How to Calculate Zones for Air Conditioning
Air conditioning zones are areas in your house that have different thermostats, allowing you to adjust the temperature in individual floors or rooms independent of each other. To use zones, you need to purchase a zone-enabled HVAC system---but before you select a model, it's necessary to determine how powerful your air conditioner needs to be. To do this, you need to calculate the square footage of each zone and find out how much energy will be required to cool it. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Determine what zones you want your new HVAC to have. Many homes have one zone per floor, but if you need even finer control, you can have rooms on the same floor be in different zones.
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Measure the length and width of each zone, and multiply the two dimensions to get the square footage. Write down the dimensions of each zone in your home.
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Go to Good Housekeeping's online Air Conditioner BTU Calculator. BTUs, or British Thermal Units, are the units of energy used to measure the power of air conditioners and other appliances (1 BTU is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of a pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit).
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Enter the information about your first zone into the various fields on the webpage. For example, say that it happens to be a well insulated, 15-by-20 foot family room with large bay windows facing south. In such a case you would choose "250 to 350" as your square footage in the first drop-box, "Very Good" for your insulation level, "Yes" for sunlight and "No" for being a kitchen. Click the "Submit" button, and you'll see how many BTUs it will take to adequately air condition the zone---9,240 in this case.
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Write down the number of BTUs resulting, and repeat for all other zones. Add the total number of BTUs to determine the strength needed for your home's HVAC system.
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