Last updated: August 2026. Human compiled and fact checked against each named source on 28 August 2026.
Ireland changed how it measures home energy performance on 24 May 2026, when the Building Energy Rating scale was cut from 15 categories to 8 and a new A0 rating was created for zero emission homes. The first CSO figures under the new scale were published on 26 August 2026, and they land in the middle of a record retrofit programme: over 58,000 SEAI supported upgrades in 2025 and a 96% jump in grant applications in early 2026. This page gathers the current Irish figures on BER ratings, retrofits, energy grants and energy poverty, each linked to its primary source. It is part of a series with our home renovation and extension statistics and attic conversion statistics.
Key Home Energy and Retrofit Statistics for Ireland at a Glance
- The BER scale was reduced from 15 categories to 8 (A0, A, B, C, D, E, F, G) on 24 May 2026, and A0 is a new category for energy efficient buildings with no fossil fuel emissions. Sources: SEAI, new simplified BER scale and CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
- 3,006 dwellings received the new A0 rating between 24 May and the end of June 2026, every one of them heated by electricity. Source: CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
- Of the 1.37 million unique dwellings rated since 2009, 18% are rated A0 or A, 18% B and 31% C, which leaves 64% at C or below (remainder calculated). Source: CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
- More than 99% of audited dwellings built since 2020 received an A or A0 rating, against 6% of those built between 2005 and 2009. Source: CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
- 232,158 dwellings assessed more than once have improved by at least one full letter category, the clearest national measure of renovation impact. Source: CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
- Over 58,000 SEAI supported home energy upgrades were completed in 2025, the highest year on record, backed by €645 million; the 2026 target is 73,000 upgrades on a €640 million allocation. Sources: SEAI, January 2026 and SEAI, April 2026
- SEAI processed 29,000 grant applications in Quarter 1 2026, up 96% year on year, including over 7,000 for the new windows and doors grant. Source: SEAI, 21 April 2026
- 257,000 home energy upgrades have been delivered since 2019 with Government funding of over €1.7 billion. Source: SEAI, 21 April 2026
- 4.5% of people were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm in 2025, down from a peak of 7.2% in 2023 and half the EU average of 8.8%. Sources: CSO, SILC Enforced Deprivation, table SIA131 and Eurostat, sdg_07_60
- Heat pumps are present in 15% of rated dwellings overall but 84% of those built since 2020, and solar installations in 16% of rated dwellings. Source: CSO, Domestic BER Quarter 2 2026
The New BER Scale Since 24 May 2026
The change is the first of its kind since BERs were introduced. Under new regulations implementing the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the scale for both domestic and non-domestic buildings moved from 15 categories to 8 on 24 May 2026: A0, A, B, C, D, E, F and G, with all sub categories such as B1, B2 and B3 removed, according to SEAI. A0 is an entirely new category for buildings that are both energy efficient and produce no carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. The new certificate also adds information on energy use, renewable contribution and whole life carbon, plus a QR code linking to tailored upgrade guidance.
The CSO’s Domestic Building Energy Ratings release for Quarter 2 2026, published on 26 August 2026, is the first under the new system. It maps the deprecated sub categories to their parent letters, so historic and new ratings can be compared. In the five weeks after the change, 3,006 dwellings received an A0 rating, all of them using electricity as the main space heating fuel, and 370 previously rated dwellings were upgraded to A0 on reassessment.
How Ireland’s Homes Rate Today
Of the 1.37 million unique dwellings rated since 2009, 18% carry an A0 or A rating, 18% a B and 31% a C, which places 64% of the rated stock at C or below (remainder calculated from the same release). Construction era is the dividing line: more than 99% of audited dwellings built since 2020 achieved A or A0, as did 93% of those built between 2015 and 2019, but the share falls to 39% for 2010 to 2014 builds and 6% for 2005 to 2009.
Geographically, the highest shares of A or A0 rated dwellings are in Kildare (30%), Dublin County (29%) and Meath (28%), and the lowest in Leitrim and Cork City (both 6%), while Roscommon and Leitrim have the highest shares of G rated homes at 11%. Within the Dublin postal districts, Dublin 18 leads at 45%, followed by Dublin 13 at 32% and Dublin 20 at 27%. All figures are from the CSO Quarter 2 2026 release.
The stock behind those ratings is old: two thirds of Ireland’s occupied homes, 66.9%, were built before 2001, calculated from Census 2022 table FY033A excluding not stated responses. The age profile is covered in detail on our home renovation and extension statistics page.
Heating Fuels, Heat Pumps and Solar
Mains gas and heating oil each heat 34% of rated dwellings, with electricity at 26%, per the CSO Quarter 2 2026 release. The split is strongly regional: the Quarter 1 2026 release recorded 61% of rated Dublin region homes heated by mains gas, while heating oil dominates rated homes in the Border (67%) and West (60%), per the CSO Quarter 1 2026 release. A Dublin retrofit is therefore usually a gas boiler story and a rural retrofit an oil story, which changes the economics of the heat pump switch. Heat pumps are present in 15% of rated dwellings where the main fuel is identified, rising to 84% of dwellings built since 2020, and solar electric or thermal installations appear in 16% of rated dwellings, highest in detached houses (26%) and lowest in apartments (5%). Census 2022 separately counted 119,300 homes with solar panels, 6% of occupied dwellings, and about 25% of occupied homes using some renewable energy source, per the Census 2022 Profile 2 key findings.
Two planning changes from 27 July 2026 remove friction from this work: external wall insulation on a dwelling is now exempt from planning permission, and the heat pump exemption is no longer restricted to the rear of the property, per the Department of Housing announcement.
Retrofits and Grants: a Record 2025, a Faster 2026
2025 was the highest year on record for SEAI supported work: over 58,000 home energy upgrades completed, 8% more than 2024, within a record €645 million investment across SEAI programmes; over 8,000 homes at risk of fuel poverty received free upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme, and more than 102,000 homes have been grant aided for solar PV since 2018, a third of them in 2025, per the SEAI end of year statement.
2026 is running faster again. SEAI processed 29,000 grant applications between January and March, up 96% year on year, with applications for individual upgrades up 186%: over 7,000 for the new windows and doors grant, over 1,730 for attic insulation (up 81%), over 1,000 for cavity wall insulation (up 62%) and over 350 for heat pumps (up 95%), per the SEAI statement of 21 April 2026. Budget 2026 allocated a record €640 million to target 73,000 upgrades this year, and 257,000 upgrades have been delivered since 2019 with over €1.7 billion in Government funding. The current individual grant ceilings, from the SEAI individual grants page in August 2026, are below.
| SEAI individual home energy grant | Maximum grant |
|---|---|
| Attic insulation | €2,000 (€2,500 for first time buyers and homeowners on qualifying welfare payments) |
| Wall insulation (cavity, external or internal) | €8,000 |
| Windows | €4,000 |
| Doors | €1,600 |
| Heat pump system | €12,500 |
| Heating controls | €700 |
| Solar PV | €1,800 |
| Solar water heating | €1,200 |
What Retrofits Achieve: 232,158 Improved Ratings
The BER register doubles as a national before and after study. Among dwellings that have received more than one assessment, 232,158 improved by at least one full letter category over their initial rating, and 370 of them reached the new A0 on their latest assessment, per the CSO Quarter 2 2026 release. That improved count was reported as over 220,000 in the Quarter 1 release published in May, so roughly 12,000 homes joined the improved list in a single quarter (difference calculated from the Quarter 1 2026 release). The Quarter 1 release also found that 51% of improvers had moved from a C rating or below in their first assessment to an A or B in their most recent one, which is the profile of a deep retrofit rather than a single measure. Set against the 1.85 million occupied dwellings counted by Census 2022, the improved group amounts to about one home in every eight (calculated), so the renovation wave is measurable in the national register, not just in grant statistics.
Energy Poverty: Ireland Against the EU
The CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions tracks who cannot afford warmth. In 2025, 4.5% of people were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm, down from 4.9% in 2024 and a peak of 7.2% in 2023, while 7.5% went without heating at some stage in the year, from CSO SILC table SIA131. The full series shows the energy price shock arriving and receding.
| Year | Unable to afford to keep the home adequately warm | Without heating at some stage in the last year |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3.4% | 6.7% |
| 2022 | 6.8% | 8.2% |
| 2023 | 7.2% | 10.8% |
| 2024 | 4.9% | 8.2% |
| 2025 | 4.5% | 7.5% |
Source for the table: CSO, SILC Enforced Deprivation, table SIA131, percentage of individuals. Eurostat’s EU indicator records the same 4.5% for Ireland in 2025 against an EU average of 8.8% (Eurostat, sdg_07_60), so the two sources agree exactly, and Ireland sits at roughly half the EU rate. The Warmer Homes Scheme, which delivered free upgrades to over 8,000 at risk homes in 2025, is the direct policy response.
The Cost Side: Insulation Materials
Materials for this work have stabilised without getting cheaper. The CSO Wholesale Price Index puts insulating materials at 128.8 in June 2026 on a 2021 = 100 base, up 1.9% in twelve months, within an all materials index of 131.2, up 3.1%, from CSO table WPM39. Grant ceilings that rose in 2026 therefore go further than they would have during the 2021 to 2023 price run up.
Method and Sources
Every figure was taken from the named primary source on 28 August 2026: the CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings releases for Quarter 2 2026 (published 26 August 2026) and Quarter 1 2026 (1 May 2026); SEAI’s new simplified BER scale page; CSO SILC Enforced Deprivation 2025 and PxStat table SIA131, cross checked against Eurostat indicator sdg_07_60, which reports the identical Irish figure; SEAI statements of 9 January and 21 April 2026 and the SEAI individual grants page; CSO Census 2022 Profile 2 and table FY033A; the Department of Housing exemptions announcement of 27 July 2026; and CSO Wholesale Price Index table WPM39 (June 2026 data). Figures marked calculated were derived by OS Holding from the cited sources (the C or below remainder, the pre-2001 share excluding not stated, and the quarter on quarter change in improved ratings). The page will be refreshed after each quarterly CSO BER release, each SEAI statement, and the SILC release each December.
How OS Holding Helps
OS Holding carries out the building work behind better ratings across Dublin: house insulation, spray foam insulation, heating upgrades and full house renovations that combine grant supported measures in one project. If you want to know what it would take to move your home up the new BER scale, contact the team for a site visit and a written quote. Journalists and researchers are welcome to quote any figure here with a link to the source and to this page.
