How Zone Management Works
Managed Air Flow
Advantages of a Zone Management System
Frequently Asked Questions

How Zone Management works to make your Ducted Air Conditioner run more efficiently and save energy.

A basic ducted unit is installed with duct and outlets to all spaces requiring heating or cooling. The temperature will be regulated by the single temperature gauge in one spot in the building, usually the Kitchen or Hall. This doesn't take into account variables like:

  1. Rooms with a lot of glass that may be hotter than rooms with small windows.
  2. Rooms getting afternoon sun will be hotter than rooms on the shaded side of the house.
  3. In large houses, outlets a long way from the Air Conditioning Unit may now receive a sufficient amount of air flow

Any house, office or other space consisting of various rooms can, for the purpose of Air Conditioning Efficiency, be divided into sections (Zones) and the air flow to each controlled by a motorised damper(s) that will, in turn, better manage temperature level.

Roll your mouse over the links below to view the different states (Blue areas feature active Air Conditioning, Red areas do not):

These Zones could include:

  1. Day & Night Zones
  2. Separate Usage Zones (Kitchen & Lounge/Kitchen & Bedrooms/Kitchen & Dining/Games)
  3. Specific Work Usage (Offices/Boardroom)

The air conditioned space can then be selectively regulated via the dampers so that only the spaces in use have airflow. For example:

  1. When there is little need to heat or cool bedrooms that are not in use during the day
  2. An office boardroom doesn't need continuous airflow when it may only be used once a week

By confining airflow to the spaces being occupied the Air Conditioning unit is allowed to work more efficiently and, because the whole volume of air is going into a smaller area, desired temperatures are reached quicker and maintained more easily. How well each zone can be regulated depends on the sophistication of the Damper control system being used. It could be:

  1. A simple manual open/ close system - Zonemaster RF
  2. A timer controlled open/ close system - UniPoint/MaxiPoint
  3. A more intuitive temperature sensitive variable flow system that reacts to the actual temperature in each room and/or timer controls - Zonemaster VAV


Managed Air Flow

The air flow to each zone is managed via a Motorized Damper which can be turned on or off by the Electronic management system. The Motorized Damper can be a simple in line version, or the more sophisticated Polyaire Diffusion Fitting which expertly manages the airflow to 4 outlets from a central point close to the Air Conditioning unit for optimum airflow to all outlets.



‘Quick Fix’
Motorised Dampers
With Polyaire’s unique cable tie duct fixing for faster, more positive duct attachment and no leaks.
  • 4 Sizes 250/300/350/400mm
  • All metal shaft & motor. Folded ‘Hi-Torque’ metal blade: For long life, strength and durability
  • 2.4Nm (tested) to take large loads/velocities
  • Casing robust industrial plastic for durability, strength and easy fitment
  • Outside insulation protects and insulates
  • Unique No-Slip cable tie attachment
  • 4 sizes - 250/300/350/400mm
  • 5 year warranty


Polyaire Diffusion Fitting (PDF)
The latest design complete air management fitting from Polyaire. Fully externally insulated, no joins to leak and designed to take motorized or manual dampers to tune your system for optimum efficiency, this fitting also uses a specially designed Zip Tie connector system to virtually eliminate duct join leakage and provide the best possible seal against air loss.

The Zip Tie connector system won’t loosen with time and ensures that all the airflow goes into your rooms, not into the ceiling.


Advantages of a Zone Management System

Installing A Zone Management System to manage the Airflow from your Ducted Air Conditioning Unit can:

  1. Reduce your energy costs
    Zoning permits you to reduce energy costs by not heating or cooling an area of the home or office that is vacant. Shutting unused zones off sends all available capacity of the heating or cooling system to areas that are occupied, enabling them to reach set temperature more economically.

  2. Contribute to more rapid temperature recovery
    By shutting down less important zones on particularly hot or cold days will bring more important zones closer to desired temperature more quickly.

  3. Help you save money by allowing for the use of a smaller Air Conditioning Unit
    If a large house is calculated to need a 20 Kilowatt (For Example) Unit to effectively heat & cool the entire structure but further examination shows that, at any given time, only two thirds of the rooms/space are in use, then with well designed zoning it is possible for the house to be satisfactorily serviced by a much smaller unit, providing a major up-front cost saving and ongoing power saving through the life of the unit.

    How well each zone can be regulated depends on the sophistication of the Damper Control System being used.

NOTE - Many Ducted Air Conditioning Systems now come with basic Zone Management Systems included but few, if any, feature the sophisticated electronics of the Zonemaster Unipoint RF & MaxiPoint V2. These two systems can actually regulate the amount that each damper opens so that the whole system can be ‘balanced’ by your installer to ensure sufficient flow to every zone all the time. These systems work independently from the Air Conditioning Unit.




Frequently Asked Questions

Energy saving or not?
 The fact that, with a properly set up Zone Management System, you are only ever feeding cool air into half the house makes it obvious that energy savings must be made. The Air Conditioning Unit is only having to cool half the volume it was before, and so must save energy in the process.

Is getting a Zone Management System worth it?
 If you are having a Ducted Air Conditioning System installed, a basic Zonemaster System will add around 6-10% to the total price. Well worth the small increase and probably reclaimable in energy savings over the life of the system.

What is a Spill Zone?
Every Air Conditioning Zone Management System theoretically has the ability to turn off every outlet so no air can flow, even with the Air Conditioner Unit running at full capacity. This situation would, of course, create huge air pressure in the ducts finally causing one or more to blow off a fitting, or split the duct to relieve the pressure. This can be expensive to fix. A Spill Zone is the 'safety valve', a designated zone(s) in a house that won't turn off if all the other zones are already off. All Zonemaster Systems have this safety feature built in and adjustable for all house sizes.


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