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This release combined networked gas meter consumption with Building Energy Ratings (BER). Only dwellings that had a BER audit and that used natural gas as their main space heating fuel were included in the matching process. The matching of both datasets was done using the Eircode. The analysis is based on 233,735 dwellings.
A and B rated dwellings consumed 15% less gas in 2022, with similar reductions among dwellings with C ratings (15%), D ratings (15%), E ratings (14%), and F and G ratings (14%) (See Table 2B).
More energy efficient dwellings consumed less gas per square metre. F and G rated dwellings consumed 104 kilowatt hours of gas per square metre (kWh/m2) in 2022, 39% more than the 75 kWh/m2 consumed by A and B rated dwellings (See Table A and Table 5B).
More energy efficient dwellings had more floor area for each type of dwelling. A and B rated detached houses had a mean floor area of 193m2, compared with a mean floor area of 125m2 among F and G rated detached houses (See Table 4A).
The biggest differences in consumption were seen between types of dwelling. Detached houses used 13,563 kWh of natural gas in 2022, 81% higher than the 7,480 kWh consumed by apartments (See Figure 1 and Table 2A).
Newer dwellings consumed less gas than older dwellings. In 2022, dwellings built between 2005 and 2022 had a mean consumption of 80 kWh/m2, compared with 97 kWh/m2 for dwellings built between 1900 and 1966 (See Table 5C).
| Mean Gas Consumption | |
| A/B | 9.813 |
| C | 9.374 |
| D | 9.672 |
| E | 10.013 |
| F/G | 9.382 |
| Apartment | 7.48 |
| House (mid-terrace) | 7.699 |
| House (end-of-terrace) | 8.635 |
| House (semi-detached) | 9.875 |
| House (detached) | 13.563 |
| A/B | F/G | |
| Apartments | 92 | 74 |
| Detached Houses | 193 | 125 |
| Table A Mean Gas Consumption per square metre by Year and Energy Rating 2022 | |||||
| Mean kilowatt hours per square metre | |||||
| Year | A/B | C | D | E | F/G |
| 2015 | 87 | 99 | 110 | 120 | 121 |
| 2016 | 86 | 97 | 109 | 118 | 119 |
| 2017 | 84 | 95 | 107 | 115 | 117 |
| 2018 | 94 | 107 | 118 | 127 | 128 |
| 2019 | 86 | 98 | 109 | 118 | 120 |
| 2020 | 91 | 103 | 114 | 122 | 123 |
| 2021 | 88 | 101 | 112 | 119 | 120 |
| 2022 | 75 | 86 | 96 | 103 | 104 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (04 December 2023) released Household Gas Consumption by Building Energy Ratings 2022.
Commenting on the release Kevin Hunt, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division, said: "This analysis examined households that had a Building Energy Rating (BER) and used networked gas as their main space heating fuel.
Consumption by Energy Rating
Gas consumption per square metre in 2022 was consistently lower in buildings with better energy ratings: 75 kWh per square metre (kWh/m2) for A and B rated dwellings, 86 kWh/m2 for C rated dwellings, 96 kWh/m2 for D rated dwellings, 103 kWh/m2 for E rated dwellings, and 104 kWh/m2 for F or G rated dwellings (See Table 5B). Buildings with F and G ratings consumed 38.7% more gas per square metre than buildings with A and B ratings (See Table A and Table 5B).
Floor Area by Energy Rating
In general, more energy efficient dwellings had larger average floor areas (See Table 4A and Table 4C). A and B rated detached houses had a mean floor area of 193m2, with F and G rated detached houses averaging 125m2 (See Table 4A). Similarly, A and B rated apartments had a mean floor area of 92m2, while F and G rated apartments averaged 74m2 in floor area (See Table 4A).
The larger A and B rated dwellings consumed more natural gas on average in 2022 than F and G rated dwellings (9,813 kWh compared with 9,382 kWh) (See Figure 1 and Table 2B).
Consumption by Dwelling Type
The differences in mean gas consumption per dwelling in 2022 varied more by the type of dwelling than by the energy rating (See Figure 1, Table 2A and Table 2B). In 2022, detached houses used substantially more gas than other types of dwelling, with a mean consumption of 13,563 kWh. This was 81.3% higher than the lowest consumption by dwelling type of 7,480 KWh in apartments (See Table 2A).
Consumption by Period of Construction
Newer buildings showed lower mean consumption per square metre than those constructed in earlier years. Buildings constructed between 2005-2022 had a mean gas consumption of 80 kWh/m2. This was 82.5% the consumption of buildings built from 1900-1966 (97 kWh/m2), which had the highest mean consumption among construction periods (See Table 5C).
Trends in Gas Consumption
A significant reduction in gas consumption was seen in all categories of dwelling in 2022. By dwelling type, the decrease in 2022 from 2021 ranged from 13.1% (for apartments) to 15.3% (for detached houses) (See Table 2A). By energy rating, A and B rated dwellings showed a similar reduction in gas consumption in 2022 (15.0%), as did C rated dwellings (14.8%), D rated dwellings (14.5%), E rated dwellings (13.7%) and F/G rated dwellings (13.8%) (See Table 2B)."