Home Insulation Statistics Ireland 2026: BER Ratings, Retrofits, Grants and Heat Loss

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

Ireland has a national target to bring 500,000 homes to a B2 energy rating by 2030, and a grant system that was overhauled again in 2026. This page gathers the current insulation, retrofit, Building Energy Rating (BER), heat loss and energy poverty figures for Ireland in one place, each one linked to the CSO, SEAI, Eurostat or Government release it came from. It is written for journalists, researchers, homeowners and anyone in the retrofit sector who needs a number they can cite.

Key Home Insulation Statistics for Ireland at a Glance

• 1,350,427 Irish dwellings have a Building Energy Rating, and 33% of them are rated D1 or worse (calculated from the rating breakdown). Source: CSO, Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q1 2026
• 1,200,514 occupied homes, 65.4% of the national total, were built before 2001 (calculated from Census 2022). Source: CSO Census 2022, table FY033A
• 58,600 homes received SEAI grant supported energy upgrades in 2025, up from 54,000 in 2024. Source: SEAI, August 2026 and SEAI, January 2025
• Each step up the 15 point BER scale adds an average 2.7% to a home’s sale price, rising to 4.7% in rural areas. Source: SEAI and MyHome, August 2026
• Applications for SEAI home energy upgrade grants were up 96% in the first quarter of 2026, with attic insulation applications up 81% and cavity wall applications up 62%. Source: SEAI, April 2026
• A home can lose up to 30% of its heat through a poorly insulated roof and walls, and about 10% through windows and doors. Source: SEAI home energy upgrade guide
• The SEAI external wall insulation grant is now €8,000 for a detached house and €6,000 for a semi-detached or end of terrace house. Source: SEAI wall insulation grants, 2026
• 4.5% of people in Ireland were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm in 2025, against an EU average of 8.8%. Source: CSO SILC Enforced Deprivation 2025 and Eurostat ilc_mdes01
• Only 2% of oil heated homes with a BER are A rated, compared with 53% of homes heated mainly by electricity. Source: CSO, Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q1 2026
• Budget 2026 allocated a record €640 million to home energy upgrades with a target of 73,000 upgrades this year. Source: SEAI, April 2026

How Many Irish Homes Have a BER and What They Score

The CSO publishes a quarterly release of Domestic Building Energy Ratings drawn from the SEAI register. By the end of Q1 2026, 1,773,570 domestic BER certificates had been published since 2009 and 1,350,427 unique dwellings held a rating. 40,961 new domestic BERs were published in Q1 2026 alone, 9% more than in the same quarter of 2025, according to the CSO Domestic Building Energy Ratings Q1 2026 release. 2024 was a record year for assessments, with 170,694 domestic BERs published, per the SEAI end of year review for 2024.

Across every rated dwelling, 18% are A rated, 17% are B rated and 31% are C rated, so just over one third (35%) sit in the A or B bands. The remaining bands break down as D1 9%, D2 8%, E1 4%, E2 3%, F 4% and G 5%, which means roughly one in three rated homes (33%, calculated from the same table) is D1 or worse. Set against the 1,836,728 occupied homes counted in Census 2022, the BER register covers about 73.5% of Ireland’s occupied housing stock (calculated from the CSO Census 2022 table FY033A), and the homes that have never been assessed are likely to be older and colder than the ones that have.

Among dwellings that have been assessed more than once, 220,096 improved by at least one full letter between their first and most recent rating, and 51% of those moved from a C rating or below to an A or B, according to the CSO release. The average floor area of a rated dwelling is 118 square metres, with detached houses averaging 168 square metres.

Energy Ratings by Age of Home

Build year is the strongest single predictor of a BER. In the CSO Q1 2026 data, A ratings were awarded to 100% of rated dwellings built from 2025 onwards, 99% of those built in 2020 to 2024 and 94% of those built in 2015 to 2019. The share falls to 38% for 2010 to 2014 builds and 6% for 2005 to 2009 builds.

Older stock tells the opposite story. Of rated homes built between 1900 and 1929, 31% are G rated and 77% are rated D1 or worse (calculated from the CSO breakdown of 7% D1, 10% D2, 8% E1, 9% E2, 12% F and 31% G). For homes built between 1967 and 1977, a period that covers a large share of Dublin’s suburban semi-detached stock, 56% are D1 or worse (calculated). For homes built from 1978 to 1999, the CSO groups the figures as 28% D, 9% E and 3% F or G, so 40% of that cohort is D or worse (calculated).

Census 2022 shows how much of the stock falls into those older bands. Of 1,836,728 private households in permanent housing units, 154,290 (8.4%) live in homes built before 1919, 747,772 (40.7%) in homes built before 1981, and 1,200,514 (65.4%) in homes built before 2001. All three shares are calculated from the CSO Census 2022 table FY033A. Almost all of these homes predate the SEAI grant cut-off, which requires a home to have been built and occupied before 31 December 2010, so the pre-2001 cohort is the core of the retrofit market.

Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow

The counties around the capital have the highest shares of A rated homes in the State because so much of their stock is new. In the CSO Q1 2026 county table, Kildare leads with 30% of rated dwellings A rated, followed by Meath (28%) and Dublin County (28%), with Wicklow at 25%. The lowest shares are in Leitrim and Cork City, both at 6%.

Inside the Dublin postal districts the picture is split. 305,987 rated dwellings in Dublin 1 to 24 have an average age of 38 years and 20% are A rated. Dublin 18 (44% A rated), Dublin 13 (31%) and Dublin 20 (27%) score highest. Dublin 6 and Dublin 7, with average dwelling ages of 65 and 61 years, each have 12% of rated homes in the G band. Mains gas is the main space heating fuel in 61% of rated Dublin homes, compared with 34% nationally.

The Census adds the age profile. Across the four Dublin local authorities, 518,490 households live in permanent housing units and 248,499 of them (47.9%) are in homes built before 1981. In the Dublin City Council area alone the pre-1981 share is 60.0% (135,279 of 225,519 households). Both shares are calculated from the CSO Census 2022 table FY033A.

Our Dublin BER statistics break these figures down for every Dublin postal district, where A rated shares range from 9% in Dublin 5 and Dublin 6 to 44% in Dublin 18.

Heating Fuels, Heat Pumps and Solar

Mains gas and heating oil each heat 34% of rated Irish dwellings, with electricity at 25%, per the CSO Q1 2026 release. Oil dominates outside the east: it is the main fuel in 67% of rated homes in the Border region, 60% in the West, and 72% in Donegal. The fuel mix is tied tightly to the rating. A ratings were given to 53% of dwellings heated mainly by electricity, 8% of those on mains gas and 2% of those on heating oil.

Heat pumps are present in 15% of rated dwellings overall but in 84% of those built between 2020 and 2024. Solar thermal or solar PV is present in 15% of rated dwellings, reaching 25% of detached houses and 24% of rated homes in Meath. For dwellings built since 2015, electricity is the most common main space heating fuel, and it powers 95% of rated homes built from 2025 onwards. The SEAI notes that heat pumps suit well insulated homes, which is why wall and attic insulation are normally sequenced before a heat pump in a deep retrofit, per its home energy upgrade guide.

Where Irish Homes Lose Heat

The SEAI’s published guidance puts numbers on the fabric losses that insulation addresses. A home can lose up to 30% of its heat through poorly insulated roofs and walls, about 10% through windows and doors, and up to 10% through uninsulated floors, according to the SEAI insulation, windows and doors guide. The same guide says a household can save up to €600 a year on heating bills with well insulated walls and attic space, recommends 300mm as the ideal depth of ceiling level attic insulation, and sets 1.4 W/m²K as the maximum window U-value for grant eligibility.

The SEAI describes attic and rafter insulation as generally the most cost effective upgrade and cavity wall insulation as the cheapest form of wall insulation where a cavity exists. For solid walled homes with no cavity, the guide points to external wall insulation, “the wrap”, or internal dry lining where external insulation is not possible.

Retrofit Activity and Progress Against the 2030 Target

The Climate Action Plan and the National Retrofit Plan set a target of 500,000 home energy upgrades to a B2 BER standard by 2030, backed by €8 billion of Exchequer investment, as set out on the Government’s National Retrofit Plan page. The National Residential Retrofit Plan 2026, published on 27 January 2026, reported more than 244,000 home energy upgrades supported since 2019, and by April 2026 the figure had reached 257,000 with Government funding of over €1.7 billion, per the SEAI.

Annual output is rising. SEAI schemes supported 54,000 home upgrades in 2024, of which almost 22,000 reached B2 or better, 3,609 included a heat pump and more than 7,700 were free upgrades for energy poor homes, with over €420 million in support, per the SEAI review of 2024. In 2025 the schemes supported upgrades in more than 58,600 homes, including more than €230 million spent on free upgrades for 8,100 homes in energy poverty, per the SEAI, August 2026. That is an 8.5% increase in one year (calculated).

2026 has started faster again. SEAI supported 12,300 upgrades in the first three months of 2026, per its June 2026 statement, compared with 11,910 in the first quarter of 2025, per the SEAI Q1 2025 report, an increase of 3.3% (calculated). Budget 2026 allocated a record €640 million and a target of 73,000 upgrades for the year. Even at that pace, the 2030 target requires a further step change: 500,000 B2 upgrades against a cumulative 257,000 upgrades of all depths by spring 2026 leaves well over 240,000 to deliver in under five years (calculated).

Grant Demand in 2026

The new grant structure has changed behaviour quickly. SEAI processed 29,000 applications between January and March 2026, and overall applications were up 96% on the same period of 2025, with applications for individual measures up 186%, per the Minister’s update of 21 April 2026. Within that total were over 7,000 applications for the new windows and doors grant, over 1,730 for attic insulation (up 81% year on year), over 1,000 for cavity wall insulation (up 62%) and over 350 for heat pumps (up 95%).

Current SEAI Insulation Grant Values

The fixed grant amounts below are taken from the SEAI’s wall insulation and attic insulation grant pages as published in August 2026. Homes must have been built and occupied before 31 December 2010, and the SEAI notes that where more than 25% of a home’s surface area is altered the home must reach a minimum B2 rating or meet the relevant building regulations.

Higher cavity wall amounts (€2,300 detached, €1,700 semi-detached, €1,100 mid-terrace, €900 apartment) apply to homeowners on qualifying welfare payments, and first time buyers or qualifying welfare recipients can receive up to €2,500 for attic insulation. The SEAI also now allows a second wall insulation grant, so a home that previously received a cavity wall grant can apply for internal or external wall insulation to become heat pump ready, per the SEAI wall insulation page.

The application, spend and delivery figures behind these grants, including the 96% application surge in early 2026, are tracked in our SEAI grant statistics.

Energy Poverty and Cold Homes

The CSO’s Survey on Income and Living Conditions measures enforced deprivation each year. In the revised 2025 results, 4.5% of people were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm, 7.5% had gone without heating at some stage in the previous year, 8.3% of households had fallen behind on a utility bill and the overall deprivation rate was 15.1%, per the CSO SILC Enforced Deprivation 2025 and its revision note.

Eurostat carries the same indicator for every member state, and its Irish figure for 2025 matches the CSO at 4.5%. The EU27 average was 8.8% in 2025, down from 10.6% in 2023. Ireland’s rate peaked at 7.2% in 2023 during the energy price shock before falling to 4.9% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025. Greece (18.1%), Lithuania (16.7%) and Bulgaria (16.1%) recorded the highest shares in 2025 and Finland (2.6%) the lowest, per the Eurostat dataset ilc_mdes01, updated June 2026.

Energy Use, Imports and the Value of a Better Rating

Homes account for nearly a quarter of Ireland’s energy use, per the SEAI. In 2025, 78.2% of Ireland’s energy requirement was met by imports against an EU average of 57.3%, almost 93% of those imports were fossil fuels, and fossil fuels still supplied 79.2% of the country’s overall energy, per the SEAI energy data note of July 2026. Every kilowatt hour a home no longer needs for heating is one fewer that has to be imported.

Energy efficiency also shows up in property prices. SEAI analysis of almost 50,000 homes sold through MyHome in 2023 and 2024 found that each step up the 15 point BER scale is associated with an average 2.7% increase in final sale price. The uplift is 2.8% for houses and 2.2% for apartments, 4.7% in rural areas, 2.7% in urban areas outside Dublin and 1.7% in urban Dublin, per the SEAI release of 17 August 2026. The analysis used actual sale prices rather than asking prices and was completed on the 15 point scale ahead of the move to a simplified 8 point BER scale.