Heat Pump Statistics Ireland 2026: Adoption by County, New Builds, Grants and Solar

Last updated: September 2026. Human written and fact checked against each named source.

Heat pumps are in 15% of Irish homes with a Building Energy Rating and in 84% of homes built since 2020, but Ireland still meets 90% of its heat demand with fossil fuels and is chasing a target of 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes. This page gathers the current heat pump figures for Ireland in one place: how many are installed, where they are by county and Dublin postcode, what the grants are delivering, how electric heating changes a home’s rating, and how rooftop solar is spreading alongside. Every figure links to the CSO, SEAI, ESB Networks or gov.ie source it came from. It sits alongside our home insulation statistics, Dublin BER statistics, SEAI grant statistics and energy poverty statistics.

Key Heat Pump Statistics for Ireland at a Glance

• A heat pump is present in 15% of the 1,367,605 Irish dwellings with a BER, roughly 205,000 homes (calculated). Source: CSO, Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q2 2026
• 84% of rated homes built since 2020 have a heat pump, against 5% or less of homes built before 2010. Source: CSO, Q2 2026, Table 14
• Dublin 18 (25%), Dublin 22 (24%) and Kildare (23%) have the highest heat pump shares in the State; Dublin 3 (5%) and Leitrim and Cork City (7%) the lowest. Source: CSO, Q2 2026, Table 14
• The Climate Action Plan targets 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes and 250,000 to 280,000 in new homes. Source: gov.ie, Climate Action: Energy Efficiency in Buildings
• SEAI grant schemes supported 3,609 heat pump installations in 2024, and heat pump grant applications were up 95% year on year in the first quarter of 2026. Sources: SEAI, January 2025 and SEAI, April 2026
• The heat pump grant became a bundle worth up to €12,500 on 3 February 2026, up from a €6,500 maximum. Source: SEAI heat pump grants
• Electricity is the main heating fuel in 95% of rated homes built from 2025 onwards, and 53% of electrically heated homes are A rated against 2% of oil heated homes. Source: CSO, Q2 2026, Tables 6 and 9
• Approximately 90% of Ireland’s heat demand is still met by fossil fuels, and heating accounts for more than one third of total energy demand. Source: SEAI National Heating and Cooling Assessment, May 2026
• Solar panels are present in 16% of rated dwellings, rising to 26% of detached houses, and solar PV output grew 50% in 2025 alone. Sources: CSO, Q2 2026, Table 13 and SEAI, July 2026
• ESB Networks passed 100,000 connected rooftop microgenerators in July 2024, adding over 400MW to the grid at a rate of 750 connections a week. Source: ESB Networks, July 2024

How Many Irish Homes Have a Heat Pump

The CSO’s quarterly Domestic Building Energy Ratings release is the only national dataset that records heat pumps home by home. In the Q2 2026 release, published on 26 August 2026, a heat pump was present in 15% of rated dwellings where the main space heating fuel was identified, per the CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q2 2026. Applied to the 1,367,605 unique dwellings on the register, that is roughly 205,000 homes (calculated). The register covers rated homes only, so the true national count includes unrated homes on both sides of the ledger, but the CSO note is clear that the actual number of installations is likely to be higher than the share suggests.

Adoption is almost entirely a function of build date. Heat pumps are in 4% of rated homes built before 1950, 5% of those built between 1950 and 1977, 4% of homes built from 1978 to 2005 and 5% of 2005 to 2009 builds. The share jumps to 18% for homes built between 2010 and 2014, 46% for 2015 to 2019, and 84% for homes built since 2020, per Table 14 of the same release. The 2015 to 2019 cohort is where the switch happened: electricity became the most common main heating fuel for new builds in that period, at 47%, and reached 86% for 2020 to 2024 builds and 95% for homes built from 2025 onwards, per Table 9.

Heat Pumps by County and Dublin Postcode

The county pattern follows the age of the housing stock. Newer commuter belt counties and the newest Dublin postal districts lead, while older city cores and rural western counties trail. The table below is compiled from Table 14 of the CSO Q2 2026 release and shows the share of rated dwellings with a heat pump across all periods of construction.

Two things stand out. First, rural counties with low overall shares often have very high new build adoption: 97% of rated homes built in 2020 to 2024 in Leitrim have a heat pump, and 98% in Waterford County, because oil has no mains alternative there and new builds default to electric heat. Second, the older Dublin districts are the laggards at every build date, with Dublin 3, 6 and 6W showing new build shares well below the national 84% because their recent stock is dominated by apartment schemes on gas or district heating.

Heat Pumps in Retrofits and the Grant Numbers

Retrofit installations are small against new builds but growing. SEAI grant schemes supported 3,609 heat pump installations in 2024, within 54,000 home upgrades that year, per the SEAI review of 2024. 765 heat pumps were supported in the first quarter of 2025, per the SEAI Q1 2025 report. Applications then jumped: over 350 heat pump applications were received in the first quarter of 2026, up 95% year on year, per the Ministerial update of 21 April 2026.

The driver is the grant. On 3 February 2026 the maximum heat pump support rose from €6,500 to a bundle worth up to €12,500: up to €6,500 for the heat pump system, up to €2,000 for central heating upgrade works, and a €4,000 Renewable Heat Bonus for replacing an oil, gas, solid fuel or electric storage system. Apartments can receive up to €9,500 and air to air systems up to €7,500. Homes must have been built and occupied before 2021, and homes built before 2007 need a €200 technical assessment unless a valid BER shows a heat loss indicator of 2.3 W/m²K or lower, per the SEAI heat pump grant page. The full grant picture is in our SEAI grant statistics.

What Electric Heating Does to a Home’s Rating

Heating fuel and BER are tightly linked in the CSO data. Electricity is now the main space heating fuel in 26% of all rated dwellings, against 34% each for mains gas and heating oil, and it dominates only in the newest stock, per Table 9 of the CSO Q2 2026 release. Of homes heated mainly by electricity, 53% are A rated and a further 1% carry the new A0 rating introduced with the 8 point BER scale, against 8% of gas heated and 2% of oil heated homes, per Table 6. Heating oil remains the main fuel in 64% of rated detached houses, while 60% of mid floor apartments heat with electricity, per Table 10.

The register is also growing fast, which matters for anyone tracking these shares over time: 51,162 domestic BERs were published in Q2 2026, taking the total to 1,823,759 audits and 1,367,605 unique dwellings since 2009, per Table 1 of the same release.

Progress Against the 400,000 Target

The Climate Action Plan sets out targets of 400,000 heat pumps installed in existing homes and 250,000 to 280,000 in new homes, alongside the 500,000 home upgrades to a B2 rating, per the Government’s Climate Action: Energy Efficiency in Buildings page. Against that, SEAI supported 3,609 grant aided retrofit installations in 2024, so the retrofit leg of the target depends on the 2026 grant bundle changing behaviour at scale.

The scale of the task was set out in the SEAI’s National Comprehensive Heating and Cooling Assessment in May 2026. Heating accounts for more than one third of Ireland’s total energy demand and almost one quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions, approximately 90% of heat demand is still met by fossil fuels, and around 80% depends on imported energy. The assessment identifies electrification as the backbone of the future heat system, with electricity and ambient heat projected to supply up to 72% of final heat demand by 2055, and finds that around 4.6 TWh of building heat demand could be delivered more cost effectively through district heating than by individual heat pumps, per the SEAI statement of 19 May 2026.

Solar Panels Alongside Heat Pumps

Rooftop solar is spreading faster than heat pumps because it needs no fabric upgrade first. Solar thermal or PV was present in 16% of rated dwellings in Q2 2026, up from 15% a quarter earlier, reaching 26% of detached houses and 5% of apartments, per Table 13 of the CSO Q2 2026 release. The highest county shares are Meath (25%), Kildare (22%) and Dublin County (21%); among Dublin postcodes, Dublin 13 (23%), Dublin 16 (22%) and Dublin 15 (20%) lead while Dublin 1, 2 and 8 sit at 3% to 4%.

The grid data confirms the pace. ESB Networks announced in July 2024 that over 100,000 rooftop microgenerators were connected, adding more than 400MW, with 20,000 connections in the preceding six months and applications running at 750 a week, per ESB Networks. Nationally, solar PV supply grew 50% in 2025 and 150% since 2023, the largest annual increase of any renewable technology, and accounted for over 6% of Ireland’s renewable energy supply, per the SEAI energy data note of July 2026. The SEAI solar PV grant is capped at €1,800 for 2026, per its solar electricity grant page.

Airtight, heat pump ready homes also need planned ventilation; our indoor air quality statistics show carbon dioxide above 1,000 ppm for 94% of winter sleeping hours in monitored new homes.

Why Insulation Comes First

A heat pump runs efficiently only in a home that holds its heat, which is why the SEAI grant requires a technical assessment or a BER showing a heat loss indicator of 2.3 W/m²K or lower for pre-2007 homes, per the SEAI heat pump grant page. SEAI guidance puts up to 30% of a home’s heat loss through poorly insulated roofs and walls and about 10% each through windows and doors and uninsulated floors, per the SEAI insulation guide. That is the sequencing behind the numbers above: the counties and postcodes with high heat pump shares are the ones with new, well insulated stock, and the 2026 grant rule allowing a second wall insulation measure exists precisely to make older homes heat pump ready. Our home insulation statistics cover the fabric side in full.