With summer on its way and temperatures already high, now is the time to take a good look at your air conditioning. That can extend to more than just the need for repairs or a maintenance session. Our Texas heat means your system is going to be put to the test, which means higher monthly energy bills almost by default. Once you ensure that your system is able to handle the job, the next question becomes how to reduce those bills as much as you can.
Certain steps can be taken yourself to rein in those costs, and some of them don’t require a technician. For instance, you can apply weather stripping to seal cracks under your door, or set the thermostat to 78 degrees during the day instead of 75. But if you want to take more formal steps to keep your bills down this summer, we recommend the installation of a zone control system in your ducts.
How It Works
Centralized air conditioners are safe and efficient systems, but they have one drawback: you can only set one temperature for the entire house. That’s what zone controls address: installing a series of shutters at key points in your ducts. They divide your home into sections, allowing you to adjust the temperature in each section independently of the rest of the house. You can still run the AC with a single temperature for the whole house if you like, but you also have a level of control that can provide some terrific benefits.
What Kind of Benefits?
Zone controls provide two specific benefits – one practical, one luxurious – which both stem from this precise level of control.
- Personalized Temperature. Supposed for a moment that you’re cooking dinner over a hot stove while another family member is watching TV in the living room. You’d like to lower the temperature to adjust for the heat from the stove, but the other family member likes the temperature just the way it is and doesn’t want to freeze. Zone controls let you adjust the temperature in the kitchen without affecting the living room, ensuring that you both get what you want.
- Lower Bills. By taking that concept to its logical conclusion, you can see the real benefit to a zone control system. You can run the system in parts of the home you use during the day, while turning it off in places like the bedrooms or upper stories of the home, where no one spends much time until the evening. Not only will it cut down on your AC bills a great deal, but the reduced strain on your system means a lowered risk of a breakdown.
Best of all, zone controls will do the same thing for your heating system in the winter as they do for your air conditioner in the summer, allowing for a great deal of utility to a comparatively modest cost.
If your Plano, TX home could benefit from a zone control system, call the pros at Hutchins Plumbing & Air Conditioning today.
