Explain BER to me

Guffy

So i'm looking at moving house and i'm coming across BER ratings. Can someone explain what these ratings actually mean?

I mean I know that they stand for the energy efficiency of the house and that an A rating is better than than a C3 rating but what would this mean financially? Just take an average 3 bed semi D as an example if needed.

Edit: sorry thread title not great.

Rasmus

gufc21 wrote: »

So i'm looking at moving house and i'm coming across BER ratings. Can someone explain what these ratings actually mean?

I mean I know that they stand for the energy efficiency of the house and that an A rating is better than than a C3 rating but what would this mean financially? Just take an average 3 bed semi D as an example if needed.

Edit: sorry thread title not great.

Are you renting? A BER will give you an indication of the house's energy efficiency, as you mention yourself. This essentially means a warmer house and in the right circumstances, lower bills.

murphaph

Rasmus wrote: »

Are you renting? A BER will give you an indication of the house's energy efficiency, as you mention yourself. This essentially means a warmer house and in the right circumstances, lower bills.

Correct, just a theoretical indication. No measurements taken by assessor. C rated house could be more expensive to heat than D rated house due to poor installation or maintenance etc.

Victor

Moved from Accommodation & Property

Moderator

sydthebeat

murphaph wrote: »

Correct, just a theoretical indication. No measurements taken by assessor. C rated house could be more expensive to heat than D rated house due to poor installation or maintenance etc.

not quite sure what you mean here, of course measurements are taken in order to assess the dimensions of the property.

The best way to describe the BER ratings is to compare it with a washing machine.

two washing machines may be A rated....one is serving a family of 5 and running 3 or 4 times a day, the other is used by a couple and may only run once every two days.

Obviously the one running 3 or 4 times a day cost much more to run, because of the frequency of usage. However, all things being equal, they use the same energy based on same usage.

Its used for comparison purposes only and not for specific energy use.

.jacksparrow.

Basically its something about nothing.


edit:

if you want to troll go to after hours.

Unless you have something to offer, do not post.

sydthebeat

sinnerboy

murphaph wrote: »

Correct, just a theoretical indication. No measurements taken by assessor. C rated house could be more expensive to heat than D rated house due to poor installation or maintenance etc.

Or building size . A small C rated house may be cheaper to heat than a large B rated. Or user behavior. Some feel the cold more than others. In the case of the OP it is most useful in the case of a comparison between to similar properties.

Iwannahurl

http://www.seai.ie/Your_Building/BER/Your_Guide_to_Building_Energy_Rating.pdf

http://advice.myhome.ie/2004/02/the-ber-cert/

Tim Toolman

To Iwannahurl
"However if the house is not sold from plans, there is no requirement for a Provisional Cert. This means that as a self-builder you are only required to have an assessment carried out once the house has been completed."

This is information from your second link. This indicates that a BER is only for records. I thought that you had to reach an approved level of energy rating, to pass a BER from your plans before construction commenced?? And if you didn't reach the targets extra measures are to be added, re renewable, insulation, etc.

sydthebeat

Tim Toolman wrote: »

To Iwannahurl
"However if the house is not sold from plans, there is no requirement for a Provisional Cert. This means that as a self-builder you are only required to have an assessment carried out once the house has been completed."

This is information from your second link. This indicates that a BER is only for records. I thought that you had to reach an approved level of energy rating, to pass a BER from your plans before construction commenced?? And if you didn't reach the targets extra measures are to be added, re renewable, insulation, etc.

the software used for producing BER cetificates has two purposes.

one is to produce BER certificates for any dwelling sold, rented or newly built.. as the second link says. This is required as part of a european directive and cover in law in SI 666.

The second purpose the software has is to check for compliance with building regulations. this is completely separate for the whole BER process, but is commonly referred to as a provisional BER assessment. More correctly it should be called a provisional DEAP assessment, after the software.

If you are building a new home, you must do a provisional DEAP assessment in order to find out what you need to include in your building specification in order to comply with building regulations.

Greenmachine

Hope it is okay to jump in here. Can't help but notice the lack of advertised BER certs. This is especially annoying considering that most of the ads are placed by estate agents. To mY understanding (I am open to correction) the BER rating indicates the energy required to maintain the home at a set temperature under ideal conditons. So a home rated G requires 20x+ as much energy to heat a home as an A2. Whatever about a private landlord renting
one property, without a cert, IMHO an estate agent renting or selling property without required docs should loses their license.

As it stand this scheme is meaningless less than 20% of the ads I have seen on rental websites have any mention of a BER cert. By and large the one that do are rated F or G. For me at least this is a pretty serious thing when people are considering one property over another. people might pay that bit more for something nicer than in their price bracket but get snowboarded by a killer energy bill. Hopefully made it to the end of my post without naming any specific providers or agents. Don't want the libel mafia after me.

Iwannahurl

Yes, BER certs are not really taken seriously in this country.

Elsewhere in Europe, eg France, the BER is prominently included in the ads for properties on sale.

The law in Ireland was updated recently, and now property sales ads generally include the BER (eg see myhome.ie list here: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property).

The rental sector is not compliant, afaics. I recently saw a small ad which stood out because it stated that the rental property had a BER cert. Unfortunately the advertiser failed to mention what the actual rating was...

Greenmachine

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Yes, BER certs are not really taken seriously in this country.

Elsewhere in Europe, eg France, the BER is prominently included in the ads for properties on sale.

The law in Ireland was updated recently, and now property sales ads generally include the BER (eg see myhome.ie list here: http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property).

The rental sector is not compliant, afaics. I recently saw a small ad which stood out because it stated that the rental property had a BER cert. Unfortunately the advertiser failed to mention what the actual rating was...

From the ads I have seen I would say over 50% of for sale ads mention, their rating. Rentals are another story.