Interface Basement

Surface area of basement walls above grade in square meters. Comes from the depth and the height of the basement but is convenient to have it defined explicitly for walkout foundations.

Floor area of the basement in square meters.

Used to calculate total_foundation_floor_area and total_basement_floor_area. Used for livable area if height ≥ 1.5m.

For F280: Core parameter in heat flow calculations - affects both wall and slab heat loss calculations, even though it is the area of the slab. Used with perimeter to determine basement geometry.

Surface area of basement walls below grade in square meters. Comes from the depth and the height of the basement but is convenient to have it defined explicitly for walkout foundations.

Number of external corners in the basement structure.

May get used in thermal bridging calculations for heat loss.

For F280: Not directly used in F280 calculations which use a simplified rectangular geometry approximation.

For EnerGuide: Exported as corners attribute in HOT2000 wall construction.

Depth of the basement below grade in meters.

Critical for determining ground temperature gradients and heat flow patterns. Deeper basements have more soil-moderated temperatures.

For F280 and EnerGuide: Used as depth attribute in measurements element. Determines below-grade heat loss.

Array of doors installed in the basement walls similar to above grade.

Length of basement walls exposed to exterior conditions, in meters.

Used to calculate exterior exposure ratio and wall heat loss.

For F280 and EnerGuide: Critical parameter for basement heat loss - determines the proportion of walls in contact with exterior soil vs. adjacent spaces.

Material composition of the floor structure above the basement.

For F280: Not directly used in basement heat loss calculations (the surface is adiabatic when the basement and the rest of the home have the same setpoint temperature.).

For EnerGuide: Exported to HOT2000 as FloorsAbove element with its R-value for the thermal boundary between the basement and main floor.

Optional header structure above the basement walls. See above grade walls for details.

Whether the basement floor slab has embedded heating to identify heated foundation areas for specialized thermal calculations.

For F280: Affects heat flow patterns and direction in the basement model. Heated slabs require specific handling in the foundation heat loss model.

For EnerGuide: HeatedFloor attribute in the floor construction element for specialized heated floor modeling.

Interior height of the basement in meters.

Used to determine if basement is livable (≥ 1.5m with pony wall) for total heated area calculation. Also used for heated volume calculations, if an explicit volume is not provided.

For F280: Used to calculate wall areas (above grade and soil-facing) and determine the volume for the space in heat loss calculations.

For EnerGuide: Used as height attribute, combined with depth to make the heat loss profile.

The portion of the wall_entity that's interior. For concrete walls it's the inner side of the concrete core. If not present, it will be auto-generated in the seedling based on wall_entity content.

For F280 and EnerGuide: The server uses the parameters of this entity to find the correct foundation code (such as BCCB_4) for the heat loss calculation.

Whether the footing is integrated with the basement wall structure.

Used to identify specific foundation configurations for heat loss calculations.

The portion of the wall_entity that's exteior. For concrete walls it's the outer side of the concrete core. If not present, it will be auto-generated in the seedling based on wall_entity content.

For F280 and EnerGuide: The server uses the parameters of this entity to find the correct foundation code (such as BCCB_4) for the heat loss calculation.

Total perimeter of the basement in meters, even the portions that may interface with another heated space. Is for documentation purposes. If not known, it may be made equal to exterior_perimeter.

Optional short wall at the top of the basement wall structure.

Adds to basement height for livable space determination. Contributes to highest ceiling height calculations.

For F280: Processed as a unique boundary with its own thermal properties.

For EnerGuide: Sometimes it is used to simplify walk-out construction though we don't recommend that approach. A more robust approach is to only use the ponyWall for its intended use and model the fully above grade portion of the walk-out with walls and slabs. PonyWall is exported to HOT2000 inside its parent basement as PonyWallType element with its construction and insulation properties.

Name of the room this basement represents. Links the basement to a specific room in house.space.rooms when available for associating spaces with rooms.

In F280: Used to associate the basement with room-level heat loss calculations.

Material composition of the basement floor slab. Used with walls for the heat loss calculation. Basements don't have slab skirt so this Entity has a different behaviour but the same Entity can be used for any kind of slab (on-grade and below-grade).

Material composition of the basement walls.

Used to calculate basement wall heat loss (UA values). Used in conjunction with the Slab to determine the appropriate HOT2000 basement configuration code (such as BCCB_4). this Entity is a combination of inside_entity and outside_entity in the basement.

For F280: Combined with slab properties for heat transmission in basement heat loss calculations in the BaseSimp model.

For EnerGuide: The found basement configuration will be used to define the basement in the HOT2000 export.

Array of windows installed in the basement walls.

Used to calculate total_basement_fenestration_area and to process window heat loss and solar gain. Window areas get subtracted from the basement wall area. The windows are assumed to be either in window wells or above grade. Adjust the overhang for the solar heat gain characteristics.