BER rating on 100 old house cannot be higher than D1

bogfire · 15-03-2013 11:51AM #1

Hi - anyone ever heard this?

I am looking at buying a modernized country cottage. The BER rating is D1. It is insulated, drylined, double glazed, has condesnser boiler, all nice.

I was told by the assessor that the BER rating could never be set above D1 because the original house was over 100 years old.

.... plausable?

thanks for input.

D3PO · 15-03-2013 11:55AM

bogfire wrote: »

Hi - anyone ever heard this?

I am looking at buying a modernized country cottage. The BER rating is D1. It is insulated, drylined, double glazed, has condesnser boiler, all nice.

I was told by the assessor that the BER rating could never be set above D1 because the original house was over 100 years old.

.... plausable?

thanks for input.

No idea but just shows what a joke BER ratings are if thats true. Since when did the age of the building impact its energy efficency ?

Cuddlesworth · 15-03-2013 11:57AM

bogfire wrote: »

Hi - anyone ever heard this?

I am looking at buying a modernized country cottage. The BER rating is D1. It is insulated, drylined, double glazed, has condesnser boiler, all nice.

I was told by the assessor that the BER rating could never be set above D1 because the original house was over 100 years old.

.... plausable?

thanks for input.

Yep, its completely subjective. While there are plenty of ways to check and the insulation property's of a house, very few of them made their way into the BER process. I could lay out loads of examples of houses that are at a amazing spec in terms of insulation and energy usage that would score badly on the BER.

Victor · 15-03-2013 12:07PM

Moved from Accommodation & Property

Moderator

sinnerboy · 15-03-2013 01:29PM

Short answer - no. Longer answer here

sydthebeat · 15-03-2013 04:27PM

bogfire wrote: »

I was told by the assessor that the BER rating could never be set above D1 because the original house was over 100 years old.
.

'never' is not correct because you can do such drastic work to a house as to get it to whatever rating you want..

however, "in a lot of cases" would be much more on the mark.

unless you plan for a "deep retrofit" the usual augmentations that are made to a 100 year old house will have limited success.

But lets be fair here, a D1 is a fairly decent rating for a 100 yo house.
That would be comparable to a 1995-2002 era semi d.

maddragon · 15-03-2013 04:49PM

Mid-terraced house with condensing boiler, time and temp zone control, 300mm insulation in attic and double glazing could easily make C3 rating or better if you can show the walls have been dry-lined. I rated a similar house recently which obtained a C1. So it depends. Typically a 100 year old house would be an F or G.

MOTM · 15-03-2013 06:07PM

bogfire wrote: »

Hi - anyone ever heard this?

I am looking at buying a modernized country cottage. The BER rating is D1. It is insulated, drylined, double glazed, has condesnser boiler, all nice.

I was told by the assessor that the BER rating could never be set above D1 because the original house was over 100 years old.

.... plausable?

thanks for input.

If insulation measures etc can be proven, then you'll possibly get a better rating. The DEAP survey guide and appendix S give detail on this.... sounds like your assessor isnt familiar with them and doesn't understand how to use and prove non defaults. While a house that old is unlikely to get a C rating or better, it could if required evidence was available.

fclauson · 16-03-2013 07:46PM

you could put PV all over the roof and that would significantly boost the BER rating

BER likes ecobling

MOTM · 17-03-2013 08:25AM

fclauson wrote: »

you could put PV all over the roof and that would significantly boost the BER rating

BER likes ecobling

European legislation (epbd) likes ecobling you mean.

bogfire · 17-03-2013 12:00PM

all:

thanks for you inputs.

fclauson · 18-03-2013 06:04AM

MOTM wrote: »

European legislation (epbd) likes ecobling you mean.

not neccassarly - but the BER implementation of it uses the energy from it to off set por base energy requirments

e.g you could have a D1 building onto which you put 10s of Sq/M of PV and it will bring the rating way up prehaps even to A1 (but you might well get caught by the CPC/EPC trap which also forms part of Part L)

MOTM · 18-03-2013 10:16AM

fclauson wrote: »

not neccassarly - but the BER implementation of it uses the energy from it to off set por base energy requirments

e.g you could have a D1 building onto which you put 10s of Sq/M of PV and it will bring the rating way up prehaps even to A1 (but you might well get caught by the CPC/EPC trap which also forms part of Part L)

This isn't a new house. Epc cpc doesn't come into it. Epbd says renewables need to be accounted for and doesn't say you must insulate your existing house first before the methodology accounts for renewables. As crazy as it would be to reach your a1 using pv alone, Epbd doesn't say its wrong. It leaves the choice to the homeowners.

fclauson · 19-03-2013 09:34AM

which is why the attached could be retrofitted to be A1 !!!!!:D

MOTM · 19-03-2013 09:58AM

fclauson wrote: »

which is why the attached could be retrofitted to be A1 !!!!!:D

Ha ha. No money left for walls.

BER rating on 100 old house cannot be higher than D1

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