s 100 square feet or a 10 by 10 room, it may end up being too small of a room for its own single indoor unit. The smallest indoor unit they make will probably be too big for that space.
John: Okay.
Jesse: That’s a situation where maybe smart to add that small room into another zone or combine zones that way. That’s a challenge/limitation, is just rooms that are too small.
Positioning Air Handlers
John: And you’d be able to do that with an air handler, is that right? You’d have one unit that might be say in the attic and it would be controlling the temperature of two or three different bedrooms, say on the second floor?
Jesse: Correct. Yeah. Then you could do some sort of air handler unit or ducted unit that has the capability of feeding multiple rooms at once. That way the one unit you do use is not too large for the small spaces that it is taking care of. And that’s case by case. We go into homes all the time and make that recommendation versus just putting a oversized wall mount unit on the wall in a room 100 square feet or less.
Zoning Ductless Heat Pumps and Energy Efficiency
John: And then how does zoning ductless heat pumps impact energy efficiency?
Jesse: Say you had a first floor, second floor… Well, it really is load shedding. If you’re not occupying spaces of the house that you have units in, you can turn those temperatures down. If you’re in heating mode, you can turn those temperatures way down, those units will shut off. You can simply turn them off and you can shed the load of that space, ramp down the speed of your outside compressor and really save on some energy consumption so you’re not obligated to heat or cool all the spaces all the time. Very, very seldom is the entire house occupied for the entire day all the time. You usually use parts of the home at different times of day so load shedding is huge and it creates increase in energy efficiency by being able to turn some units off.
Limitations of Traditional Heating and Cooling Systems
John: And most people with a fossil fuel heating system would just be heating or cooling their entire home, or if they’re lucky, maybe a first floor and a second floor separately or something like that?
Jesse: Right.
John: But this would be, yeah, I only want to have my first-floor office be heated during the day and then when I get home, I only want the first floor heated, and then when I go to bed I only want the second floor heated. You have a lot of control over it.
Jesse: Yes.
Saving Energy with Ductless Heat Pumps
John: Like you said, you saving so much energy because you’re just able to just literally turn down or shut off sections of your home.
Jesse: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Hey, I want to put a unit in this guest bedroom, but it’s really only used a handful of days a year.” That unit right of the bat, most of the time it’s going to not be doing much. Whereas if you had a first floor or second floor furnace or something, that room’s heated and cooled no matter what.
John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Jesse. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Jesse: Yeah, thanks John.
Information About N.E.T.R.
John: For more information you can visit the N.E.T.R. Website at netrinc.com or call 781-933-NETR. That’s 781-933-6387.
