BER Rating Wicklow Rathdrum

Ber House Age

When conducting a Building Energy Rating on an existing house, one of the first things the ber assessor looks for is the age of the house, this is very important because this determines the average u-value for building elements such as walls, roof, floor and windows.

The year of the house can be got from a number of different locations for the ber rating

• Home owner/Style of building ber rating wicklow

• Meter box

 

 

 

 

 

 

•  Windows

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ber assessors are not allowed to take the home owners word on the exact age of the house, but if the home owner says the house is a 1970s house, and the house style matches the style of that era and no other information is available to get the age of the dweling for the building energy ratings then this age is taking.

While doing the Ber Rating Wicklow on the house in Rathdrum Wicklow the house age was taking from the ESB meter box but was also identified on the windows and the home owner also knew the construction date, all three ages were the same so we took that of the house.

Wall Construction

While doing the ber, the ber assessor has to determine what type of construction the external walls are and what (if any) the type of insulation is, usually the ber assessor will ask the home owner or look into places like the meter box or in the attic for wall construction and insulation.

Ber Rating Floor Area

We now measure the full internal ground floor area of the house for the ber rating and measure all room dimensions and room heights, after measuring the ground floor area we move up stairs and measure the first floor area including all room heights, when we get back to the office we then get an average room height, a ground floor area and a first floor area these are in-putted into the deap software to help calculate ber ratings.

As with all dormer houses the ground floor area is larger than the first floor area and the average room height on the first floor is small because of the pitch on the roof.

Ber Rating Wicklow External openings u-Values

When the floor area dimensions are finished we measure all window and door opes in external walls and look at window orientation, we get the orientation by using a compass, this is very important because south facing windows are better in the Deap software than the north facing windows, we also look for a date stamp on the window and glass thickness this will give us a u-value for the window, not all windows in a house are the same so every window is checked for 4 things:
• Area
• Age Stamp
• Glass Depth
• Draught Stripping (Get to This Later).

If a door has over 60% Glazing we take this a a window for u-value purposes.

Ber Rating Wicklow Ventilation

In the ber survey in Rathdrum in Wicklow the house had only 3 vents one was in the sitting room beside an open fire, one was in the kitchen acting as an extractor fan and one was a controllable vent.

The controllable vent and the vent in the sitting room were not counted because controllable vents are considered to be saleable and a vent in a room with an open fire is there to provide oxygen to the fire and not for ventilation.

We do take a note of the chimney for ventilation purposes.

Heating System Ber Rating Wicklow

The heating system is mains gas boiler with an balanced flue

 

 

 

 

 

All Radiators are assessed to see if Thermostatic radiator valves are present, if the house has more than 50% TRVs present it is considered that the heating system has TRVs, again this is very imortant in the ber assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

The open fire in the sitting room is taken as a secondary heating system in the ber ratings assessment

 

 

 

 

 

We now look into the hotpress and get the size of the cylinder and the type of insulation and depth of inulsation. A cylinder with factory fitted insulation has a much better rating for the ber. The hot water cylinder below is a 112 liter tank with 30mm factory fitted insulation.

 

 

 

 

 

When doing the ber assessment while checking the hot press we noted that there is no Thermostat to control the temperature in the cylinder.

Ber Rating Wicklow Lighting

We count up all the internal lights and light in unheated spaces to give a percentage of low energy lighting in the house. This house in Rathdrum has 100% low energy Lighting this is very important in the BER Rating because it is very cheap to buy low energy lights and it can save alot of money very easily.

 

 

 

 

 

Draught Stripping Ber Rating Wicklow

While checking all the draught stripping for the ber ratings in the house all the external windows and doors are checked for draught stripping, Internally the Attic doors are checked also. A percentage is in-putted into deap of doors and windows that has draught stripping. Below is a picture of a attic door with draught stripping and the correct latches to keep the draught stripping compressed.

 

Roof Construction Ber Rating Wicklow

The roof construction in the BER ratings is very important we can assess if the house has insulation on the rafters or the joists and the depth of the insulation. This is a very cheap inexpensive way to upgrade your BER to a better rating, a roll of insulation can cost from €15-25 euro a roll but it can save thousands in heating bills over a couple of year plus it can give you a better BER. The picture below has 300mm of insulation with the water tank in the attic insulated and covered.

 

 

 

 

 

Ber Rating Result / Advisory Report

This House got a D2 ber rating, there is a few very easy and inexpensive ways to improve the BER ratings of this house, the home owners can:

• Get a plumber to install a thermostat in the hotpress for the hot water cylinder
• Install 100% low energy lights
• Increase the attic insulation to 300mm
• Install a 90%+ efficient boiler
• 100% Draught strip the house including attic doors
• Install TRVs on all radiators

After every ber is complete we give the client an advisory report and a building energy ratings cert for the house.

The advisory report will explain where and how the Ber ratings can be improved and the expense of the improvement.

The Ber Rating Wicklow Rathdrum cost the home owner €150.