Advisory report
The BER Advisory Report accompanies the BER certificate. It provides guidance to homeowners and prospective buyers about upgrades that could improve the BER rating of the property.
About advisory reports
The BER regulations require new dwellings and dwellings for sale or rent to have a BER and advisory report. The advisory report gives homeowners a personalised roadmap to upgrade their home to a target B2 energy rating, or better. This is in line with targets within the Climate Action Plan.
BER assessors generate advisory reports using the advisory report builder within the DEAP software. Recommendations in the advisory report are based on inputs to DEAP.
Technical guidance
This document gives BER assessors guidance on using the advisory report builder. It also explains the information contained within the advisory report.
The document includes:
- Logic and approach of the recommendations
- Upgrades and recommendations
- Minimum and target BER improvements
- Using the advisory report builder
- Errors, warnings and solutions
Energy efficiency bands
This table explains the values that determine the energy efficiency indicators displayed on the advisory report. These are Very Poor, Poor, Fair, Good and Very Good.
SEAI grants for upgrade works
Home energy upgrade grants are available for homeowners to support the cost of upgrade works recommended in the Advisory Report.
Find out more about home energy grants.
Building regulation compliance
Upgrade works should comply with relevant building regulations. The primary responsibility for compliance rests with the designers, builders and owners of buildings. Technical guidance documents for the building regulations and other supporting documents are available from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Further information
More detailed information on upgrading a dwelling is available in the NSAI S.R. 54:2014 Code of Practice.
BER Advisory Report
Aug 9th, 2021
This webinar introduces and explains the BER Advisory Report, which gives homeowners a personalised roadmap to bring their home up to an energy rating of B2 or better. There is a Q&A session at the end of the webinar.
Your questions about the advisory report
These Q&As have been adapted from questions received from BER Assessors during the advisory report webinars held in June 2021.
There can only be one official advisory report. However, it's possible for assessors to generate multiple draft reports before the publication of the official advisory report. These can be used to explore different options with your client ahead of publishing the official advisory report. You can generate draft versions and save or print these locally. They will have 'draft' written on them.
It is a legal requirement to obtain a BER certificate and official advisory report for the sale of a home. This is in accordance with the BER Scheme and the 2012 Regulations. A draft report will not be acceptable as an official document.
The official advisory report can be updated and replaced, at no cost and without the need to re-publish the assessment. This option is available for any advisory report published in DEAP 4 since September 2019. Old format advisory reports published using DEAP 3 cannot be recreated in the new format.
The advisory report is a first step for homeowners to help them engage with a retrofit professional. It was important to provide enough information to homeowners to allow them to start those discussions, but also to avoid getting too technical. The advisory report refers homeowners to the Building Regulations and SR 54:2014 Code of Practice for Energy Efficient Retrofit. These include guidance in relation to thermal bridging. Their advisor or contractor should also advise them on reducing heat loss due to thermal bridging.
The advisory report reflects the information that has been entered into DEAP. You can suppress a recommendation if you feel it is not appropriate for the particular dwelling.
The homeowner's BER section gives detailed information on the key data points in a BER and the information needed to support non-default entries. It helps homeowners:
- prepare documentary evidence before their assessment through a BER checklist
- ensure they obtain and retain all the information required to support non-default values in their BER
The advisory report builder provides indicators for both minimum and target potential ratings for the improved BER. The minimum and target ratings are dependent on the current rating. You will need to ensure that a sufficient list of measures has been selected within the advisory report builder to meet the minimum rating and generate a report.
The B2 target is the ideal potential rating for the dwelling. This is in line with the ‘cost optimal’ requirement as set out for major renovations in Part L of the Building Regulations and with retrofit targets in the Climate Action Plan. Not every advisory report needs to reach a B2. While the target BER is usually a B2, it is not necessary to achieve the target rating.