Published
Most homes never need every room cooled at once. Zoned air conditioning on the Sunshine Coast lets one ducted system cool the living areas by day and the bedrooms at night, instead of pushing air through the whole house. If you are planning ducted for a home in Buderim, Caloundra or anywhere between, zoning is the part of the design that decides how comfortable the system feels and how hard it works.
What is zoned air conditioning?
Zoned air conditioning splits a ducted system into areas you switch on and off separately. Motorised dampers in the ductwork open or close each zone, and a wall controller or phone app tells them what to do. One indoor unit in the roof and one outdoor unit serve the whole home, but only the zones you choose receive air.
A typical four bedroom home might have five zones: living, kitchen and dining, the main bedroom, the other bedrooms, and a study or media room. Each zone has one or more outlets in the ceiling. When a zone is closed, its damper shuts and the air goes where it is needed instead.
The controller is what you live with every day. Our ducted proposals come with a Zone Touch controller as standard, and AirTouch 5 is available as an upgrade for owners who want room by room temperature sensing and more app control.
Does zoning reduce air conditioning running costs?
Zoning reduces running costs when it is used. Cooling three zones instead of the whole house means the system moves less air and works less to reach the set temperature. The saving depends on how you live, so a household that closes unused rooms gets the most from it, while one that runs every zone all day sees little difference.
Zoning also lets us size the system sensibly. We allow about 150 W per square metre for each zoned room, then size the system at about 70 percent of that total, because a zoned home rarely runs every room at full load. That is then adjusted for insulation, glass and orientation at the site inspection, so the system is not oversized for how the home is actually used.
Comfort improves too. On a humid Sunshine Coast night, sending all the air to the bedrooms cools them faster and more evenly than spreading it across empty living areas. During the day the reverse applies, and the bedrooms can stay closed until an hour before bed.
There is a limit. A ducted system needs a minimum amount of air moving through it, so a well designed layout makes sure the smallest combination of zones you are likely to run can still carry that air. Spill air paths and careful outlet sizing handle this, and it is one reason zoning is designed from the floor plan rather than guessed.
How many zones does a Sunshine Coast home need?
Most Sunshine Coast family homes suit four to six zones. The usual split is living areas, the main bedroom, the remaining bedrooms and any room used at odd hours, such as a study or media room. More zones give finer control but add dampers and cost, so each zone should match a real pattern of use.
Two storey homes often need the upstairs and downstairs treated differently, because heat rises and the upper floor warms faster on summer afternoons. Open plan living areas usually count as one zone even when they cover a lot of floor, since the space shares the same air anyway.
Each zone also needs enough outlets for its size. A large main bedroom with an ensuite and walk in robe may need two outlets to cool evenly, while a small bedroom needs one. Getting outlet sizes and positions right matters as much as the number of zones, and it is something we check room by room at the site inspection.
The best time to plan zones is before installation, with the floor plan in front of you. Our ducted air conditioning page explains how a system is designed, and the design your system tool shows the size, zones and controller we would typically recommend for your home.
Why choose Delta Temp for zoned ducted air conditioning?
Delta Temp is a Sunshine Coast business based at 2/11 Abeles Street, Baringa, with more than 1,000 systems installed. We are licensed and insured (QBCC 15415739, ARCtick AU 59733, electrical contractor 1505107), a Fujitsu Dealer and a Hisense Pro Dealer, and every installation carries our 10-year workmanship warranty.
Our own crew designs the zones, runs the ductwork, fits the dampers and controller, and commissions each zone before we leave. You can check our licences and details on our business facts page.
