How to improve a BER Rating

Why improve a BER Rating?

Research conducted by (Hyland, et al., 2013) in Ireland relating to BER Ratings and the effect the BER has on the sale price of the house found that an A rated house will have a price premium of 9.3% over a D rated house. The research also found that for each drop on the rating scale there is a 1.3% decrease in the resale price of the house. The research suggests that there is an encouraging association with energy efficient dwellings and an increase in property premiums for A rated houses.

Further studies conducted by Davis, et al., (2015) in Belfast found that there was only a small increase in the price premium from having a greater BER rating and the main factor considered when purchasing a house was the ‘quality’ aspects of the dwelling. It would be common for a high ‘quality house’ and an energy efficient house to share similar attributes in the purchaser’s perspective. From both research papers, it is clear that the if a house has a greater BER rating it will increase the sale price of the house. There are a number of tips to help improve a BER rating of a house before the BER assessor comes to survey your home.

How to improve a BER rating

1. Draught proof all the windows and doors on your house that do not already have a draught excluder. Install draught stripping that can be permanently installed, sticky back draught stripping will fall off after a few months. Insulate all attic hatch doors as your attic has considerable amounts of ventilation to help the timber stay dry.
2. Install a hit and miss vent cover on all external wall vents. Leave a permanently open vent cover in your living room if you have a fuel burning appliance, as this will remove carbon dioxide.
3. Install low energy light CFL/LED bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs in all rooms of the house. These do not need to be installed in tempory light fixings such as lamps or movable lights. LED or CFL lights can last up to 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs. While also reducing your energy bills
4. Install at least a 30mm insulated jacket on your hot water tank. By insulating your hot water tank in your hot press, you could reduce the heat lost from the tank by up to 45% while also reducing the cost to heat that water by 15%. A factory insulated hot water tank is the best option to insulate your tank but there is no need to remove a working copper cylinder if it is working correctly.
5. If you have an open fire that you do not use, consider permanently blocking the hole with timber or plasterboard. As a BER assessor cannot count a chimney balloon as a blocked chimney due to the possibility of the balloon being removed easily. An open fire is only 30% efficient while a stove can be over 80% efficient.
6. Install Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV) in each room or in over 50% of the habitable rooms as required by SEAI in the DEAP manual. The TRVs will allow the heat from each radiator to be regulated separately on a room by room basis. This essentially means that you will not be over heating a room that you do no use.

The above steps to help improve a BER rating are simple DIY steps that can be done very easily and cheaply but the below steps are more expensive. The above steps could improve a BER rating by 1-2 grades.

1. If you have single glazed windows and doors, install triple glazed windows and doors. A single glazed window has a U-value of 4.8 K/Whr while a triple glazed window has a value of 0.80. A study conducted at a temperature on the inside of a window found that the inside of a single glazed window temperature was 1 degree while a triple glazed window temperature was 18 degrees on the inside. This study shows that the single glazed window has not got the capabilities to hold the heat in the house.
2. If your house has a cavity wall then the walls can be pumped with a bonded bead cavity wall system. This system pumps insulation beads into the cavity of the wall under compressed air with glue. the insulation fills the void in the wall with insulation. depending on the cavity width this upgrade alone could change a BER rating of a house by 2-3 grades alone. SEAI provide a grant for this form of house upgrade, which consists of €300 to upgrade the wall and €50 towards the BER assessors cost. A BER is required on all grant application work.

1. Install attic insulation in your house. 30% of the heat in a house rises upwards and can be lost through the attic if it has poor or no insulation in place. To mitigate this, it is advised to install 300mm insulation to stop heat loss through the building. SEAI also provide a grant for this form of house upgrade, which consists of €300 to upgrade the wall and €50 towards the BER assessors cost.
2. SEAI also prove grants for new boilers and heating controls. There is €700 worth of grants available for this upgrade. The upgrade work would involve installing a condensing boiler which is 90%+ efficient with TRVs and room thermostats. Which will allow for easy control of the heating system.

If all the above is installed in an existing semi-detached house, the house BER could possibily improve to a rating of B3 or C1.