Cape Cod Heat Pumps

Single Zone vs Multizone Ductless Systems (Podcast)

In this podcast, John Maher and Jared Grier from Cape Cod Heat Pumps discuss single-zone and multi-zone ductless systems. They explore the advantages of multi-zone setups, which allow multiple indoor units to connect to a single outdoor unit, enhancing comfort and energy efficiency. Jared explains installation and maintenance considerations, as well as how these systems can be customized to fit unique home layouts and customer preferences.

John Maher: Hi. I am John Maher, and I’m here today with Jared Grier, owner of Cape Cod Heat Pumps, an HVAC contractor in Marsden Mills, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, specializing in ductless heating and cooling technology and focused on detail quality and professionalism. Today, our topic is single zone versus multi-zone ductless systems. Welcome, Jared.

Jared Grier: Thanks for having me, John.

Differences Between a Single Zone and Multi-Zone Ductless Systems

John: Sure. Jared, what’s the main difference between a single zone and a multi-zone ductless system? What do we mean by those terms?

Jared: Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty straightforward, and I’ll just use the typical mini-split that most people are familiar with and those wall-style units, right? People have seen them in restaurants, I’m sure you’ve probably seen them in friends or family’s homes. They’ve obviously become widely popular. So really, the main difference between that is a single zone system means we’ve got one dedicated indoor unit that’s tied into one dedicated outdoor unit. With the multi-zone systems, LG specifically, who we use here, we can do up to eight of these indoor units off of one single outdoor unit, right?

So, you got to think about these larger, more expansive homes, or even maybe just a home that’s got a lot of small, little areas that are segmented off from each other. Instead of having multiple outdoor units to service each room and each piece of indoor equipment, we can do, as I said, up to eight indoor units off of one outdoor unit. Given the fact that the outdoor unit is really the expensive part of the system, that’s where the majority of the equipment costs lies, being able to stick to one outdoor unit means just savings for the customer.

Aesthetics of Ductless Systems

John: And it would be a little bit nicer too, in terms of the aesthetics of just having one outdoor unit versus having to have a row of three or four of them outside or something like that.

Jared: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’ll give you an anecdotal story. I was at a customer’s house in Sagamore Beach. This was years ago, and he had some repairs that needed to be done. We didn’t do the original install. It was a very odd install. I walked up to the house, and I saw there was like five or six outdoor units. I’m, “What going on here?” and ended up talking to him. Now, the incentives kind of worked out for him that it made more sense to go with multiple outdoor units, but he also had units just hanging all over his house, right? So for a lot of people, the aesthetics of putting this equipment in their home is a really important part of the project.

So yes, if we can stick to one outdoor unit versus unlike this other gentleman, five or six outdoor units, it’s obviously going to be much better for that homeowner. You also got to think about the maintenance cost as well, right? If you’ve got multiple outdoor units, that’s just more equipment for us to maintenance. Then, you got to think about it from the service of things, right? Well, that’s six outdoor units versus one. We do try to minimize the amount of outdoor units. Sometimes we are forced to go with two depending on the scenario, but if we can go with one, we always try to shoot for that first.

Advantages of Multi-Zone Ductless Systems

John: Talk a little bit about the advantages of a multi-zone ductless system, in terms of comfort and energy efficiency, and when you’re talking about having, say, up to eight indoor units on one outdoor unit, does that mean that those eight indoor units all have to be set at the same temperature, or can those all be individually controlled?

Jared: Yeah. I mean, 15 years ago, or actually, longer than that, but when we first started having ductless kind of come onto the scene, it was really one-to-one scenarios, right? In that we were really looking at them for bonus rooms, three seasons, porches, things like that, where maybe just getting duct work wasn’t possible, or we just want some spot heating and cooling. Well, that’s really changed in the last 15, 20 years to, we’re doing whole homes with these systems, right? The ability to, again, have multiple pieces of equipment off of one outdoor unit is appealing to a lot of customers, so it also allows us to cover the house properly, right? If we just had one unit in one room, like the ductless style equipment, I really call room-by-room solutions, really meant to serve the rooms that they occupy.

So multi-zone, again, if you’ve got a home that’s got a bunch of small spaces or chopped up rooms, we can put a piece of equipment in each room to service that room, so it allows us to properly heat and cool it. To your question that you asked too, what’s really nice about this equipment is each indoor unit acts as its own zone, okay? So what that means is, say you’ve got five indoor units, you can just have one on and just operate just that one unit, or you could have all five on, but set to different temperatures. Now, with standard residential systems, we can’t heat and cool at the same time, but you can also get into these more complicated systems that are what we call VRF, that actually can simultaneously heat and cool as well. So this technology has certainly come a long way in a short period of time.

Installing Process for Single vs. Multi-Zone Ductless Systems

John: Talk a little bit about the installation process and the difference between a single zone and a multi-zone system. Is it just a matter of, yeah, there’s just more indoor units that you have to install, or is there more to it, because now you have to go from that one outdoor unit to multiple units inside that might be in various different places in the home, so you’ve got to get lines running to each one of those indoor units or something like that?

Jared: Yeah. I mean, each project is very unique. Each project has its own challenges. Each customer’s, what they’re looking to have done in their home is different. Their budget’s different, right? So these multi-zone systems really give us a very diverse way to apply this technology to each home, right? We can do different style units in different parts of the house. We can do ducted units in one part of the house, ductless and another part of the house. So just the ability to adapt this equipment to the customer’s needs, their desires, their wants, the design of the home, can make this a really appealing option for customers.

With the ductless side of things, it can also be very minimally invasive into the home, right? What makes it ductless is the fact that all we’re doing to get cooling or heating in your home is we’re just attaching a couple of refrigerant lines from the indoor piece of equipment to the outdoor unit, right? So figure out that versus having to do a trunk and branch system, wrap all new ductwork, find a place to put that ductwork, cut boots in the floor or the ceiling. Again, this can be a very appealing option for a lot of customers.

Combining Single Zone and Multi-Zone Systems

John: Do you ever find yourself designing a system where maybe you have a combination of a single zone in a multi-zone system, or one side of the house, all they need is just one unit in one room, and it makes sense to just have a single zone over there and then have a multi-zone system on the other part of the house to do several rooms or something along those lines?

Jared: Again, I mean, every scenario is going to be very unique, and we take a very consultative approach where we meet with our customers, right? I like to educate our customers. People might know a little bit about this technology, some more than others, but in our reality, they’re leaning on us for our suggestions and our expertise, right? So every time I meet with a customer, my whole thing is just to lay out, “All right. Here are what your options are,” and talk about the features and benefits of each of those options, whether it be ducted, ductless, single zone, multi-zone, so on, and so forth.

I’ll educate the customer all those options prior to walking around the house, and so that way, hopefully now once we start walking around the home, they’ve got little ideas popping off in their head about, “Ooh, this would work better for this space,” and “Ooh, that would work better for over here.” So again, we really work hand in hand with our customers to help design these systems, lay these systems out, and really truly give them a product in the end that they’re going to be happy with.

What are the Maintenance Differences Between Single and Multi-Zone Systems?

John: What’s the maintenance or upkeep differences between a single zone system and a multi-zone system? You did mention before that obviously with multiple outdoor units, that’s just more units that you’re going to have to maintain in upkeep. Is there any other considerations that people should consider when they’re looking at single zone versus multi-zone?

Jared: Well, again, really what’s going to dictate that, again, is really what they’re looking to do for the home, right? The application is going to dictate more what we’re doing than the desire to have less equipment, because really, what we’ve got to do to get proper heating cooling in the home is what we have to do, right? So that is going to mean more equipment to do it correctly. That does mean we’re going to just have to put in more equipment, but obviously we try to minimize as much as possible what we’re putting in people’s homes just to keep the initial costs, as well as the future costs, of maintenance and repair as low as possible, but really, again, dictate design in the home and the homeowner are really going to dictate what we do, more than anything.

Costs Associated with Installation

John: Can you discuss the potential costs associated with each system in terms of installation? Is it always going to be less expensive to have one outdoor unit and then multiple indoor units, or are there situations where multiple outdoor units makes sense?

Jared: Well, I have certainly done several projects where it made sense to do what we call split condensers, right? Maybe you’ve got a finished basement, right? Because oftentimes if we’re going to do a wall unit on the right gable end of the house, but the outdoor units to be on the left, we’re going to come down, go into the basement, run through the basement, out to the outdoor unit, right? But if we’ve got a finished basement now, that’s not going to be an option, so sometimes it’s just the construction and design of the house is going to dictate that we do multiple outdoor units or split those condensers to the indoor piece of equipment, just to keep the impact to the home as minimal as possible.

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Jared. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Jared: Thanks, John.

Information About Cape Code Heat Pumps

John: And for more information, you can visit the Cape Cod Heat Pumps website at ccheatpumps.com or call (508) 833-HVAC. That’s (508) 833-4822.

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