Glossary


BEDF - Boiler Efficiency Data File. Provides efficiency information on boilers.

BER - Building Energy Rating Certificate, a report to show the energy efficiency and environmental impact of an individual property.

BREDEM - Building Research Establishment Domestic Energy Model. System that estimates power uses in a property and measured areas to provide the energy used.

Bungalow - A property constructed with one storey only. A room in a roof is not to be classed as a storey.

CPSU - Combined Primary Storage Unit. A single appliance designed to provide both space heating and domestic hot water, in which there is a burner that heats a thermal store in the unit.

DEA - Domestic Energy Assessor. DEAs survey individual properties to assess their energy performance and efficiency rating.

Detached - Houses that have exposed walls on all four sides.

District (community) Heating - Heat is produced for a property from a boiler house or boiler room in a block of flats serving a number of other dwellings.

Enclosed End Terrace - The first or last house in a terraced row of back-to-back houses.

Enclosed Mid-terrace (Back to-Back) - Terraced houses that also back onto another terraced row. They have only one heat loss wall.

End of Terrace - The first or last house in a terraced row. Similar to Semi-detached but tend to have blank end walls.

Electric Direct Acting Boilers - These boilers heat the water directly as it passes through the unit then onto a wet radiator system.

Electric Dry Core Boilers - Consists of a large casing of storage bricks with a heat exchanger feeding a wet radiator system.

Filled Cavity - A wall that has been constructed as a standard cavity wall, but has then been retro filled with cavity insulation.

Flat - A property with a single level incorporated in a block of 2 or more storeys.

Ground Floor Flat - The lowest flat in a block situated at ground level.

Habitable Room Count - Used to estimate the proportion of floor area that is heated to a higher temperature than the rest of the dwelling.

Heat Pump - Heat pumps work by absorbing heat energy from a low temperature source and upgrading it to a higher temperature so that it can be used for heating.

HLP - Heat Loss Perimeter. All perimeter walls that are exposed to unheated or external temperatures.

LPG - Liquid Petroleum Gas.

Maisonette - A flat that has more than one storey.

Mid Floor Flat - Any flat situated between the ground floor and the top floor.

Mid-terrace - Houses that have two party walls and two heat loss sides.

PDA - Portable Digital Assistant, a handheld device used to received job instructions and fill in and submit BER data. 

PV solar panels - Photovoltaic solar panels. Devices that capture solar radiation and turn it directly into electricity. 

RDSAP - Reduced Data SAP. Survey system used to assess a property?s energy performance and environmental impact.

Rooms in Roof A - Habitable part of a dwelling built into what would normally be classed as a loft space.

SAP - Standard Assessment Procedure. Calculates a rating for the energy performance of the built structure of the home and its heating, hot water and lighting systems.

Semi-detached - Houses that share one side (Party Wall) with a neighbour.

Standard Occupancy Procedure - Assumes property is heated for 9 hours during the week, 16 hours at the weekend to 18 degrees for the main house and 21 degrees in living areas.

System Built - Refers to different non-traditional construction methods, such as prefabricated concrete panel construction.

Top Floor Flat - The highest flat in a block situated at roof level or directly below a roof space.

TRVs - Thermostatic Radiator Valves. A valve that controls heat locally, i.e. on a radiator.

U-Value - Numbers which tell us the rate of heat loss of a wall, floor, window etc. 

WAU - Warm Air Unit. Warm air systems produce hot air, which is then distributed around the property by a combination of ducting and natural air movement.

WMS - Work Management System. System set up to create and manage BER jobs for clients and operators.