Acceptance of offer to extend accreditation of BERS Pro v4.2 and for conditional accreditation of BERS Pro v4.3

Energy Inspection has accepted the offer of conditional short term accreditation from the NatHERS Administrator made on 25 September 2015. Under this offer:

• Extension of short term accreditation has been provided for the current accredited version of the BERS Pro software v4.2.110811 until 1 February 2016 and
• conditional short term accreditation of BERS Pro v4.3.0.0 (3.13) has been provided until 1 May 2016

Under the conditions of the offer, BERS Pro v4.3.0.0 (3.13) is only accredited to model stand-alone Class 1 buildings and dwellings (without shared walls with another building or dwelling). The software is not accredited for any other purpose, in particular, the software is not accredited to model:

• any Class 2 and 4 buildings and dwellings
• Class 1 buildings and dwellings that contain shared walls with a neighbouring building or dwelling (e.g. row houses and terrace houses) and
• any type or class of buildings and dwellings which contain roof windows or autoclaved aerated concrete flooring

Conditions of the offer also require Energy Inspection to:

• develop training materials and a BERS Pro user induction process, that is approved by the NatHERS Administrator, which must be completed by BERS Pro users before they can use the BERS Pro v 4.3.0.0 (3.13) software to complete a home energy rating and
• develop and implement a process to ensure the details being displayed on the Universal Certificate are complete and correct, prior to users being allowed to use the software to complete a home energy rating

Existing BERS Pro users will be able to continue to use BERS Pro software v4.2.110811 until 1 February 2016 under existing  accreditation arrangements.

Energy Inspection has committed to the NatHERS Administrator to make further improvements to BERS Pro v4.3.0.0 (3.13) and any later versions in a staged process, with the aim of gaining ongoing accreditation for all Class 1, 2 and 4 buildings.

The NatHERS Administrator will publish progress updates following the completion of each stage in early February 2016 and again in early April 2016, ahead of the conditional short term accreditation of BERS Pro v4.3.0.0 (3.13) expiring on 1 May 2016.