The number of Building Energy Rating (BER) audits carried out in the first quarter of this year increased by 58% compared to the same period of 2022, according to a new report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
In total there were 34,174 BER audits reported between January and March this year compared with 21,663 in the first quarter of last year.
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.
Electricity was found to be the main space heating fuel, used by 87% of dwellings with a BER audit and which had construction completed between 2020 and 2023.
Unsurprisingly, recent builds were found to be more energy efficient than their older counterparts, with 99% of dwellings built in 2020-2023 achieving an A-rating, and 96% of those built in 2015-2019.
On a county-by-county basis, Kildare had the highest proportion of A-rated dwellings (23%), followed by Meath (22%) and Dublin (21%), while Leitrim had the lowest on just 2 per cent.
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%
