When you have multiple people living in one house, zone control is necessary. Everybody has an opinion if the heater or air conditioner should be on. Everybody has a thermostat setting they like best. I used to attempt to get the household to agree on one temperature. It was a nightmare. My father has poor circulation and always wanted the heater on, even in the summer. My son works out in the house and constantly was turning the AC on and leaving it. My husband prefered to have no HVAC whatsoever since he did not like air hitting him. It was constant fights and thermostat changes. My central HVAC system finally died and I got it updated with a ductless model. There is one outdoor air compressor. Inside, every room in the house has an indoor air handler and thermostat. Each room of the house can set the heating and air and not affect the other one. This is HVAC zone control. It is great for my family since they each can have their rooms to what they want. The community areas like the living room, kitchen and office are controlled by whoever is in the room most. I think because everybody has their own space with perfect climate control, we are all a bit more lenient. Since the thermostats are basically kept at the same temperature for each room, the bills are lower than before. There is no cycling on and off multiple times a day. I also save money not providing HVAC in rooms that are not used or used by my husband.
heater