Airzone: what it is and how a zoning installation works

What a zoning system like Airzone is

In a conventional ducted installation, the air conditioning treats the whole home as a single space: the thermostat reads the temperature at one point and the unit works to that reading, even if the bedroom is empty or the living room gets far more sun than the rest of the house. A zoning system like Airzone splits the installation into independent zones — usually by room or by group of rooms — and controls each one from its own temperature sensor.

How it works

The system combines three elements: motorised dampers inside the ducts, which open or close airflow to each zone; temperature sensors in each zoned room; and a control unit that reads those sensors and decides how much air to send to each zone to reach the target temperature. All of this communicates with the air conditioning unit to adjust its overall operation as well.

Advantages of zoning a ducted system

• Room-by-room comfort. Each zone reaches the temperature it needs, instead of depending on a single reading for the whole home.
• Less wasted conditioning. Zones that aren't in use can be closed off or kept at a minimum, instead of being treated the same as the rest of the house.
• Finer control. Different schedules and temperatures per zone, something an unzoned ducted system simply can't offer.

How an Airzone installation works

The process differs depending on the starting point:

In a new installation

It's designed alongside the ducted system itself: how many zones the home will have, the size of each damper based on the airflow that zone needs, and the wiring route to the control unit, planned together with the ductwork.

In an existing ducted system

The first step is assessing whether the current installation can be zoned at all — the type of ducting, access to the false ceiling, and the unit's capacity are the key points. If it's feasible, motorised dampers go into the existing ducts, sensors go into each zone, and the control unit is fitted and configured with the air conditioning equipment.

Airzone in a renovation vs. a new build

In a renovation with the false ceiling open, fitting zoning is far easier than doing it afterwards with everything closed up. So if you're planning a renovation with ducted air conditioning, it's worth deciding on zoning at the design stage — even if it isn't installed straight away — since leaving the wiring in place saves both work and disruption later on.

Airzone combined with an aerothermal heat pump

Zoning isn't limited to conventional ducted air conditioning — it can also be combined with a ducted aerothermal installation, or with mixed systems that distribute both cool and warm air through the home. In these cases, Airzone still manages each zone's dampers and sensors the same way, and it's the outdoor unit — whether a standard system or a heat pump — that gets the signal to produce more or less cooling or heating based on the combined demand from the active zones.

A practical example of zoned use

In a typical home in the area, bedrooms mostly need cooling at night, while the living room and kitchen see most of their use during the day. Without zoning, the system conditions the whole home at once, whether or not a given area is actually in use at that moment. With Airzone, it's possible to close off the bedrooms during the day and the living room at night, letting the system focus its output only on the zones that are actually occupied.

Maintaining an Airzone system

A zoning system needs its own periodic check, on top of the usual air conditioning maintenance: confirming the motorised dampers open and close correctly, that each zone's sensor gives a consistent reading, and that the control unit is still communicating properly with the equipment.