What Is A Good BER Rating?
The importance of having an energy efficient home cannot be underestimated, yet many homeowners struggle to understand exactly how their home is performing. This is where Building Energy Rating (BER) can come in.
A BER rating is a certificate that demonstrates how energy efficient (or how inefficient) your home is. A scale from A to G is used, with A-rated homes the most energy efficient and G-rated homes in need of serious improvement.
What Is A Good BER Rating?
No homeowner or developer wants to be dealing with the very lowest BER rating. However, it is harder to quantify exactly what a good BER rating is and what you should be aiming for.
A number of factors may affect a property’s ability to achieve the very highest BER rating and therefore what is deemed good for one home may be different to another. However, it is widely accepted that a ‘good’ BER rating falls within the A or B category. These scores indicate that a property is well-insulated, employs efficient home heating systems, and produces low carbon emissions.
Why Is A Good BER Rating Important?
Having a good BER rating is a clear indication that steps have been taken to limit the impact that a home may have on the environment. However, a good BER rating is more than just a badge of honour for the environmentally conscious; it is a practical measure that can yield numerous quantifiable benefits. These include:
Reduced Energy Costs
One of the primary advantages of a good BER rating is reduced energy costs. Energy efficient homes not only produce fewer carbon emissions, but they also require less energy to maintain comfortable living conditions. In the long run, this can result in substantial savings when it comes to energy bills.
Meet Legal Requirements
While a BER certificate is a legal requirement if you are renting, buying or selling a home, simply obtaining a rating is not enough for some homes. Since November 2019, all new residential dwellings in Ireland have been required to hold a BER rating of A2. This highlights just how important it is that builders and developers take their responsibilities seriously to ensure that legal requirements are met.
Increase Property Value
Additionally, a high BER rating can increase the value of a property. As sustainability becomes a more significant consideration for homebuyers and growing numbers become aware of the low energy bills that go hand in hand with efficient homes, a good BER rating may attract a larger pool of prospective buyers. This may increase the amount your property can be sold for as homeowners compete to outbid each other to own an energy efficient home.
How To Improve Your BER Rating?
Since changes in legislation and the introduction of an A2 BER rating for new homes, the number of homeowners needing to improve their BER rating has decreased. However, there are still a significant number of Irish homes that are not as efficient as they could be and therefore could take steps to work towards a good BER rating.
Improving your BER rating does not have to be an overwhelming task. There are several practical steps that you can take to improve the energy efficiency of your home, such as getting new or improved insulation and sealing gaps and draughts around the home to prevent heat loss.
One of the most significant things you can do to improve your BER rating is to make sure that your home heating system is as efficient as it can be. If your home heating is powered by an old oil or gas boiler, it might be time to invest in something greener and more efficient like an air to water heat pump.
Should you wish to take practical steps to improve your BER rating then don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team here at Pipelife. We are experts when it comes to all things energy efficiency, including heat pump technology.