BER has a serious fault. Does that invalidate?

Sam Russell

I am looking at a house and asked to see the BER. The BER states that as the property has no chimney, then that part does not apply. But it does have a chimney and a fire in it.

So does that make the whole BER result void?

dockysher

Advice would be not go by BER rating when making decision to buy or rent a house. Look yourself. There a lot of cowboy BER Assessor's out there. And Assessor's only get audited few times a year or less

Biker1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058424738/ber-has-a-serious-fault-does-that-invalidate

If a chimney has a restricted opening of 200mm or less then it is classed as an open flue and not a chimney. The advisory report that you read is generated from DEAP and the wording can be misleading at times.

Sam Russell

Sounds completely misleading.

Saying there is no chimney when there clearly is rendering the whole report a waste of paper.

It has reduced my faith in the results.

Exiled Rebel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123813742#Comment_123813742

BER reports are a load of shite. You should not be taking them into account when making a decision to buy a property.

It's all theoretical. On paper you could have the most insulated house in the country with a massive bonus tick for solar panels but built by a cowboy. End result is an A1 rated house that's costing a fortune to heat and worst of all doesn't feel comfortable (air leakage aka drafts).

The build quality is one of the single most important things home buyers don't consider.

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123813771#Comment_123813771

Sounds about right. The BER report is over 5 years old, and looks like standard text that could be any house.

Looking at an engineers report as well on structure.

Neither report would inspire much confidence.

Anyone I speak to says 'Don't walk away, run!'

zoobizoo

I presumed, prior to buying my house, that BER was based on scientific results, like they turn on the heat and see how it leaks or stays. Not just ticking boxes without any evidence.

Our house had a B2 rating when we bought it. We were delighted with that. And in the summer time it is warm.

The problem is, that the back bathroom (an extension above our kitchen) I would swear is a G rating. The BER guy may have presumed that the bathroom was insulated, as did we did, due to the rating. We didn't even enquire as to whether it was or not based on the good rating.

The bathroom is freezing when the weather turns cold. It really annoys me as if I had known that it was lacking any insulation, I might have asked for money off the price of the house.

Yellow_Fern

BER is junk. Even for newer builds it can be totally bogus. Not sure about houses build in 2025 but certainly plenty of houses from ten years ago are not matching their certs. There is academic evidence showing that the BER scores are a terrible predictable of energy use in real world studies. It is shocking that it is being used in our climate action plan

Meles, Tensay Hadush, Niall Farrell, and John Curtis. "How well do building energy performance certificates predict heat loss?." Energy Efficiency  16.7 (2023): 74.

DOCARCH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123972469#Comment_123972469

Just on this point….

I live in a new build development house (built 2020) and seriously questioning the BER/energy useage (electriciaty bills are just rediculous!). In the process of getting an airtightness test done next week just to see how the house performs.

Quetsion: I have asked SEAI (no awnser yet) but are we entitled to get the Dwelling Details Report that our BER was based on?

I just want to see what inputs were used as the basis of the original BER (including airtightness).

Biker1

As the house owner you are entitled to have access to the full dwelling report. The one thing it will not tell you is the quality of the workmanship around insulation, thermal bridging and most importantly airtightness. Nor will it inform you if the heating system was designed, installed and commissioned correctly. The BER is just a blunt instrument used to assess the assumed energy performance of the building.

DOCARCH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124035855#Comment_124035855

Thanks. Yes, aware of all you have outlined.