How to improve a BER Rating

How to improve a BER rating depends on the type of house that needs improvement and the extent of upgrading required or desired.

The quickest and easiest upgrades to improve a BER rating will be to:

• Install low energy light bulbs in all the fixed sockets, e.g. ceiling pendants and internal wall lights (not portable lights) Ber assessors do not count portable lights in the assessment.Install 100% draught stripping in the house, e.g. on all attic doors and external windows and doors.

  

• Install a lagging jacket on your hot press tank

If these three cheap options are done on your house, it could easily improve a BER rating by 1 grade e.g. D2 to a D1 BER. Every Ber rating improved can mean more money when you sell your house, it has been proved that an A rated house will get a greater sale price over a D rated house.

How to improve a BER rating, the proper way!!

As every house is different and every BER is different it is very hard to answer this without been very vague. To properly improve a BER rating the whole house would need to be renovated including new fabric upgrades and heating and control upgrades, this can be an expensive option but if the repayment is analysed through a Life Cycle Costing analyses it should pay back within 20-30 years, depending on the extent of the upgrade work. The main areas that will require upgrading will be the:

Fabric insulation upgrade to improve a BER Rating

• Attic Flooring will have to be removed and insulation will need to be retrofitted underneath.
• If there is insulation at ceiling level, it will just need to be increased to the current standards of 300mm. There is an SEAI grant available for this.
• Slopped ceilings- the plasterboard will need to be removed and insulation installed behind it. Newly insulated plasterboard will need to be installed.
• Walls insulation there is only 3 options with wall insulation.
  • Pumped cavity bead wall insulation, the Bonded bead is injected into the walls. This is the most cost-effective and a semi-detached house can be done for as little as €700 by this company in Wicklow.
  • Internal Dry lining This is where an insulated plasterboard is placed on the external wall of the building. This will provide a U-value but it is very intrusive and dirty to the homeowner.
  • External insulation Is where an insulated board is placed on the external face of the house and plaster is applied over it. This is the most expensive option of the 3 but for some houses, it is also the only option. SEAI provide up to €4000 grant for this.
• Windows and Doors- Windows and doors should be upgraded to Passive standard triple glazed with a U-value greater than 0.8

Heating and Controls to improve a BER Rating

A house heating and controls play a big part in improving a BER. The greater control over the heating system the more efficient the house will be. The heating should be controlled by a system that allows independent heating of the water and the radiators or underfloor heating. It should also have at least two zones and be controlled by room thermostats.

• An oil or gas boiler should be over 90% efficient
• A heat pump should have ecodesign data that will provide the most effective for the house.
• The hot water cylinder should be factory insulated with a thermostat and it should be interlocked with the room stat.

The upgrading of heating and controls comes under SEAI grant applications also for a house that was built before 2006. SEAI will pay up to €700 for this grant application. Every time a grant application is processed by SEAI they will provide the homeowner with a declaration of work (DOW) the homeowner will need the contractor and the BER assessor to fill in their relevant sections.

The grants for the better energy homes can be found here