Roof Energy Heel

Design a raised heel.

Roof energy heel.

There are a couple of options for designing energy heels. Framing with raised heel trusses and continuously sheathing exterior walls improves structural and energy performance and offers many savings that benefit both the builder and the homeowner. To create a truss with an energy heel a vertical member is added over the supporting wall and the bottom chord stops there rather than extending into the overhang. Raised heel trusses also known as energy heel trusses deliver cost effective energy performance especially when used with continuous plywood or osb sheathing.

More importantly the raised heel provides the opportunity to increase energy efficiency to meet new energy code requirements. The option 1 figure to the right shows a raised energy heel. Architectural home design software all content support videos chieftalk forum. An energy heel has a taller heel height which allows for the adequate amount of insulation to reach the outside wall and eliminate the cold spot.

To create an energy heel in the build roof dialog check trusses no birdsmouth uncheck automatic birdsmouth cut specify the desired energy heel height as a positive raise off plate value automatically generate or manually draw the roof planes then draw and position the first truss. This is created by designing the truss with a heel height tall enough to meet the r value requirements. Raised energy heel typical truss heel height is about 12 but may be designed to most any height per the building designer specification. Truss heel height the vertical depth of the truss at the outside face of the bearing.