The number of Building Energy Ratings (BER) audits performed in certain months have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For further information please see the SEAI website.
The number of audits reported between January and March (Q1) 2023 was 58% more than Q1 2022 (see Table A and Table 1).
Electricity was the main space heating fuel used in 87% of the dwellings with a Building Energy Rating (BER) audit and where construction was completed during 2020-2023 (see Table 9).
Dwellings built in 2015-2019 and in 2020-2023 were considerably more energy efficient than those built in earlier periods with 96% and 99% respectively given an A rating (see Table 2).
Kildare (23%), Meath (22%) and Dublin County (21%) had the highest proportion of A ratings while Leitrim had the lowest at 2% (see Table 4).
Looking at Dublin postal districts, Dublin 18 (28%) and Dublin 13 (25%) had the highest proportion of A ratings while Dublin 6 and Dublin 7 had the highest proportion of G ratings at 14% (see Table 5).
| Table A: Number of Domestic BER certificates | ||||||
| number | ||||||
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | % change 2023/2022 |
| January | 5,524 | 5,887 | 3,766 | 5,932 | 9,570 | 61% |
| February | 6,894 | 7,622 | 4,794 | 7,361 | 11,985 | 63% |
| March | 7,221 | 7,176 | 6,041 | 8,370 | 12,619 | 51% |
| Quarter 1 | 19,639 | 20,685 | 14,601 | 21,663 | 34,174 | 58% |
| Mains Gas | Heating Oil | Electricity | |
| 2000-2004 | 40 | 36 | 19 |
| 2005-2009 | 44 | 32 | 19 |
| 2010-2014 | 47 | 31 | 19 |
| 2015-2019 | 46 | 5 | 49 |
| 2020-2023 | 13 | 0 | 87 |
| Earliest | Latest | |
| A | 0 | 4 |
| B1 | 1 | 4 |
| B2 | 2 | 7 |
| B3 | 5 | 14 |
| C1 | 9 | 16 |
| C2 | 11 | 14 |
| C3 | 12 | 11 |
| D1 | 13 | 10 |
| D2 | 13 | 8 |
| E1 | 8 | 4 |
| E2 | 7 | 3 |
| F | 8 | 2 |
| G | 10 | 2 |
| National Data | BER Database | |
| A | 8 | 11 |
| B1 | 2 | 2 |
| B2 | 3 | 4 |
| B3 | 7 | 8 |
| C1 | 10 | 11 |
| C2 | 11 | 12 |
| C3 | 11 | 11 |
| D1 | 12 | 11 |
| D2 | 10 | 9 |
| E1 | 6 | 5 |
| E2 | 5 | 4 |
| F | 5 | 4 |
| G | 8 | 6 |
1Dwellings with BERs have been weighted using 2016 Census of Population data to estimate a BER profile for All Dwellings at National level (see Background Notes).
| A | B | C | D | E | F-G | |
| 1700-1977 | 1 | 6 | 19 | 23 | 19 | 31 |
| 1978-1999 | 1 | 9 | 41 | 33 | 11 | 5 |
| 2000-2004 | 1 | 14 | 59 | 19 | 5 | 2 |
| 2005-2009 | 2 | 38 | 49 | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| 2010-2014 | 33 | 58 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015-2019 | 96 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020-2023 | 99 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 April 2023) released Domestic Building Energy Ratings for Q1 2023.
Commenting on the release Dympna Corry, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division, said: "There were 34,174 Building Energy Rating (BER) audits reported in Q1 2023 compared with 21,663 in Q1 2022. The number of BER audits completed in January 2023 was 61% higher than January 2022, while February 2023 rates were 63% greater than February 2022. The number of BER audits also increased by 51% in March 2023 compared with March 2022. In the period 2009 to March 2023, 1.3 million BER audits were undertaken.
Main Space Heating Fuel
Electricity was the main space heating fuel used in 87% of audited dwellings where construction was completed between 2020 and March 2023. This was a substantial increase from buildings constructed during 2015-2019 when 49% of dwellings with a BER audit used electricity. There was a contrasting trend for mains gas, with 13% of dwellings built between 2020-2023 using mains gas as their main space heating fuel compared with 46% of dwellings built between 2015-2019. Looking at heating oil as the main space heating fuel, 0% of dwellings built between 2020-2023 used heating oil compared with 5% of dwellings built between 2015-2019.
Period of Construction
Dwellings built in 2020-2023 and in 2015-2019 were considerably more energy efficient than those constructed before then. A ratings were given to 99% of dwellings built between 2020-2023 and 96% of those built between 2015-2019. This compares with 33% of dwellings built between 2010-2014 which were given an A rating, and just 2% of properties constructed between 2005-2009.
Local Area Analysis
Kildare (23%), Meath (22%) and Dublin County (21%) had the highest proportion of A ratings. Leitrim had the lowest proportion of A ratings at 2%.
Looking specifically at Dublin postal districts, Dublin 18 (28%), Dublin 13 (25%) and Dublin 15 (18%) had the highest proportion of A ratings. Dwellings in Dublin 6 (14%) and Dublin 7 (14%) had the highest proportion of G ratings.
Floor Area
The average floor area of all dwellings with a BER audit was 114 square metres. This average size varied from 163 square metres for detached houses to 60 square metres for basement dwellings.
Multiple Audits
Some dwellings have had more than one energy audit conducted. Only 8% of such dwellings received an A or B rating in their earliest assessment, whereas 29% of them received an A or B rating in their most recent assessment. In contrast, 18% of dwellings were rated F or G in their first BER assessment compared with only 4% in their latest BER assessment.
Weighted Analysis
The national level data weighted using Census of Population 2016 figures shows that 5% of dwellings in Ireland would have received an F rating compared with 4% of dwellings that have had a BER assessment. Similarly, 8% of dwellings would have received a G rating compared with 6% of dwellings in the actual BER data. In contrast, 8% of dwellings would have received an A rating at the national level, whereas 11% of dwellings that have had a BER assessment were given an A rating."