Homes in Kildare, Dublin County and Meath tend to be the most energy-efficient, with these areas having the highest proportion of A ratings in their Building Energy Rating (BER) audits, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggests.
Overall, some 21 per cent of homes in Kildare are A rated, as are 20 per cent of homes in Dublin County and Meath.
The lowest proportion of A ratings is found in Leitrim, where just 2 per cent of dwellings have this grade, with the county also tying with Roscommon for the highest proportion of G ratings, the least energy efficient grade, at 12 per cent.
Within Dublin city’s postal districts from 1 to 24, some 11 per cent of homes are A rated, with Dublin 13 (25 per cent) and Dublin 18 (24 per cent) having the highest proportion of such ratings. The highest number of G ratings in the city was found in Dublin 6 (15 per cent) and Dublin 7 (14 per cent).
Dwellings built in both the 2015 to 2019 and 2020 to 2022 periods are considerably better insulated than those constructed at earlier times, with 96 per cent and 99 per cent respectively given an A rating, the CSO said. This compares with 33 per cent of dwellings built between 2010-2014 and just 2 per cent in the 2005-2009 period.
The data also shows a significant change has occurred in the type of energy being used for heating in newly built homes.
Electricity was the main space heating fuel used in 84 per cent of homes completed during the 2020-2022 period where a BER audit took place. This marks a “substantial increase” on the 2015-2019 period, when only 48 per cent of dwellings with a BER audit used electricity, said CSO statistician Dympna Corry.
Just 15 per cent of BER-audited dwellings built in the last three years used mains gas as their main space heating fuel, compared with 46 per cent in the 2015-2019 period. No homes built between 2020-2022 use heating oil as their main fuel, compared with 5 per cent of homes built between 2015-2019.
The number of audits reported in the third quarter of this year arrived at 34,368, which was the highest since the data series began in 2009 and was up 49 per cent on the same period in 2021, the statistics agency added.
The research on domestic BER audits is part of a push to develop the State’s environmental and social statistics, providing clearer information on issues such as climate impact and energy poverty.
Ms Corry noted there had been a “huge improvement” in energy efficiency ratings since 2005.
