BER course advice

Crowe329

At the moment I'm doing a BER Assessor course, but to be honest the course notes are lacking in clarity and the online tutors are the same. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice with aspects of the course assignments.
For example at the moment Im doing a practise BER assignment(spec below).To calculate the Roof uvalue for DEAP, is it just a simple case of adding the different uvalues together or is there a few calculations involved? Thanks!
Roof.
Roof over 1st floor in Dormer house. Insulated on joist level U-value = 0.16
W/m²K.
Roof u-value at rafters 0.2 W/m²K.
U-value over dormer windows can be assumed to be 0.18 W/m²K.
Sunroom has a solid ceiling in place at the same height as ground floor. U-value
of this ceiling 0.17 W/m2K.

sinnerboy

You have been given the U Values here.

Assuming that you have also been given a drawing you need to measure from the drawing the area for each type of roof.

Each roof type and it's area and U Value are then separately entered into DEAP.

Crowe329

Thanks Sinnerboy!
Really appreciate the help! I'll apologies in advance, I'll probably hound you with more questions!
Thanks again!

muffler

Crowe329 wrote: »

I'll apologies in advance, I'll probably hound you with more questions!

Be careful. He bites

Crowe329

Sinnerboy!
Is it the floor area of the roof space I'm calculating or the volume area of each part of the roof space?
Thanks again!

sinnerboy

Dimensions refer to the inner surfaces of the elements bounding the dwelling.

Measure the enclosing thermal elements. So pitched roofs are measured along the slope to obtain surface area

Page 10 here refers

.

wirehairmax

Crowe329 wrote: »

Sinnerboy!
Is it the floor area of the roof space I'm calculating or the volume area of each part of the roof space?
Thanks again!

Just as a matter of interest, how much construction experience do you have? Have you any background in this area? You sound like a guy that did the BER course the same week as me. He was an abseloute pest for the whole week of the course. He got my number on the first day of the course. Plagued me with phonecalls every night at home when we had some minor assignments to do at home. He left a job stacking shelves in LIDL to become a BER assessor. He failed the course the first time. Must have repeated it and got the exam the next time. A few months later he had a website ACME BER certs.com or something to that effect. Going around doing BER's for €100 now!!!

Crowe329

1. Fairplay to him for gettin of his arse and goin for a better job!
2. Since when are you the judge of what courses people can and can not do? and if you didnt feel like helping him then why bother? As long as his certs are correct €100 sounds like a bargain compared to the stories I hear of cowboy Assessors thinkin its still "The Good Times" and charging €250/300 a pop!
3. If you not on Boards.ie to help or advice then just move on and annoy someone else!

Poor Uncle Tom

Kids, play nice or we close the playground......

wirehairmax

So you think doing a cert for €100 is sustainable in business. I wish you a long and happy career as a BER assessor. I'm not going to breakdown the costs for you as its been done to death here before but suffice to say it doesnt add up to a profitable business model. And if you're not in business to make a profit you wont last long.
When the BER assessment was introduced, you were supposed to have a qualification/background/trade in a construction related dicipline before you were allowed entry into the course. Because of the lack of regulation and the greed of the BER training providers, everyone and anyone was allowed to sit the course. The course and the exam were so easy it was harder to fail it if you had any sort of a brain in your head. This resulted in an influx of unqualified individuals flooding the market offering cut price assessments as supply outstripped demand.
I just used that guy as an example of this. The poor man couldnt work out the volume of a house or average ceiling heights. He rang me one night at 10pm to work out the volume of a hot water cylinder for him. I was talking to him a few months ago and he also let slip that he had failed the existing dwelling exam which is open book and multiple choice. Now does he sound like a suitable individual to be conducting surveys and producing certificates which are legal documents? When browsing through the list of registered assesors in my county, I recognize some of the names on it and theres not much construction background in some of them.
Theres no need to get pissy about my reply as I am entitled to my opinion.

Poor Uncle Tom

My last post was a clear warning, but despite that you continue.....

banned for a week.

pmandcivileng

Its the cowboy BER assessors underpricing BER certs at €100. €250 is a realististic price when VAT, SEAI fee, overheads, tax, training, CPD, accountancy fees, equipment, travel, fuel, auditing, filing and of course tax are all taken into account.

muffler

pmandcivileng wrote: »

Its the cowboy BER assessors underpricing BER certs at €100. €250 is a realististic price when VAT, SEAI fee, overheads, tax, training, CPD, accountancy fees, equipment, travel, fuel, auditing, filing and of course tax are all taken into account.

And what has all this got to do with the OP looking for advice on course assignments?

pmandcivileng

Not much. I'm replying to a throwaway remark about ''cowboy'' assessors as is my right on a public forum. It's public forums like Boards that help drive public perception of BER assessors. Business is bad enough without being branded as a ''cowboy'' and made to look as if we're ripping people off by charging €250 for a professional service. I've worked hard to build a business since I left college and invested in further college courses and in BER courses and other CPD's to offer a better and broader service to my clients. I wouldn't do a BER assessment for €100 even for family or friends. Its just not sustainable with the rising cost of doing business in this country. At €200-€250 for a BER I break even and I'm glad its not my primary source of income. Anybody who thinks that by doing the course and setting up as a BER assessor as your only business and then only charging €100 for your services is only fooling themselves.

sinnerboy

Crowe329 you are welcome to start a new thread

To all others - derail another thread and YOUR OUT OF HERE

muffler

pmandcivileng wrote: »

I'm replying to a throwaway remark about ''cowboy'' assessors as is my right on a public forum.

No, this is a privately owned forum which is open to the public and no, you dont have any rights here or any free speech.

If you want to post you may do so in accordance with our terms and conditions.

As pointed out by sinnerboy do not derail any other threads by posting off topic.

muffler

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

My last post was a clear warning, but despite that you continue.....

banned for a week.

He now has a 1 week site wide ban for registering another account, pmandcivileng, to circumvent the forum ban from here.