Gas consumption decreased in all categories of housing last year, data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
The finding is contained within the CSO’s report on “household gas consumption by building energy ratings” for 2023, which it published on Tuesday.
The report showed reductions of gas consumption across the board, namely in apartments (11 per cent); mid-terrace houses (11 per cent); end-of-terrace houses (11 per cent); semidetached houses (11 per cent); and detached houses (10 per cent).
A similar reduction in consumption was seen across energy ratings in A/B rated dwellings (10 per cent); C rated dwellings (10 per cent); D rated dwellings (11 per cent); E rated dwellings (12 per cent); and F/G rated dwellings (11 per cent).
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The CSO also said buildings with F/G ratings consumed 36 per cent more gas per square metre than buildings with A/B ratings.
Higher rated dwellings had larger floor areas on average, leading to greater levels of total consumption, it said. Dwellings with A/B ratings consumed 8 per cent more gas overall than F/G rated dwellings.
Detached houses used the most gas of any dwelling type, with mean consumption of 12,411 kWh. That was 87 per cent higher than the lowest consumption, which was 6,653 kWh in apartments.
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The data also showed that newer buildings used less gas on average than those constructed in earlier periods.
Dwellings constructed between 2005-2023 had a mean consumption of 73 kWh/m2. This was 14 per cent less than the 85 kWh/m2 used by buildings built between 1900-1966, which had the highest mean consumption among construction periods assessed by the CSO.
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