Residential Multizone Air Distribution — An Energy Savings Opportunity?

March 22 | 11AM-12PM

Join this webinar to learn more about whether and how multizone systems might be utilized in Minnesota to save energy and improve comfort.

Unlike commercial buildings in which heating and cooling is often optimized by zone, most Minnesota homes have forced air distribution systems with constant flows to all branches or zones. The entire house is heated or cooled based on the needs of the space where the thermostat is located. Nonuniform solar gains, internal gains, and air infiltration loads that vary throughout a day or season result in areas of the house that are over- or under-heated and cooled. This can result in uncomfortable conditions and potentially wasted energy. Residential multizone systems are available to address these concerns but have not been widely installed.

In this webinar, Dave Bohac, PE, from Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) will discuss results from a recent CARD project that assessed the energy savings opportunities for residential multizone air distribution systems. He will discuss the results from building energy simulation models of one- and two-story houses with single-zone and multizone distribution systems. The models helped evaluate the impact of over- and under-heated and cooled areas on annual energy use. They also estimated the potential energy savings that multizone systems can achieve with more strategic temperature setbacks for individual zones.

This is a free event and is open to the public.