Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:10:13 GMT

Hi Adam,

Your query seems to have been missed until now - to avoid this in future I would recommend logging a new Service Request or creating a new forum post, as old threads such as this are often unmonitored and this particular one is a few years old at this stage.

In relation to your query; it is not one or the other as both will have influence on calculations - room height for room volume and surface heights for surface heat loss/gain calcs. In general I would advise keeping surface (ie wall) heights consistent with room height, so you may need to tweak those also.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Adam Horvath — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 16:53:08 GMT

Hello Shane,

When you adjust the room height as per your screenshot and after this adjustment you click the "change surface" function and click on the room, the wall heights are still showing the original height. In the calculations which value takes precedent? The overall room height specified in the room data window (your screenshot) or the individual wall heights as shown in the "change room" window? Thank you.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 13:10:29 GMT

Thank you Shane this helped massively.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 09:07:09 GMT

Hi Kieran,

I have been gathering information for you and preparing the email - this has now been sent.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 08:57:57 GMT

Hi Shane,

I have received two emails one welcoming me to bentley community and the other welcoming me to the online services.

Neither with a service request link?

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 08:05:09 GMT

Hi Kieran,

This is really getting into project specific details at this point so I'm not sure that the forum is the most suitable place to discuss this further. I may also need to see your project to advise on the most appropriate design approach. I believe I have found your contact details on our database here so I will log a Service Request for you and you should receive an email shortly.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 15:53:47 GMT

Hi Shane,

I understand what you are saying as far as the important things considered to calculate heat loss is theroom volume and the surface area of different fabric.

The building I am trying to create in Hevacomp has mainly exposed roof spaces. And because there is just one floor to this building but at different heights I have had to create a roof on one roof drawing, and then adjust the heights of all the separate parts by elevating individual edges.

I have drawn the the roof pitches to the correct heights for the actual building, but this won't work with your suggestion above.

Would you suggest to move the roof heights to the newly created room heights.

I shall write a simple explanation below of what I mean:

Part of the floor is at 0m - with a roof that starts at 3m - with a pitch up to 4.5m

Another part of the floor is at 1.8m with a roof that starts at 5.32 above the 0m "finished floor level" - with a pitch up to 6.82.

Obviously the roof space that I have created at the taller heights don't match up with the room heights.

Would I just simply reduce the height of the pitch and roof to the height of the room rather than create the model of the building?

Sorry for rambling I hope it makes sense.

Thanks
Kieran

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 14:26:55 GMT

Hi Kieran,

In general, the most important geometrical factors to take into account to ensure accurate energy modelling of a room are:

1 - Surfaces areas (partitions, exposed walls, windows, etc.)

2 - Room volumes

In this case, altering your room height is to ensure an accurate room volume. You simply need to adjust your room height in accordance with how much the floor rises/falls in the room. Take, for example, the simple section view of two adjacent rooms:

This can be modelled in Hevacomp as follows:

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 13:11:13 GMT

So would this move the floor upwards rather than move the ceiling downwards?

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 12:49:55 GMT

Hi Kieran,

You simply need to go into the Room Data menu for the room you want to change (in CAD Input, double click inside the room), and the Room Height setting is in the top left corner. Change this to the height required, then click the green tick.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 12:36:28 GMT

Hi Shane,

I am not too confident how to adjust the room height to create different floor heights, on the same floor plan.
Please could you go through a step by step procedure?

Thanks
Kieran

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Duncan Brown — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 13:40:31 GMT

Further to my colleagues earlier reply;

If you do find it necessary to extend a room upwards due to floor stepping, you may find it intrudes into the floor above in 3D view. This is purely and solely a visual artefact of the 3D view and will have no effect on the calculations.

Once you have manually adjusted a room, when you set up Intermediate floors (in floors/roofs) you should exclude the room (using the exclude rooms list, highlighted below) to avoid forcing the room height back to the current floor height.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Kieran Lines — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 13:23:41 GMT

Thanks Shane, I thought that must be the case.

RE: Different Floor Heights on the Same Floor

Shane Regan — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:43:12 GMT

Hi Kieran,

It is quite difficult to model stepped levels on the same floor, but you can instead model this by simply treating both areas as having the same floor level, and then adjusting the Room Heights to take account for the change in room volumes.