BER Exam

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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