Honeywell® Redlink® Wireless Zoning

    Residential zoning systems have been around for a number of years. The idea is to have a thermostat in each zone that has the ability to initiate heating or cooling as well as open or close a damper to adjust airflow to the zone. Taking this idea a step further Honeywell® introduced the Redlink Wireless Zoning System®. Thermostats can be located anywhere in the controlled zones and communicate wirelessly back to the TrueZONE® control panel. This can save hours of labor as the thermostats both communicate wirelessly and are powered by batteries which makes them completely wire-free.    
    We started to use Honeywell's Wifi and Redlink® thermostats in stand-alone applications with success so we planned a larger zoned install using the TrueZONE system. Our application used two TrueZONE panels covering 7 zones for two rooftop heatpump units on a small commercial building. The property manager was constantly having temperature complaints and asking for a solution to the problems. We submitted our proposal to the property manager and a few weeks later received approval. Now it had to work! Working on the bleeding edge is always fun!  

    After ordering all the materials for the job I set up the zoning panels in my office to make sure everything worked as designed and the job would go smoothly as we would be installing the systems under a large skylight where temperatures would make late afternoon work impossible. I labeled all the thermostats with individual zone numbers and paired them with their corresponding TrueZONE panel. For AC-3 I used 3-1, 3-2, 3-3 for AC-2 I used 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4. This way when looking at each thermostat we can tell which unit it corresponds to later. I paired a wireless Outside Air Sensor for each panel as well as 2 Redlink Gateways to get the thermostats online for remote access!    
    Once everything was set up we scheduled the install and arrived onsite. We mounted the TrueZONE panels on the face of each units return air duct and installed Honeywell ML6161A2009 actuators on each of the existing 7 dampers. The actuators and an included Discharge Air Temp Sensor on each unit were wired to the TrueZONE panel and the wireless Outside Air Temp Sensor was mounted under the outside air intake hood of each unit. We also installed a CPR14 TrueZone Bypass Damper and Wireless Adapters to talk to the wireless thermostats. The TrueZONE panels were supplied with 24 volts AC and the 7 thermostats were mounted in their corresponding zones. It was much easier to complete the install having already paired the thermostats and other devices offsite as we were both hot and tired at the end of the day.     
    After a full day of work the system was running good, maintaining temperatures in all seven zones and available online though the 2 Redlink Internet Gateways with access from both PCs and Smartphones to Honeywell's Total Connect Comfort® interface. We labeled each zone in the interface, set up users for the tenants and property management and handed over control of their new system. Honeywell TrueZONE® has exceeded expectations and everyone involved is happy with the outcome. For anything from a house to a small commercial building Honeywell has built arguably the best zoning system on the market.