BER Exam

picorette · 11-11-2011 7:26pm #1

This came as a surprise to me. SEAI are looking to re-examine all current BER assessors. Anybody know any more details about it?

Bairds bhoys · 12-11-2011 1:57pm

I received the e-mail yesterday too! I dont recall anything about having to re-sit an exam every 2 years. I got out my CBER examination result sheet and nothing is mentioned about it being valid for 2 years.
Also it is more than 2 years since I completed the exam?
Attached below is part of the E-Mail

This email is system generated. It provides you with an exam eligibility number and sets out the process required to book your examination. Individuals who have not yet registered as BER Assessors are required to pass the relevant BER exam before Registration can be completed. Registered BER assessors are required to pass the appropriate BER examination every two years. (in accordance with Regulation 12 of S.I.666 of 2006 and section 4 of the Code of Practice January 2011, Competence and Diligence of BER Assessors):

Hawk Wing 2 · 15-11-2011 6:06pm

let me guess, you have to pay for the privilege aswell?

Max Powers · 05-01-2012 9:41pm

Has anyone tried booking exam? I had a date end of March written on that e-mail notification i got from SEAI yet i cant book a domestic BER exam in that month anywhere in Waterford or Kilkenny. In fact, i cant book it for march, april, may, june....

shanered · 12-01-2012 3:52am

disaster, any more info on this would be great!

caesarthechimp · 15-01-2012 10:52pm

Its a bit harder than the last one, but you'll have the manual beside you and plenty of time.

No6 · 25-01-2012 10:35pm

Enrate wrote: »

Its a bit harder than the last one, but you'll have the manual beside you and plenty of time.

How much is a bit?? I have mine tomorrow and havn't done an ounce of study for it, too busy doing my masters!! At least I can still read!!!:D

No6 · 26-01-2012 4:54pm

The exam is tricker than the last time, I got two questions about solar PV, there aint many houses around here with it!! and lots of questions with gas boilers, we use oil in the west!!Theres a specimen paper in the Assessor section of the SEAI website, have a look at it before you go, I skimmed over it about 30mins before my exam today.

Max Powers · 27-01-2012 12:44pm

No6 wrote: »

The exam is tricker than the last time, I got two questions about solar PV, there aint many houses around here with it!! and lots of questions with gas boilers, we use oil in the west!!Theres a specimen paper in the Assessor section of the SEAI website, have a look at it before you go, I skimmed over it about 30mins before my exam today.

had a look at the specimen paper, the questions i think are ridiculous, why would i remember individual u-values when they are there in the system for me when i need to look them up yet they are asked in the questions. I would have thought practical questions on doing assessments would be the way to go...eg pictures of things you will see and questions on the picture...is this a programmable heating control, should this porch be included in floor area....stuff like that.

shanered · 27-01-2012 2:11pm

Max Powers wrote: »

had a look at the specimen paper, the questions i think are ridiculous, why would i remember individual u-values when they are there in the system for me when i need to look them up yet they are asked in the questions. I would have thought practical questions on doing assessments would be the way to go...eg pictures of things you will see and questions on the picture...is this a programmable heating control, should this porch be included in floor area....stuff like that.

That would never work, because it would make sense, and it would actually help you!;)

descol · 30-01-2012 6:45pm

I posted this elsewhere - probably in the wrong place - posted again here

Ber exam
G'day - I am new to boards - I found comments on the DBER exam - some posts back and have a query.
I have been an Assessor for serval years and need to log on to do the periodic DBER exam - I did it a couple of years ago with no real difficulty and wonder what it is like this time round ?
Somewhere on previous posts there was a mentioned of a specimen question paper on the Assessor Section of the SEAI web site.
My question is -is the sample DBER specimen paper refered to -the same for the initial exam registration as well as the periodic exam which registered assessors are required to undertake - I assume it is ?
thanks for any comments in advance

Max Powers · 31-01-2012 11:04am

descol wrote: »

I posted this elsewhere - probably in the wrong place - posted again here

Ber exam
G'day - I am new to boards - I found comments on the DBER exam - some posts back and have a query.
I have been an Assessor for serval years and need to log on to do the periodic DBER exam - I did it a couple of years ago with no real difficulty and wonder what it is like this time round ?
Somewhere on previous posts there was a mentioned of a specimen question paper on the Assessor Section of the SEAI web site.
My question is -is the sample DBER specimen paper refered to -the same for the initial exam registration as well as the periodic exam which registered assessors are required to undertake - I assume it is ?
thanks for any comments in advance

The specimen paper is different from the one they published years ago. Also, logging into and getting an appointment is a complete mess, (in Waterford and the SE anyway).

sydthebeat · 31-01-2012 11:08am

i cannot locate my info emails. when does this exam have to be done by?

No6 · 31-01-2012 11:49am

I'm not sure Syd, it probably depends on when you did it last!!

shanered · 02-02-2012 3:35am

sydthebeat wrote: »

i cannot locate my info emails. when does this exam have to be done by?

31st of march, you also need a tax clearence certificate by that date also now.

shanered · 02-02-2012 3:37am

No6 wrote: »

I'm not sure Syd, it probably depends on when you did it last!!

If you did it in that last two years you are exempt, I believe.

descol · 08-02-2012 10:20am

G' day
Could any Assessor who has done the required periodic exam this year let me know if (a) candidates are allowed hard copy notes and hard copy DEAP manual and (b) if the DEAP programme is available on the computer allocated to the candidate ?
thanks
Descol

caesarthechimp · 08-02-2012 9:33pm

descol wrote: »

G' day
Could any Assessor who has done the required periodic exam this year let me know if (a) candidates are allowed hard copy notes and hard copy DEAP manual and (b) if the DEAP programme is available on the computer allocated to the candidate ?
thanks
Descol

The answer to both questions is No. All you can bring in, is a non-scientific calculator.

descol · 08-02-2012 10:24pm

tnks Enrate
Life's a bitch with SEAI wonder wheter its worth it ?

caesarthechimp · 09-02-2012 3:20pm

Sorry, can't answer that one; Its a difficult question

No6 · 09-02-2012 5:38pm

Descol, you are given a copy of the DEAP Manual, Part L & the EPBD, you cannot bring your own. Do bring a calculator you will need it.

descol · 09-02-2012 6:22pm

tnks No6 - I am about to book it

descol · 28-02-2012 4:34pm

G'day
Re BER exam
I am just home after having done the BER exam - I failed - so, a few pointers.

There are 5 sections - you need a min of 50% in each to pass - I got an average iof 72% in each of 4 sections, however, I only got 44.4% in the last section.

The REASON i messed up on the last section was I left too lttle time to got back over marked questions - those - which I needed more time /or was a little unsure about - I had marked up about 11 questions to leave until the end - and got through most of them when the screen warned me of 15mins left - I carried on and then without further warning the system shut done wn leaving me with 4 unaswered / questions in the last section.

So, be careful - the system won't warn you that you have 5 mins left etc.

Descol

sydthebeat · 28-02-2012 5:01pm

Descol, how did you find the questions?

Is there much emphasis put onto things which appear in the technical bulletins?

or is it much the same as the first exam of a few years ago?

No6 · 29-02-2012 12:12am

They are badly written to try to catch you out if you ask me!! lots of questions about solar pv as if anyone is using it and gas boilers. you dont get copies of the tech bulitens syd so it's all in the basic manual

descol · 29-02-2012 10:25am

sydthebeat wrote: »

Descol, how did you find the questions?

Is there much emphasis put onto things which appear in the technical bulletins?

or is it much the same as the first exam of a few years ago?

Syd,
I didn't find the questions difficult - many were straightforward - with answers available within the manuals etc - some required a little more time than others - on some you would need to reread the question a couple of times in order to avoid any tricks - the problem I had - as I said, was I simply ran out of time - When I did the exam a couple of years ago - I was finished in good time to review etc - this time round I needed the full two hours and could have done with an extra 5 or 10 mns or at least be warned on the last 5mins.

A friend said to me last night - no worries - you can do it again - sure I can and he said its only about the cost of 1 BER survey -123 euro - I replied, well, that may be so but for me it's a week's wages - If the exam was not farmed out to a contractor and the Assessor was judged on knowledge etc rather than on speed - with the penalty being more dosh for the Contractor then I reckon I would have saved myself the extra cost -

Fintan Lehane · 07-03-2012 8:00pm

Does anyone know the answers to these questions that came up

1 metre square of solar panel gives x % of water heating - is it 0%, 20%, 55% or 90%

Thermal bridging in roof - how many bridges in roof - is it 0,1,2 or 3

Thanks

Max Powers · 07-03-2012 9:54pm

Fintan Lehane wrote: »

Does anyone know the answers to these questions that came up

1 metre square of solar panel gives x % of water heating - is it 0%, 20%, 55% or 90%

Thermal bridging in roof - how many bridges in roof - is it 0,1,2 or 3

Thanks

I think 1m2 of solar panel provides 50% of one persons water

BryanF · 07-03-2012 10:09pm

Fintan Lehane wrote: »

Does anyone know the answers to these questions that came up

1 metre square of solar panel gives x % of water heating - is it 0%, 20%, 55% or 90%

Thermal bridging in roof - how many bridges in roof - is it 0,1,2 or 3

Thanks

they're some arbitrary questions. the seai are really taking the proverbial

descol · 08-03-2012 11:24am

BryanF wrote: »

they're some arbitrary questions. the seai are really taking the proverbial

Fintan
My understnading is that a typical houshold of say 4 persons requires 50 litres each of hot water per day = 200 litres (not incl space heating)
To achieve 200 litres, I think you would need approx. 5 sqm solar collector - so, I guess that means 1 sqm will give approx 40 litres - which equates to 25% of the requirement for a 4 person household -
ie. if the question relates to household needs and not the individual's need ?

With regard to thermal bridging - I don't understand the question - can anyone elighten me ?????

sydthebeat · 08-03-2012 11:53am

fintan, were those questions related to tables or pictures...

because if not, then jesus christ!!! they are so open ended you could drive a bus through them.

thermal bridging in roof?? closed couple? dormer? cut? truss?
if its one of my roofs theres no thermal bridges

my gut reaction, assuming flat roof insulation, is that:
an attic hatch is a thermal bridge
every chimney is a thermal bridge

so..... the answer could be 0, 1, 2 or 3 LOL

on the solar panels.... i just did a prov BER yesterday where 3 m2 of tube collectors provided 44% solar fraction (thats 14%)... so how does that match up with the options?? :rolleyes:

my first reaction was to say 20%

sydthebeat · 15-03-2012 5:05pm

just back from exam, delighted i passed because it was what id consider difficult... some very sticky questions that needed some thrawling through the booklets.

for anyone doing it, id definitely recommend reading up the DEAP manual beforehand.

Your given a copy off DEAP manual, TGD L 2007, DEAP survey guide and EPBD... and where possible all the answers are located within.

the only advise id give is even if you are sure of the answer on reading of the question, still go and use the manual to check the answer. dont leave anything to chance...

feichin · 15-03-2012 7:23pm

Syd
Can you remember any of the questions, doesn't matter about the answers, they can be found in the DEAP manual as you said

sydthebeat · 16-03-2012 12:12am

feichin wrote: »

Syd
Can you remember any of the questions, doesn't matter about the answers, they can be found in the DEAP manual as you said

some of the deceptive ones were...

a 3 storey building where you had to pick the storey heights. the section actually had the floor to floor measurements and not floor to ceiling like you may expect. also, i would have measured the storey heights as 'floor to ceiling plus floor depth' for both. however the answers only gave you a selection which included one storey floor to ceiling, and the other storey as floor to ceiling plus 2 floors.... which would be a weird way of dong it.

there was a picture of wall thermostat like the sample paper

there was a picture of a rad TRV and you had to say what it was

one question had 4 window types with different gaps and low e coats and yoiu had to find the lowest u value one by using the manual

another was finding the u value of a 1986 cavity filled wall.

good few questions about gas boilers, gas combi boliers, and at least two on group heating systems.
'What efficiency adjustment do you make in a group heating system if a flat rate is charged??' was a particularly spicy one which took a bit of time to find the answer to.

a thermal mass question similar to the sample paper....

'what do you do if you find a building doest comply with part L?'

'four kinds of light bulbs, which isnt a low energy inclusion' (answer was the one in the desk lamp)

.. among many others

feichin · 17-03-2012 2:33pm

Cheers Syd
My own personal date with destiny is in 10 days time so really need to start getting stuck into the books :eek:

brdboard · 27-03-2012 7:59pm

I sat the Ber exam today and found it very tricky, but passed it ok.
It was definitely a lot harder than 2 years ago and I took the full 2 hours.

I got a few questions on group heating, pv cells, boilers and thermal stores in same casing.

Strange q about thermal bridging factor if built in accordance with "accredited" construction details rather than acceptable, which I found odd.

Two questions in particular icouldn't figure out the answer to. 1 part of Deap manual suggested one answer, and another part of Deap kind of, sort of, nearly suggested a different answer.

Overall, tricky and mindbendingly confusing!

sydthebeat · 28-03-2012 9:46am

brdboard wrote: »

Strange q about thermal bridging factor if built in accordance with "accredited" construction details rather than acceptable, which I found odd.

... looks like the question compiler didn't read the regs properly and referred to the UK accredited details...

Two questions in particular icouldn't figure out the answer to. 1 part of Deap manual suggested one answer, and another part of Deap kind of, sort of, nearly suggested a different answer.

can you recall what the questions were?

brdboard · 28-03-2012 11:17am

sydthebeat wrote: »

can you recall what the questions were?

One was on relation to the no of heating hours per week in July. One section says it's calculated monthly, but another section says only the months during the heating season are used, so I couldn't decide between the available answers.

Another question was the units for heat loss from a hot water tank. I couldn't find this in any of the manuals, so I had to take an educated guess.

picorette · 29-03-2012 2:03pm

Sat exam today & passed, but not as well as in 2009. Much more difficult than before, but you do give you plenty of time to go back, and spend more time on questions you might not be sure of.

Surprised that they give you Part L 2008, I thought that had been superceded...

sydthebeat · 29-03-2012 2:18pm

picorette wrote: »

Sat exam today & passed, but not as well as in 2009. Much more difficult than before, but you do give you plenty of time to go back, and spend more time on questions you might not be sure of.

Surprised that they give you Part L 2008, I thought that had been superceded...

did you get 2011 ??

i got 2008 too....

i take it as transitional arrangements havent been exceeded its still applicable

bennyb98 · 29-03-2012 2:32pm

Hi guys.. I am doing the exam on saturday and am starting to panic abit now. from all accounts im hearing the exam seems to be very hard this time.

can somebody tell me if all the answers are in the deap manual..
would i be just better off just getting to know where everything is in the deap manual before hand or is there stuff anyone would advise learning off as well.

any advice would be most helpful guys..

picorette · 29-03-2012 2:32pm

sydthebeat wrote: »

did you get 2011 ??

i got 2008 too....

i take it as transitional arrangements havent been exceeded its still applicable

Suppose so, but new assessments for new dwellings being designed now will mostly be subject to 2011 Regs.

shanered · 29-03-2012 2:38pm

Check out what the penalties for non compliance for a an audit (timewise!)
Just passed my test, 70% on the button, chuffed.
now to get the tax clearnce, hopefully the good folk at the revenue shall be swift!

bennyb98 · 29-03-2012 2:39pm

shanered wrote: »

Check out what the penalties for non compliance for a an audit (timewise!)
Just passed my test, 70% on the button, chuffed.
now to get the tax clearnce, hopefully the good folk at the revenue shall be swift!

congrats to you.. thanks for the advise i will look those up.. anything else u can think of..

shanered · 29-03-2012 2:46pm

some where mentioned on the earlier part of the tread, window u-value table look ups where confusing, most answers are indeed in the tables/manuals, and you will do no harm checking most answers, time is a factor just try be effecient and not daze off at any point. Get stuck in and the answers are there, some tricky questions in there about adding a stove burner as secondary and Increase/decrease or unknown affect on C02 emmissions that I would have like to have the deap software to play round with to answer but you should be fine once you check anything you can in the manual.
It would be no harm being familiar with which appendix and tables relate to which section.
Some questions on adjustments/values for lighting, solar panal shading etc.
Best of look!
Any more question lemmie know!

bennyb98 · 29-03-2012 2:50pm

Much appreciated... thanks alot.

chatterbox007 · 29-03-2012 3:41pm

I did mine a few weeks ago and yes it is a little harder than last time. But overall it is not so bad.

What is confusing this time round are all the technical bulletins that were added and you don't have access to in the exam. Over all though it is ok. I would advise you to go over the sample questions which SEAI have on their website. I got about 3 of those in mine. You should have enough time but make sure you are familiar with where everything is in the Deap manual.
I was disappointed to see a question on 'What is the number of days you have to appeal an audit result?' What in goodness name has that to do with being able to complete a BER or not.

Anyway best of luck!

bennyb98 · 30-03-2012 10:16am

Last question guys... How similar is the exam to the sample questions given on the seai website.

brdboard · 30-03-2012 11:11am

bennyb98 wrote: »

Last question guys... How similar is the exam to the sample questions given on the seai website.

It's worth looking at the sample paper. I had 3 or 4 questions from that. The questions are similar alright. Also, read up on what you can and can't do with nas, there were a few questions on this that I couldn't find in any of the documents you're given in the exam.

Energy Bull · 28-04-2012 4:08pm

Hi I sat the BER exam recently and was confused by a few questions;
Can you guys suggest where to get answers.

What type of measure would be the first to improve the beer of an existing dwelling.
1. improve the frabric insulation 2. building services improvement.
3 add renewable energy system 4. fuel switching.

In a typical dwelling what will the effect of a well designed solar water system with 1sqm of collector appeature per person. What % of water heating would it satisfy?
1. 20% 2. 50% 3. 90% 4. 100%

Which of the refurb jobs is likely to be the most cost effective?
1. on site wind turbine. 2. solar hot water system. 3 external wall insulation 4. change fuel type

When might it be inappropriate to recommend a cavity wall be filled with insulation?
1 when the site is very exposed. 2 when there is evidence of damp
3. when brick pointing is recessed. 4 all of the above

which fuel is likely to generate the worst BER when there is no variation in the heating system efficiency?
1 Coal 2. electricity 3. peat 4 wood chip

A house built to 2008 bR PL has 2 wall types down stairs 0.24 u-value and area of 90sqm. FF .30 u-value and area of 48sqm. what is the area weighed average u-value of the wall and does it comply with regs?
1. 0.25 -complies with regs 2. 0.26 - complies with regs.
3. 0.26 does not comply with regs 4 0.28 - does not comply with regs.

BER Exam

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