A Building Energy Rating or BER is a standard calculation of a your dwellings energy performance, in other words it is a measure of just how much energy and carbon your house will use or produce over a given year.
Simply put it's just like the Miles per Gallon (mpg) or litre per Kilometre (l/km) rating for a motorcar or the A to G rating for a household electrical appliance.
If you need to obtain a BER then you must obtain the services of a national qualified assessor.
In order to give your house an energy rating our qualified assessor will use calculation methods and software which has been approved by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI). (Sustainable Energy Ireland were set up by the government in 2002 as Ireland's national energy agency).
Factors that our assessors inspect will be the following:
- Size, geometry and exposure of the dwelling
- Materials used for construction of the dwelling
- Thermal insulation of the different elements of the building fabric
- Ventilation characteristics of the dwelling and ventilation equipment
- Efficiency, responsiveness and control characteristics of the heating system(s)
- Solar gains through glazed openings of the dwelling
- Thermal storage (mass) capacity of the dwelling
- The fuel used to provide space and water heating, ventilation and lighting
- Renewable and alternative energy generation technologies incorporated in the dwelling.
Once you have had your building energy rating carried out you will receive a building energy rating certificate.
A building energy rating certificate looks much like the rating label that comes with a household electrical appliance. In fact it lends itself to the same concept. How your house performs in terms of energy performance will be represented on the certificate using a coloured scale showing graphically just how energy efficient the building is. The building energy rating scale ranges from "A1" (most efficient) to "G" (least efficient).
Along with the building energy rating certificate we must provide you with a detailed report which will outline whether or not the house is compliant with the building regulations (in terms of energy efficiency) as well as illustrate to you in full detail the specific details of your assessment.
In addition to a building energy rating certificate we must, as standard, provide you with an advisory report which will give you useful information on how to improve the use of energy in your home.
Advice contained within the advisory report will include the following:
- Building Fabric
- Walls, Roof and Floors
- Windows and Doors
- Healthy Ventilation
- Space Heating
- Water Heating
- Lighting
- General Advice
So to summarise a BER is simply a check to see how good your house is at using energy. This is done by:
- Assessment of house or house drawings by a qualified assessor
- Issue of a Building Energy Rating Certificate by the qualified assessor
- Issue of a Detailed Report
- Issue of advisory report
If you think any of this applies to you or would like to know more about a BER please feel free to contact us or check out our FAQ page
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