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WITH FEARS OF gas shortages looming over Europe a new report has found that detached houses use 82% more natural gas for heating than apartments.
Fresh data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that average gas consumption per dwelling varies considerably more based on household type than by energy efficiency rating.
Based on the stats from 2020, the mean gas consumption of a detached house was 16,054 kWh. This was more that four-fifths higher than an apartment’s mean gas consumption, which stood at 8,808 kWh.
Dwellings with ‘A’ and ‘B’ BER ratings – meaning they are more energy efficient– were found to actually consume more gas than ‘F’ and ‘G’ dwellings, which had the lowest gas consumption.
The CSO said this indicated that other factors were influencing gas consumption, including disposable income and the use of other heating fuels.
It added that the better rated homes also had larger floor areas, which partially offset the improved efficiency of their heating systems.
Detached houses with an ‘A’ or ‘B’ rating had an average floor area of 194 square metres while the average floor area for detached houses with an ‘F’ or ‘G’ rating was 124 square metres.
The trend of more energy-efficient dwellings having larger floor areas was evident across all household types.
‘A’ and ‘B’ rated dwellings had a mean gas consumption of 11,483 kWh. For ‘C’ rated dwellings the average was 11,146 kWh, it came in at 11,475 kWh for ‘D’ dwellings, 11,767 kWh for those in the ‘E’ category and it was 10,965 kWh for ‘F’ and ‘G’ rated homes.
Unsurprisingly homes with a better energy rating consumed less gas per square metre than those with a worse rating.
‘A’ and ‘B’ rated homes consumed an average of 89 kWh per square metre. Homes with an ‘F’ or ‘G’ rating had an average consumption of 122 kWh per square metre.
The report was created by the CSO using data on networked gas consumption and domestic building energy ratings. It is the first time the CSO has combined these two datasets.
The analysis was carried out on data from 2020 when gas consumption across all household types was higher than 2019, likely due to people spending more time at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Europe is in the grip of an energy crisis as the Kremlin has dramatically slashed the delivery of Russian gas in response to western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission last month announced an emergency plan, urging EU countries to reduce their demand for natural gas by 15% over the summer to secure winter stocks and defeat Russia’s “blackmail”.
At the time, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Ireland was not reliant on Russian gas but that there was a need to stockpile to prevent a price hike.
Energy expert Don Moore –former managing director of ESB International – told RTÉ this week that Ireland is the “least prepared” country in Europe for a winter gas shortage.
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Sure stick us all in one house
I mean, that is literally what is happening. Multiple strangers living with each other under our current model, copied from the US.
And not just subsidising the houseowner’s mortgage, but straight out paying it all.
@Thinkaboutit: That’s what they are pushing. Everyone into soviet style apartment blocks, like good little work units. Forget about culture/heritage/community. Just a couple of island cities in a sea of trees.
So what rocket scientist figured this one out !
@Sean Treacy: TLDR, in other shocking news: SUV’s use more petrol than a mini…
@Lars: Yeah, I think an essential global survey of who uses more plastic: Humans or Ants. I’ll put in my tender for €100 million for a 1,500 page report.
@Lars: I’d never have imagined !
@Lars: in Other, Other News, SUV’s here don’t use petrol, but hey…
Sure, let’s start building ugly apartment blocks in the Kerry Country side.
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: perhaps we should stop building houses in the Kerry countryside? As you can see from the chart, semi-Ds and terrace houses also consume significantly less gas than detached houses.
High energy consumption is only one of several reasons why planners, economists, environmentalists etc want to see one-off housing policies changed. These policies are entirely at odds with future-proofing our country, at odds with rural sustainability and at odds with sustainable planning norms in other successful European countries.
No one is arguing against living outside cities/towns/villages when, say, work requires this (e.g. living on the farm), but the future of Ireland is and should be in its cities, towns and villages.
@Urban Living Dublin: While I agree in principle with the point you’re making, I believe there’s one big point missing and the pure numbers are telling only a small part of the story:
Who is living in each of the dwelling types?
E.g.: Apartments = mostly professional single/couples, out of the house for most of day = only heating in the morning and/or evening.
Then you have (more) families in houses – kids at home = heating running for most of day.
The higher you go up the houses range for sqm, BER, the more money they most likely have and don’t care much about any (heating) costs.
I don’t know the building quality of the newer apartments, but I rather pay extra in a semi or terrace, instead of being surrounded by apartments with pure noise insulation.
@Wolfgang Bonow: I agree that certainly could be a factor. However, we see that semi-Ds are also lower than detached. These are usually family homes.
The CSO study does not seem to go in depth on this, as would be expected it shouldn’t. (https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-dberngs/householdgasconsumptionbybuildingenergyratings2020/).
I’m sure Eamon Ryan is rushing right now to sell up his detached D4 gaff for a more environmentally friendly concrete-jungle apartment. And if not, is he a hypőcrite, hmm.
@Alan Wright: How? All he has to do is purchase a nice big house size jumper.
@Alan Wright: what’s wrong with Dublin 4?
@Ciaran: Nothing, i love the area, i aspire to live there some day soon, except for the fact that big detached houses (according to climate doom-merchants), like Eamon Ryan are bad for the environment. The saying, “live by the sword” pops to mind, will we see Ryan now living by this finding? I’m guessing he will stay in his big environmentally unfriendly house.
@Alan Wright: Do you even know whether he uses gas heating or not? The CSO don’t base their statistics on “the odd person that xyz has taken a dislike to.”
@Alan Wright: You’re not making much sense there. Will some people’s houses vanish off the planet if they move? Or if you get to buy one? It’s an article about importing less gas from Russia. Not about who to “blame”.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Jesus, how much gas do we import from Russia. If you don’t know, without a Google search, then you don’t belong in the conversation. Hint: if we had no gas from Russia, it would not affect us at all in Ireland.
These, Politicians cannot see further than the tip of their noses in ANY situation
Haha I can’t believe that. My last 2 gas bills were over €170 in an apartment & that’s having it on for literally 20 minutes every morning to heat the water for a shower. Thats since march.
In other news, a house with no windows is very draughty
@lelookcoco: How would it be drafty, if there were no windows?
@Earth Traveller: You’d have to leave the doors open!
Have we reached the ‘lets all turn on each other’ stage already?
Ridiculous survey. I could have told them this and only charged them half the price.
@2thFairy: it’s from the Census info
It’s simple maths, detached houses are more then twice the size of apartments so take more to heat. The real comparison is how fuel consumption per square meter of floor area. I bet with well constructed detached houses it broadly matches that for well constructed apartments. This is a flawed statistical analysis that aims to demonise the detached house.
So what. Heating use is determined by area of house or flat and BER rating. Detached homes have 5 to 10 times area of typical flats. Comparison of heating required by accomodation type instead of square footage or square meters is junk science and bad public policy.
@Don Hogan: Eh, no. You are very wrong there. The average house size in Ireland is 81sqm. Average two bed apartment is 61sqm. That’s nowhere close to you hyperbole of 5-10 times the size. Ye know, Google can be your friend for a quick search instead of your “facts”. Jaysus, the amount of junk facts people spout on this forum is incredible.
@Alan Wright: Very true, BUT the average DETATCHED house is a lot bigger than 81sqm
@Tyrone Williams: Fair point actually. I’d delete my previous comment if possible.
A lot of appartment and duplex complexes have communal Heating which is unregulated in Ireland and tenants pay much higher Heating bills even if they don’t use the heat..which is criminal
Maybe detached houses have more residents than apartments, therefore more energy use?
Silly statistics, of course a home of 1500sq foot cost more than an apartment of 800sq foot. Can anyone tell what the cost per sq meter is per type?
Who would’ve guessed that our one-off housing policies have come around to bite us all in the a$%£
@Urban Living Dublin: mad isn’t it, people wanting to live in the countryside where they grew up so they can be close to family and friends.
Breaking news: comparing apples and oranges yields result
You can’t roar your head off though
They’re also 82% (possibly more) more pleasant to live in than an apartment.
So this 240 square metre floor and a half bungalow uses no gas, but does use about €60 a week in wood pellets (sustainable and fairly local) when it’s freezing rain/hail and howling gales and less than €20 a week in good weather for heating and plentiful hot water (I like deep long baths). There are many who spend more heating a small flat.
When sufficient circular tuits accumulate I’ll be adding some solar thermal and PV to the mix to make it even cheaper to run.
I should spend more to live in a shoebox with shared walls, I think not.
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