|
A
Building Energy Rating
(
BER
) is similar to the energy label that you can find on your normal everyday household electrical appliances, like your fridge. The label carries a rating from A to G where an A rating is the most energy-efficient and G is the least. The 2008 Building Regulations recommend an energy rating of B1 for all new houses. In a recent study by Sustainable Energy Ireland it was discovered that over 60% of Irish houses would benefit from energy efficiency renovation.
Since January 2009 a BER is compulsory for all homes that are sold or rented in Ireland. But even if you don't intend to sell or rent your house, a BER can provide you with some very valuable information about the energy performance of your home and what you can do to improve it. That's because every BER certificate also includes a list of suggested improvements that you can carry out to improve your home's energy performance.
As part of an Energy Smart Community each homeowner will be offered an individualised energy assessment of their own. The audit needs be carried out before any work is done and based on the results and recommendations action, each member of the cluster can decide what work they would like to have done and decide how much they want to spend.
When the energy improvements have been completed each homeowner will receive a second official BER certificate to capture the improvements that have been made.
In the meantime, you could be looking around your house to identify areas which could improve your energy efficiency, see the Self Home Survey which is downloadable from the SEI website as a PDF.
To find out more about the Building Energy Rating you can download the SEI information leaflet
|
Energy saving improvement
|
Grant Rate
|
Typical cost per square metre
|
Typical Net BER Improvement
|
Typical Payback
|
| Building Energy Rating |
€200
|
|
|
|
|
