Central air and heat are amazing inventions, but if you have a large home or have several people living there, you're going to run into issues with people wanting very different temperatures. Some rooms are going to be hotter than others even when one thermostat setting is supposed to cover both. You'll also likely have at least one person who would rather leave the windows open all the time. A solution to this is to have the air conditioning and heating in your home divided into zones with their own thermostats and controls.

Customized Temperatures

Zones generally exist between floors and between separate wings of the house. Two rooms that are right next to each other might not do well in separate zones just because redoing the ductwork to separate the two can be expensive. But rooms on different floors can be in different zones fairly easily. A master bedroom could be its own zone too, for example.

These zones have their own thermostats and duct systems, allowing people in each zone to set the temperature to their liking. If possible, you might want to try reassigning rooms so that everyone ends up in a zone that is comfortable for them (e.g., if you have a bunch of housemates sharing the place), though this is not always possible.

Protection for Unused Spaces

Another advantage of having separate zones is that you can set the temperature to a minimum acceptable level in areas of the house that are not being used. For example, if you are not really going to use the upstairs part of your home for a while, for whatever reason, you can set the upstairs' zone thermostat to a level that won't make your bills soar but that will prevent humidity from getting out of control.

Open Windows Without Problems

The best part about having zones is that, if you can isolate the room of the person who likes open windows into its own zone, then that person can keep the air conditioner off and the window open without affecting the rest of the house that much. This is not foolproof; there will still be a smaller effect just because of the way air flows around a house. But isolating the zone with the open windows does help cut down on losing too much energy.

Decide which areas of the house you'd like to keep in separate zones. Contact an air conditioning company and have a representative evaluate your plan to ensure it's workable. Once you have a workable plan, you can make arrangements with the company to have your home's cooling system rezoned. To learn more, contact a company like Robison  Air.