From 1 January, all houses and apartments offered for sale or rent in the Republic of Ireland will require a Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate. This certificate is essentially a rating of how efficiently your home uses energy. The BER certificate is expected to become a new factor to take into account when purchasing a home.
Companies have been established to provide BER certificates to this new market. But what is a BER certificate and why is it now required to sell a house?
– The BER is expressed in the form of performance bands. “A” is the most efficient, while “G” is the least energy efficient. This rating is comparable to the energy labeling of household appliances, which allows you to compare the energy consumption and efficiency of the appliances.
– The Building Energy Rating Certificate (BER) is part of the EU Building Energy Efficiency Directive. (Regulation SI No. 666 of 2006)). The purpose of the regulation is to make the energy performance of a building more understandable to the general public and to make possible a comparison of energy performance between different types and sizes of buildings.
– BER is calculated using information obtained from a building’s energy use for space heating, water heating, ventilation, and lighting. The rating is defined as the primary energy use per unit area per year. ‘A’ rated properties will tend to be the most energy efficient and will generally have the lowest domestic energy bills.
The new certification process should make homeowners more aware of energy efficiency issues and some of the potential solutions available.