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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 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.

Note

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

include

of types:

  • Concrete

slab on-ground types of various thicknesses
  • Concrete waffle pod slabs of various thickness.

Suspended timber floors, one
  • Slab On-Ground: Various thicknesses

  • Concrete Waffle-Pod Slabs: Various thicknesses.

  • Suspended Timber Floors: One unlined & one lined with fibre-cement sheet below

  • Suspended

concrete floors of
  • Concrete Floors: Of various thicknesses & lining

.And a suspended
  • Suspended AAC: AAC or Hebel-type

floor assembly
  • Floor Assembly (75mm thickness)

Note

Suspended Timber Floors & Timber Floor Coverings

It should be note that the Suspended Timber Floor Assemblies

are referring

reference to “Timber” is only as the structural material and that it is the Floor Covering which determines whether the Floor has

timber floorboards

Timber Floorboards or not, not the Assembly.

Info

Floor Assemblies Lined Below

The Suspended Timber & Suspended Concrete assemblies that are “Lined Below” are for use when the Floor is suspended such as over a Subfloor Zone or over the External Environment, and are not to be used when there is an actual Ceiling from another Zone below as the Ceiling Material will be added already to the Assembly build-up.

Note

Changing the Assembly in the Data-Grid may change the Adjacency type of the Floor if required such as when changing from a Concrete Slab On Ground assembly which has a Ground Adjacency to a Suspended Timber Assembly will change the adjacency to Subfloor or External Adjacency depending on Level height, & vice-versa.

Info

Floors that have an

adjacent

Adjacent Ceiling below them will not be able to change to a Ground type Assembly (such as Concrete Slab on Ground or Waffle Pod slabs) and in this situation these Ground Type Assemblies will not be shown within the drop-down of the Wall Data-Grid Construction column.

Note

Internal Floor/Ceiling Constructions

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 is to be applied to the Floor above.

The complete material build-up that will be Simulated is the Floor Covering + the Floor Assembly + any Floor Insulation + the Ceiling Assembly below.

Floor Data-Grid

Construction Column

Type

In addition to the Construction or Assembly of the 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.

Floor Data-Grid

Type Column

Insulation Option

The 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:

  • No insulation: This would be used if the Floor was exposed directly below it such as a Timber Floorboard where the Floorboards are directly exposed & visible from underneath; or for a Suspended Concrete slab floor where the slab is exposed to the air directly underneath.

  • Non-reflective Air-gap: This would be appropriate for most common Internal Floors where between the Floor Covering and Ceiling below there is an empty air-gap (if uninsulated).

  • Batt Insulation Materials

  • Reflective Air-gaps combined with Bulk Insulation Materials: Appropriate to use to simulate reflective membrane insulation products such as Kingspan’s Permifloor, or reflective rigid EPS insulation products such as Foilboard, etc of various thicknesses & reflectivity.

Floor Data-Grid

Insulation Column

Slab Edge Insulation

Concrete 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.

Note

Note Slab-Edge Insulation is applied in Chenath as a single property of the Ground Layer of the Chenath Simulation. Therefore

the correct way

to model Slab-Edge Insulation within Hero

is to

the user should apply it to all Floors on the same Level rather than just to the perimeter Zone Floors.

Floor Data-Grid

Slab Edge Insulation Column

Floor Covering

Floor Coverings are used to model the effects of various materials on top of the 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

Table below for further details.    

Covering Column

Area

Subfloor

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

Subfloor adjacency

Sub-Floor Adjacency can toggle the

ventilation

Ventilation rate of that

subfloor zone

Sub-Floor Zone through the Ventilation column

of

in the Floor

data

Data-grid. This is described in further detail in the

Subfloor

Sub-floor Zone section.

Subfloor Ventilation Column

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Floor Adjacency Types

...

Adjacency Type

...

Description

...

Similar to Walls & Ceilings, Floors have a variety of different adjacency conditions that are determined by whether the

...

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 adjacency

Adjacency 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

Assembly will be automatically changed away from a Ground type

assembly.Floors can have a Subfloor adjacency type, which when changed

Assembly.

Yes

Subfloor

Floor is adjacent to a Sub-Floor Zone.

When a Floor has a Subfloor Adjacency, Hero will automatically create a

subfloor special zone

Subfloor Zone underneath the

floor

Floor, or if a

subfloor zone

Subfloor Zone already exists on that

level

Level, will expand the

subfloor zone

Subfloor Zone to encompass the area below the newly changed

floor

Floor.

Subfloor

zones

Zones are detailed further in the Zone section of this tutorial and have many special properties.

Yes

External

If the

floor

Floor is sufficiently elevated such that the area below it does not form a

subfloor zone

enclosed or semi-enclosed Sub-Floor Zone, then the

EXTERNAL adjacency type

External Adjacency Type should be used. This represents a

floor

Floor that is simply adjacent to the External environment temperature (i.e. outside air).

Yes

Internal

Floor adjacent to a Ceiling from the same Dwelling

No

Neighbouring (Actual Connection)

Floors adjacent to a Ceiling from a different Dwelling.

Info

Neighbouring Adjacency Types are simulated as Adiabatic boundaries in the Simulation meaning that no effective heat transfer is modelled between them.

No

Neighbouring (Manual Selection)

Floors adjacent to a Conditioned Space that is not part of the Hero model (i.e. Adjacent Buildings, Commercial Spaces etc).

Info

Neighbouring Adjacency Types are simulated as Adiabatic boundaries in the Simulation meaning that no effective heat transfer is modelled between them.

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)

Internal Floor/Ceiling Construction

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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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.