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The 2nd floor of my house has some HVAC issues. There are 4 bedrooms in the main part of the upstairs (1300 sqft), and a large bonus room (500 sqft) over the garage. The thermostat is located in the main part of the upstairs so the bedrooms are always comfortable. The bonus room has issues. For one, it is over the hot un-airconditioned garage. For another, it has 3 outside walls and more windows than any other room in the house. Also, the bonus room is what I would consider story-and-a-half, like a cape cod style, whereas the main part of the upstairs has a full unfinished attic above it. So for all these reasons, the bonus room is almost never comfortable.
Also, I don't need the same temperature throughout the entire upstairs. The bonus room is not used as much as the bedrooms, but when it is, there are often many people in it so I need extra heating or cooling that I don't need in the bedrooms.
So I'm trying to figure out how to solve the issues.
option 1: install a dual-zone HVAC system for the upstairs, where one zone is the 1300 sqft bedrooms/bathrooms and the other zone is 500 sqft bonus room. then have separate thermostats located in each zone. But I have concerns about how well dual-zone systems really work.
option 2: install a conventional HVAC system for the bedrooms/bathrooms and a ductless split system in the bonus room.
Which option would you choose and why? Are there other options worth considering? thanks for any advice!
Hi dedratermi,
Zone controlling is a great idea and may in fact save you some installation and equipment costs. You should get a licensed HVAC contractor out there that is qualified and experienced in such a set up.
Here are some things I would check out: If the door to the bonus room is closed, you may have to add a return air duct or louvers/grilles in the door.
The adequacy and capacity of the heat and AC system components to serve the entire cubic footage in question. You want good air flow INTO the bonus room, is the inlet/supply grille and duct adequately sized or would up sizing a main duct and splitting after the baffle to add an extra inlet/supply duct be a good idea?
The zone system essentially controls the system to serve the needs of a thermostat as you have described. It uses a motorized baffle system in the ducting and will instruct the heat or AC components to function until the thermostat has been satisfied. Return and supply air flow ducting are the biggies to me.
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