My home achieves a poor BER when heated by electricity. Why?

Last edit Q1 2009

The BER is concerned with "primary energy" which accounts for energy required to bring the delivered energy to the dwelling. In the case of electricity, primary energy is significantly higher than the actual amount of energy delivered to the home. This is largely because of the inherent significant inefficiencies in thermal electricity production.

Currently, DEAP has a figure of 2.7kWh primary energy for every 1kWh delivered electrical energy at the dwelling. In other words, the kWh figure on the Electricity bill (delivered energy) would be multiplied by 2.7 if correlating it to the BER result (primary energy). Conversely, oil and gas have a much lower primary energy conversion factor of 1.1. Primary energy includes delivered energy plus an allowance for the energy "overhead" incurred in extracting, processing and transporting a fuel or other energy carrier to the dwelling. In the case of electricity it takes account of generation efficiency at power stations.

In summary, if you have an electrical heat source compared to an efficient oil or gas boiler, the boiler will fare better in terms of primary energy usage (and Building Energy Rating).