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 Zones are the Parent object of the Floors, Ceilings & Walls, that are contained within them, and also the Zone’s Ceilings Ceiling Fans & Penetrations

Within the Chenath Simulation Engine, the Zone holds all the information regarding not only the Floors, Ceilings, Walls, Openings & other Model objects but also the Internal Heat Gains (such as Appliances, Occupant & Lighting), it’s Heating & Cooling Thermostat Setpoints & Profile, and the operation of Shade & Natural Ventilation features within the Zone. The Heating & Cooling Results of a Simulation are measured at the Zone level, and it from this Zone Heating & Cooling Result that the Star-Rating is eventually derived from.

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Zones are created within the Visual View using the Zone Drawing Mode.

Tip

Roofspace Zones & Subfloor Zones are automatically created by Hero when a Ceiling or Floor is changed to have a Roofspace or Subfloor Adjacency respectively.

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Property

Description

Edited Within

Name

The Name of the Zone

Name Column

Type

The Zone Type such as Bedroom or Living Room or Unconditioned.

Zone Type determines the Heating & Cooling Thermostat Setpoints & Profile as well as Internal Heat Gain impacts (see Resources.

Info

See the table below for all NatHERS Zone Types.

Type Column

Dwelling

The Parent Dwellingof the Zone.

Can be changed if Zone was initially created within the wrong Dwelling.

Dwelling Column (if >1 Dwelling)

Volume

The Total Air Volume of the Zone (in m3).

Can be Manually Overridden by Users if desired to enter custom Air-Volumes.

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Volumes are typically Automatically calculated by Hero. However there are situations where the User may wish to set their own Zone Volume figure due to unusual Zone geometry or other reasons. The Hero Automatic Volume calculations can become less accurate for Non-Rectangular Zones (e.g. Zones with lots of split walls, floating walls and/or raked ceilings).

Info

The Automatic/Manual Volume Column of the Zone Data-Grid allows Users to toggle between Hero or User Volume figures. Setting the Toggle back to Automatic will recalculate the Volume back to Hero’s calculated value

Volume & Volume Automatic Columns

Air Leakage

Total Air Leakage of all Penetrations within the Zone (in m3/hr)

Info

Note: Currently does not include Simulated Air-leakage from Room & Openings, just Penetrations (coming soon)

Air Leakage Column (hidden by Default)

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Zone Type

Description

Kitchen/Living

Examples: Kitchen, Kitchen/Living, Kitchen/Dining

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes:

“Any room shown on a plan as a kitchen or a kitchen combined with one or more living areas. This zone must include the main kitchen area and may include a lounge, meals or dining area.
All dwellings must contain one main kitchen/living zone. There can be no more than one kitchen/living zone. All additional smaller kitchens/kitchenettes within the dwelling must be zoned as another zone type.”

Living

Examples: Living, Lounge, Dining, Family, Rumpus, Media, Theatre

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“This is the default zoning for internal zones not covered by any other zone type.
Daytime zones include studies (without a built-in wardrobe), gymnasiums, internal domestic lifts, indoor pool rooms, saunas, above ground wine cellars, walk-in pantries, storage areas or conditioned outdoor living areas capable of being fully enclosed (i.e. considered within the dwelling envelope).
This zone type includes hallways and corridors (either fully enclosed by doors or open to other zones) as they are circulation areas that allow access to other zones. This includes zones such as ensuites or walk-in wardrobes that can be accessed by a hallway or corridor (e.g. a two-way bathroom accessible by both a bedroom and the hallway).
This zone type could also include any living, lounge, dining, family, rumpus, media or home theatre room, if they are in addition to the two largest living areas.
This zone may be selected when a laundry, WC, bathroom or powder room is not ventilated by a door or window on an external wall.”

Bedroom

Examples: Bedroom or Study with Wardrobe

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“Any room shown on the plan as a bedroom, whether or not it has any built-in wardrobes.
Bedroom zoning must also be used for a study with either a built-in wardrobe, walk-in wardrobe or attached ensuite. In this case, the ‘study’ becomes a bedroom zone with the built-in wardrobe part of the same zone. A walk-in wardrobe or ensuite is to be zoned as night-time.”

Day Time

Examples: Laundry or WC or Bathroom with No External Window/Door, Study, Hall, Corridor, Store, Pantry

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“This is the default zoning for internal zones not covered by any other zone type.
Daytime zones include studies (without a built-in wardrobe), gymnasiums, internal domestic lifts, indoor pool rooms, saunas, above ground wine cellars, walk-in pantries, storage areas or conditioned outdoor living areas capable of being fully enclosed (i.e. considered within the dwelling envelope).
This zone type includes hallways and corridors (either fully enclosed by doors or open to other zones) as they are circulation areas that allow access to other zones. This includes zones such as ensuites or walk-in wardrobes that can be accessed by a hallway or corridor (e.g. a two-way bathroom accessible by both a bedroom and the hallway).
This zone type could also include any living, lounge, dining, family, rumpus, media or home theatre room, if they are in addition to the two largest living areas.
This zone may be selected when a laundry, WC, bathroom or powder room is not ventilated by a door or window on an external wall.”

Night Time

Examples: Ensuite, WIR accessed from Bedroom

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“This applies to areas that can only be accessed from a bedroom or from a zone, which itself, is only accessed from a bedroom. These include ensuites, walk-in wardrobes, parent’s retreats and WCs accessed from an ensuite.)”

Unconditioned

Examples: Laundry or Bathroom or WC or Powder, with External Window/Door

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“Every dwelling must have at least one unconditioned zone.
Laundries, bathrooms, airlocks, WCs or powder rooms that have an external wall with at least one or more ventilation openings (window or door).
If there are no rooms that fit this description, then the smallest daytime zone must be modelled as an unconditioned zone.
An airlock is a small, relatively airtight space that can be modelled as unconditioned space if:
- it is located at a dwelling entrance and
- has one or more external walls and
- has one or more internal walls and
- has an external door and
- has one or more internal doors, of which, only one opens to a conditioned zone.
Where an area labelled as an ‘airlock’ does not meet the above conditions, it is to be modelled as a daytime zone.
Underground cellars may also be considered an unconditioned zone.”

Unconditioned Garage

Examples: Unconditioned Garage

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titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“Where a garage is shown on the documentation as attached to the dwelling, and does not have any heating or cooling indicated.”

Conditioned Garage

Examples: Garage with Heating and/or Cooling

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“This zone type only applies when a garage has heating ducts, hydronic heating elements or air conditioners.”

Corridor (Class 2)

Note

Hero models all Class 2 Corridors (whether they are Unglazed or Glazed as per NatHERS Definitions) as a single “Corridor” Zone Type to minimise user confusion & simplify Model creation.

Hero decides automatically (based on whether the Corridor Zone has Glazing) as to whether to Simulate the Zone within Chenath as a Special Chenath “Glazed Corridor” Zone, or as Neighbouring Adjacency

Carpark (Class 2)

Examples: Basement, shared carpark (Class 2 or 4 only)

Expand
titleAs per NatHERS Technical Notes

“Where there is a shared carpark underneath an apartment, and the carpark is equal to or greater than 50 per cent closed from the outdoor air, then the area directly under the apartment must be zoned as ‘shared basement carpark’. Where a carpark under the apartment is greater than 50 per cent open to the outdoor air then this zone must be modelled as ‘above outdoor air’.
This zone type must only be used in Class 2 and 4 dwellings. (More information available in Table 3).
This zone type must not be used when Class 2 dwellings have individual garages.”

Void

The Void Zone Type is used to model a special situation where a Zone resides over Multiple Levels. The Void Zone should be the Upper Zone.

Modelling a Zone as a Void means that all of it’s child objects such as Walls, Ceilings & Openings are modelled as a Single Zone within Chenath.

Tip

Note a Void Zone does not need a Hole across the entirety of it’s Floor, this is assumed automatically by Hero (though you can if you’d like, though it will have identical effects).

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A Roofspace Zone is automatically created by Hero whenever a Ceilings Ceiling is of an Attic Type (which sets the Adjacency Type of the Ceiling to Roofspace).

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Roofspace Walls for Gable & Mono-Pitch Roofspace Shapes are created automatically by Hero and but currently cannot be seen or edited by the User (coming soon). A Hip Roofspace Shape has no external walls in the Roofspace Zone.

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A Subfloor Zone is automatically created by Hero whenever a Floors is of a Suspended Type with a Subfloor Adjacency Type.

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