Ms Orla Coyle:

We have done a number of research projects and this feeds back into some of the discussion we had earlier. One of the projects concerned operational energy and how people operate their buildings. The BER rating is a comparative asset rating and it compares like-for-like buildings, with similar occupancy or profiles in terms of temperatures. Some of the studies indicate that different people operate their buildings differently. There could be one teenager in a house, for example, or there could be five teenagers in that house and the energy use would be different.

We have just launched a new tool on the SEAI website. We have also done recent projects on internal environmental quality, the impact of retrofitting buildings and the benefits of that. The tool on our website takes many of the learnings from that research. It is available. One can go into the tool and state that one's home currently has a D rating, for example, or the tool will make an assumption in respect of a BER rating. It will show the benefit in terms of one's internal environment and the comfort and air quality within one's home. One can input the number of occupants in the home. It will inform people and provide running costs. That is all based on some of the research projects we mentioned earlier. It will provide a comparison between a D-rated home and a B2-rated one, for example. It will outline that if one retrofits one's home, comfort and energy use will be improved, bills will be reduced and so on.