Energy Audit

holdfast

Hi just woundering has anyone done an energy audit for their home. I working on mine. I have used the esb calculator which is quite good. I also have given it a BER rating. Just want to see did anyone come up with some interesting areas or website on the topic.

Taildragon

Can you provide links? I'll give it a go.

It's not an exercise that I've tried recently, tbh. Any of the automated energy efficiency calculators (that I've tried) in the past were at best an approximation of reality and at worst a complete waste of time.

Willing to update my experience factor though

saibhne

holdfast wrote: »

Hi just woundering has anyone done an energy audit for their home. I working on mine. I have used the esb calculator which is quite good. I also have given it a BER rating. Just want to see did anyone come up with some interesting areas or website on the topic.

Hi Holdfast, just wondering about the details of your BER rating, is this official or just for your own information? I thought the whole BER thing was fairly tied down and you had to use rated assesors and software etc..

Thanks!

S.

holdfast

saibhne,

i have completed the BER course thus i have the software, i have not registered my house yet. you have to use only accredited assesors by SEI to get a rating.

Taildragon

sorry but i should of said the audit was confined to electricity. just got the watts and recorded the time used for each item to give me the usage. if you look at the watts required by each appliance it will give you an idea of the electricity it uses. hope that helps. if not i will send you more info on what i did.

dame

Hi folks, the only BER course available at the moment is for New Dwellings and they are done from plans. The rating given is only a provisional one and the cert is a provisional cert. This is becasue the house will have to be inspected by an assessor within two years (after it is built) and a full assessment done with a full cert issued then which will be valid for 10 years. If your house is already built and occupied, you can get a BER done now if you want, working off the plans, but it will only be an approximation and will not stand up as a cert for an existing building (required by law if renting or selling the property from Jan 09). You are better off waiting until there are assessors trained to do them on Existing Buildings, next year.

Sounds like you're doing a good audit of your new house holdfast, using the actual energy ratings and hours used.

ircoha

What holdfast has done is very good on the home energy audit

his analysis allows him look at consumption by room, activity and appliance, so, for example all the candy bulbs can be seen together, or what the energy consumption for the kitchen is.

In many houses what is surprising is that the innocuous fridge freezer consumes the most power, as it is 24/7 at about 1.5kw a day
[if u heat water via elec then it may be more]

http://www.esb.ie/main/energy_home/appliance_calculator.jsp

says 92 units in 62 days for a FF.

riccol1966

For anyone interested I have done some in depth calcs on my own power usage (and then power reduction!).... but you need to be careful how you check energy requirements for fridges, kettles, washing machines etc, and make sure you use the correct unit price....

http://www.richardcollins.net/energy_elec_usage.html

R.

ircoha

Interesting read here on trends in appliance energy use and the benefits of using higher rated appliances
for example see page 13 re fridgefreezers

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/pdf/EnEff%20Report%202006.pdf

Rhiannon14

*is feart*

Sineadbcoyle

I know this is a super old thread, but I saw it when doing research on energy auditors, so just wanted to share my experience.

I got an thermal imaging survey done on my house and it really helped me decide where to spend my money. I was talking to contractors who were recommending external insulation and boiler upgrades - one guy quoted about €10,000! But looking the thermal images, I found out that external insulation wouldn't have helped my heat retention that much, and the surveyor recommended better ways. Can't recommend getting an independent survey enough! The company is called Snug Home if anyone is looking to get it done. *Not affiliated with them at all, just liked the service!*

http://www.flir.eu/instruments/content/?id=64755