Friday 8 February 2008

BER rating - where is it to be found?


I have noticed for a while that I have not seen ONE BER certificate value in an auctioneers ad. On a quick search today on the internet, I found that NO auctioneer showed the BER rating of new Dwellings coming onto the market!
A Building Energy Rating (BER) is standard calculation of the energy performance of a building. It is rather like the A to G rating for a household electrical appliance. BER is based on primary energy demand and the BER scale ranges from "A" (most efficient) to "G" (least efficient). Letters sectioned into 3 levels e.g. A1, A2 A3.


Dwellings designed and built to current building regulations are "C1". Buildings I have designed lately have a A3 to B2 cert.
It is law since 1st of January 2007 that new dwellings for sale must have a BER Certificate. At the moment this is done from the drawings. So the dwellings do not have to be built to get a BER cert Value.

From the 1st of January next year, any existing building being offered for sale or rent must have a BER Certificate.There is talk of the government’s new programme requiring a BER of A1 by the year 2013 for all new dwellings.
So start asking (demand) the BER Cert value the next time you view a new dwelling.

Friday 1 February 2008

Eco Cement

Concrete was always considered not Eco friendly. But now there is a eco-friendly cement, Ecocem Ireland is an independent, specialist producer of GGBS (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag) cement. GBBS cement is manufactured from an industrial by-product (blastfurnace slag) - there is no extraction of new materials. The production of CO2 in manufacturing GGBS is approximately 60kg per tonne (from the electricity and gas consumed) and there are zero CO2 and NOx (oxides of nitrogen) emissions.
1 ton of Portland Cement produces 960 kg of CO2 .

1 ton of GGBS produces 60 kg CO2 some difference.


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