1990 Dormer bungalow C1 BER 2020. More work done since, trying to work out next steps

Irish Steve

So, we had a BER done in 2020, and looking at it, there were some errors made, but not massively significant for now.

It was done with a view to putting in a heat pump, but with a C1 rating, and valid concerns about things like draught proofing, we didn't proceed at the time, and decided to do other things first, which are ongoing.

So, I'm still looking at options, made more significant because of the ongoing energy price hikes, which won't improve any time soon.

Since the 2020 BER, we've had the roof spray foamed at rafter level, which has made a significant difference to the heat retention and cut the draughts completely compared to how it was, for the first time ever. Even allowing for a mild winter, I know that the boiler was not working anything like as hard as it used to, and the 2 rooms that had glazing upgrades last year were significantly warmer, and retained the heat longer.

It's made a huge difference to the heat levels upstairs, we've not used the radiators much at all this last winter, they've not been needed, and I know that's a direct result of stopping the draughts that came in through the crawl spaces and went out the other side taking the heat with them, that's now been stopped, and the difference is only massive, both ways, there is not the same heat penetration into the rooms in the summer. External noise has also been reduced, which is another benefit.

We're now upgrading the rest of the windows to get a better U rating there, and replacing the wooden external doors to improve that area.

I guess my best option now is to try and decide which way to go with any other upgrades, we are far from having an unlimited budget, and the SEAI schemes are effectively a licence to print money for the one stop suppliers rather than a real help to many households, but that's nothing new.

I'd like to get an idea of what the heat requirements are going to be once this is done, but the windows are to be fitted later this year, so there's no point getting another BER at the moment.

The next things to work out is if the existing radiators are anywhere close to being suitable for lower temperature operation, they were sized "generously" when the house was built, and in theory, always a dangerous place to be, the heat requirement should be considerably lower now than the original calculation that I did 32 years ago, the cavity walls were bead filled to top up on the original insulation some years ago, the roof is now pretty much draught free, and once the windows and doors are done, that's a pretty significant upgrade completed compared to the original build.

There's no easy way to upgrade the ground floor, mass concrete, and tiled throughout, over 200 Sq Mtrs, so no easy or cheap way to put in underfloor heating. The oil boiler is not a modern condensing boiler, so not ideal, but the cost of upgrading may not be recoverable in a reasonable time frame, and oil is no longer a good idea, and gas isn't looking very appealing now either, so not too many alternatives at this stage, other than electric of some form, or something like wood pellets, and I am not convinced that they are going to be any more stable as a heat source than oil or gas, which doesn't leave too many alternative options.

So, the questions for the people here in the know and the reason for posting in the BER area rather than the alternate energy area.

Has anyone used the BERtech application that's being advertised on places like Facebook?

Supposedly, it's an aid to getting a BER result from the data that's used to calculate it, and if that's the case, it might help me to get a revised indication of where we are and what other changes would be worth while.

I have the 2020 BER report, which gives a reasonable amount of technical information about how the BER was calculated, and I'm wondering if I were to get that app, and put the relevant updated information in for the upgrades we've done or are doing, it should in theory give me a guideline of what the BER will become, and if I were to also feed in figures for things like Solar PV or Solar hot water systems, I should be able to get some sort of idea of what the BER is likely to become as a result.

The same would be true for a boiler upgrade, or other options like a heat pump. I'm well aware that a Solar PV may not be too much help in winter with a heat pump, but if (another BIG IF) the feed in tariff from the PV is even slightly reasonable, as I have 3 phase power, I may be able to build up some credit towards the winter demand for something like a heat pump. Lots of unknowns again, and all manner of minefields to get through, but something has to be done, ignoring the way things are going is no longer an affordable option.

In the same way, as the radiators were generous for the old requirement, I'm hoping that now the heat needed is lower, they might be reasonably close to the size that would be needed for a lower temperature system like a heat pump, which might open up affordable heat pump options.

That'll do for now, I'm sure there will be other questions going forward, but I have to move things on a bit more, and see if I'm thinking in the right directions.

Thanks in anticipation.