One of the main functions of Hero is to enable energy simulations of modelled buildings to take place. These simulations calculate the amount of energy required to heat or cool a building to keep rooms within their thermostat setting bands. The calculated heating & cooling energy are then used to calculate the star-rating of the dwelling based on the NatHERS Star rating bands for each Australian climate zone.
Similar to other energy-modelling programs, Hero uses a thermodynamic calculation engine to calculate the heat & air flows & temperatures within a building & its required heating & cooling energy.
Hero uses CSIRO's Chenath engine as its calculation module, and calculates on an hourly-basis for the entire year. The simulation uses the default NatHERS occupancy & internal heat gain schedules; thermostat settings; & ventilation & shading profiles.
RUNNING A SIMULATION
To run an annual energy simulation in Hero, use the Run Button on the main toolbar, or keyboard shortcut Ctrl-R.
If the project has any Simulation errors, the Alerts View will show to notify the user of what they need to remedy to allow simulations to proceed.
Once the run button has been pressed, the simulation begins using the Chenath simulation engine. Simulations typically take between 30 seconds & several minutes.
You can stop any current simulations by pressing the Stop icon or keyboard shortcut Ctrl-R again.
If you have a multi-dwelling project, you can choose to run simulations on individual dwellings or all dwellings by using the drop-down menu on the Run button.
The individual dwelling option will run a simulation on the Currently Selected Dwelling shown in the Visual View's Top Toolbar.
Run All
The Run All dwellings option will run individual simulations on each dwelling within the project. Please refer to the multi-dwelling section of this tutorial series for further details on multi-dwelling modelling.
When the Run All Dwellings action is pressed, Hero runs multiple simulations in parallel based on the number of CPUs available on the user's computer. You can check & change the number of concurrent simulations that Hero will perform in the settings menu. Note that running too many concurrent simulations may cause your system to become unresponsive or slow.
When a Simulation has completed, the run button will shift from showing its stop icon to the play icon again. The simulation's rating will be shown in the bottom right of the screen. The results will now be updated for the project. Detailed results can then be viewed within the Results View.
When a simulation completes and you do not have Hero as your current window, a notification popup will be shown. These can be disabled within the settings menu.
Comments
In the latest update there is Heating and Cooling given in watts next to the star rating. Underneath it says 'peak loads' with a 'c' footnote. However, there is no corresponding reference to explain what this panel of information means. I want to be able divide by 1000 and multiply by a $ rate to determine savings but the peak loads is suggesting something else...
Hey sarah, thanks for your message. Peak load is the maximum hourly heating or cooling thermal load from the Chenath simulation. If you hover the mouse you'll see a pop-up, and we'll correct that footnote reference. Sounds like you might want to be using heating or cooling energy rather than peaks if you're trying to work out savings (unless you're talking about peak-demand tariffs).
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