The Floors of a Zone are distinct from the Ceilings of the Zones Zone even if they share similar geometry & many features.
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Floors can be Split into separate Floorswithin Floors within a Zone through various means.
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Floors are also Split Automatically by Hero when any adjacent Ceilings are detected on the Level below. This can occur after a new Zone has been created or when Floors or Ceilings are moved.
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Hero’s Automatic Splitting Feature is a very handy tool that removes the requirement to manually split and connect adjacent spaces. However there are occasions where manual User adjustment or overriding of the adjacency & other construction properties (assembly & insulation) of automatically split Floors & Ceilings is required after a split. For example in the image below, a Zone’s Floors have been split into 3 Floors with 2 adjacent Internal connections to Ceilings below, but also a third Floor “FLR 05” which has an initial default adjacency of “Ground” and Construction “CSOG-100” which is inappropriate. In this example, the User would be best to set FLR 05 to Neighbouring Adjacency which will then trigger a Construction change & update too, as this section has an Adiabatic Adjacency condition that should be ignored in a Chenath simulation (e.g. no temperature difference, only internal mass of materials). |
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Offset Points
Floors can have Points added to their polygon shape after they’ve been created.
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FLOORS WITHIN THE DATA-GRID
Property | Description | Edited Within |
|---|---|---|
Assembly | Hero has a variety of Default Floor Assemblies that can be used, and these are visible within the Construction column of the Floor Data-Grid. The current Assemblies include assemblies |
of types:
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Concrete waffle pod slabs of various thickness.
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Type | In addition to the Construction or Assembly of the |
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Floor, the Floor Data-Grid also contains a Type column that is used for reference & information but that if changed |
may change both the |
Assembly and |
Adjacency Type to the relevant defaults for that |
Type as required |
. See above Assembly row for details. | Type Column |
Insulation Option | The |
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Insulation (if any) can added to a |
Floor via the Insulation column of the Floor |
Data-grid. There are variety of |
Floor Insulation Options available depending on the Floor Construction |
, including: |
Slab on Ground |
Assemblies: Several common R-value underslab insulation products. |
Waffle Pod |
Assemblies: Various thickness of EPS-foam waffle-pod void formers that lie below the slab. The R-values are the thermally bridged R-values that account for the concrete ribs or beams across the floor. There is also a uninsulated option in the list for non-foam based waffle-pods such as plastic void formers etc. |
Suspended Floors |
: A variety of Insulation options that represent common insulation systems including:
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a variety of batt insulation products
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| Insulation Column |
Slab Edge Insulation | Concrete |
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Slab on |
Ground & |
Waffle-pod |
Floors can have Slab Edge Insulation added to them via the Slab Edge Insulation column in the Floor data-grid. There are a fixed variety of typical R-value products that can be selected for |
the Floor.
| Slab Edge Insulation Column | ||
Floor Covering | Floor |
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Coverings are used to model the effects of various materials on top of the |
Timber
Carpet
Tile
Vinyl
Cork
Brick
Stone
Earth
There is also an Exposed Floor Covering which denotes no real floor covering. This option is only available for slab floor assemblies.
The material layers of these floor coverings is detailed further on the Hero web-site.
Area
Floor Assembly within a Simulation. The Floor Coverings have slightly different Materials depending on whether they are applied to a Suspended Timber Floor or not. See the Floor Covering Table below for further details. | Covering Column | |
Area | The Gross Area of the Floor in Square Metres (i.e. does not include Holes/Stairwell area) | Not Editable within Data-Grid |
|---|---|---|
Sub-Floor Ventilation Type | Floors with a |
Sub-Floor Adjacency can toggle the |
Ventilation rate of that |
Sub-Floor Zone through the Ventilation column |
in the Floor |
Data-grid. This is described in further detail in the |
Sub-floor Zone section. | Subfloor Ventilation Column |
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Floor Adjacency Types
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Adjacency Type
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Description
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Similar to Walls & Ceilings, Floors have a variety of different adjacency conditions that are determined by whether the
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Floor is adjacent to actual model objects or that can be selected manually be the user.
Floors that are adjacent to a Ceiling from the same dwelling, will have an Internal Adjacency type, and this adjacency type cannot be changed in the data-grid.
Floors that are adjacent to a Ceiling from another dwelling will have a Neighbouring Adjacency type, again this cannot be changed in the data-grid. Neighbouring adjacency types are simulated as adiabatic boundaries in the simulation meaning that no effective heat transfer is modelled between them.
Floors that are adjacent to a Carpark or Corridor zone will have a Carpark or Corridor adjacency type selected which again cannot be changed.
For floors that are not adjacent to another ceiling below, then there are a variety of adjacency types that can be manually selected by the user to model specific conditions.
Floors of a ground-type such as Concrete slab or Waffle-pod assemblies have a GROUND adjacency type and if the adjacencyAdjacency Type | Description | Editable Within Data Grid |
|---|---|---|
Ground | The Floor is directly adjacent to Ground such as for a Concrete Slab or Waffle-pod Assembly. If the Adjacency type is changed then the |
Assembly will be automatically changed away from a Ground type |
Assembly. | Yes |
Subfloor | Floor is adjacent to a Sub-Floor Zone. When a Floor has a Subfloor Adjacency, Hero will automatically create a |
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Subfloor Zone underneath the |
Floor, or if a |
Subfloor Zone already exists on that |
Level, will expand the |
Subfloor Zone to encompass the area below the newly changed |
Floor. Subfloor |
Zones are detailed further in the Zone section of this tutorial and have many special properties. | Yes |
External | If the |
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Floor is sufficiently elevated such that the area below it does not form a |
enclosed or semi-enclosed Sub-Floor Zone, then the |
External Adjacency Type should be used. This represents a |
Floor that is simply adjacent to the External environment temperature (i.e. outside air). | Yes |
Internal | Floor |
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When a floor has an adjacent ceiling below it, such as on a two-story dwelling, or between two apartment dwellings, the full material buildup for the assembly is determined by both the Floor & the Ceiling’s properties.
An internal ceiling can only have a plasterboard ceiling or exposed ceiling assembly applied to it; and the internal ceiling will not be able to have Insulation applied to it in the Data-Grid. If this internal floor/ceiling is to be insulated, the insulation gets applied to the floor above. The complete material build-up that will be simulated is the Floor Covering followed by the Floor Assembly followed by any Floor Insulation followed by the Ceiling Assembly below.
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adjacent to a Ceiling from the same Dwelling | No | |||
Neighbouring (Actual Connection) | Floors adjacent to a Ceiling from a different Dwelling.
| No | ||
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Neighbouring (Manual Selection) | Floors adjacent to a Conditioned Space that is not part of the Hero model (i.e. Adjacent Buildings, Commercial Spaces etc).
| Yes | ||
Carpark | Floors adjacent to an actual Carpark Zone that is part of the Common Area Dwelling | No | ||
Corridor | Floors adjacent to an actual Corridor Zone that is part of the Common Area Dwelling | No |
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Floor Coverings
Floor Covering Name | Modelled Material | Additional Layers for Suspended Timber Floor |
|---|---|---|
Timber | 12mm Timber Hardwood | 19mm Particleboard layer |
Carpet | 10mm Carpet with 8mm Rubber Underlay | 19mm Particleboard layer |
Tile | 8mm Ceramic Tile | 19mm Particleboard layer + 6mm Compressed Fibre-Cement Underlay |
Vinyl | 3mm Vinyl Floor Tile | 19mm Particleboard layer |
Cork | 6mm Cork Floor Tile | 19mm Particleboard layer |
Brick | 75mm Brick Floor | None |
Stone | 10mm Slate Floor | 19mm Particleboard layer |
Earth | 50mm Soil Floor | None |
Exposed | No Floor Covering (i.e. just Assembly + Insulation Option) | N/A (only available for Slab Assemblies) |
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Roof-Space Soffit Floors
When a Ceiling has a Roof-space connection Space Adjacency such as from formed by an Attic assembly Assembly type, then a special Soffit floor Floor will be automatically created for the roofspace Roofspace and will become visible in the Floor Data-Grid tab. These are discussed further in the Roof-space Zone section.