Since 2009, 3% of audited non-domestic buildings have received an A rating, 14% a B rating, and 33% a C rating (See Figure 2 and Table 3).
Over two-fifths (42%) of non-domestic buildings constructed between 2020 and 2023 received an A rating, compared with 21% of those built from 2015-2019 (See Figure 4 and Table 13).
The most energy efficient building types audited during 2009-2023 were Schools and Colleges, with 44% awarded an A rating (See Figure 3 and Table 3).
There was an 11% increase in the number of non-domestic Building Energy Rating (BER) audits reported in 2023 compared with 2022 (See Table A and Table 1).
There was an increase of 19% in the number of non-domestic BER audits reported in October to December (Q4) 2023 compared with Q4 2022 (See Figure 1, Table A and Table 1).
The highest proportion of A ratings for non-domestic buildings by county was in County Kildare, at 5% (See Table 4).
BER certificates expire after 10 years unless a new audit has been undertaken. This means that certificates from earlier years have expired if they were not updated. The CSO has included these expired certificates in this release in order to have a more representative analysis of energy efficiency in the non-domestic sector. Provisional BER certificates for buildings that are incomplete or not yet constructed have been excluded from this release. As of 2023 Q3, this exclusion also applies to new Shell and Core Buildings, which are rated and sold as bare structures before being fully fitted.
| Table A: Number of Non-Domestic BER certificates | ||||||
| number | ||||||
| Period | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | % change 2023/2022 |
| Quarter 1 | 1,031 | 928 | 810 | 998 | 1,098 | 10% |
| Quarter 2 | 1,085 | 419 | 848 | 1,058 | 1,191 | 13% |
| Quarter 3 | 1,060 | 859 | 1,074 | 1,205 | 1,259 | 4% |
| Quarter 4 | 1,002 | 938 | 1,106 | 975 | 1,165 | 19% |
| Year | 4,178 | 3,144 | 3,838 | 4,236 | 4,713 | 11% |
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| January | 280 | 247 | 300 |
| February | 262 | 386 | 308 |
| March | 268 | 365 | 490 |
| April | 284 | 385 | 371 |
| May | 305 | 357 | 400 |
| June | 259 | 316 | 420 |
| July | 335 | 395 | 471 |
| August | 368 | 394 | 351 |
| September | 371 | 416 | 437 |
| October | 371 | 288 | 395 |
| November | 440 | 394 | 418 |
| December | 295 | 293 | 352 |
| BER Ratings | |
| A | 2.03 |
| B | 10.091 |
| C | 23.765 |
| D | 15.248 |
| E | 8.055 |
| F | 4.739 |
| G | 8.651 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
| Retail | 1 | 15 | 38 | 18 | 10 | 7 | 12 |
| Office | 2 | 9 | 30 | 24 | 13 | 8 | 14 |
| Restaurant/public house | 0 | 8 | 33 | 34 | 16 | 6 | 4 |
| Hotel | 3 | 24 | 41 | 21 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| Warehouses | 1 | 16 | 33 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 14 |
| Workshops/maintenance depot | 0 | 9 | 23 | 22 | 14 | 10 | 23 |
| Industrial process building | 3 | 32 | 27 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 9 |
| Hospitals and primary health care | 9 | 14 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 9 | 11 |
| Community/day centre | 8 | 24 | 30 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
| Nursing residential homes and hostels | 13 | 41 | 28 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Schools and colleges | 44 | 19 | 18 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Sports facilities | 3 | 30 | 29 | 17 | 8 | 6 | 8 |
| Other | 11 | 19 | 21 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 18 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
| 1900-1977 | 0 | 7 | 29 | 26 | 16 | 9 | 13 |
| 1978-1999 | 0 | 12 | 36 | 23 | 12 | 7 | 10 |
| 2000-2004 | 0 | 17 | 43 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| 2005-2009 | 2 | 17 | 33 | 18 | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| 2010-2014 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 19 | 10 | 5 | 10 |
| 2015-2019 | 21 | 35 | 19 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 2020-2023 | 42 | 19 | 17 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (21 February 2024) released Non-Domestic Building Energy Ratings for Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023.
Commenting on the release Kevin Hunt, Statistician in the Environment and Climate Division, said: "The number of non-domestic Building Energy Rating (BER) audits reported in 2023 was 4,713, an increase of 11% from 2022 (See Table A and Table 1). In October to December (Q4) 2023, 1,165 non-domestic BER audits were published, compared with 975 for the same quarter of 2022. This was an increase of 19% (See Table A and Table 1). A total of 72,579 unique non-domestic BER audits have been published since January 2009 (See Table 2). Of these, 3% were awarded an A rating, 14% a B rating, and 33% a C rating (See Table 3).
Period of Construction
Since 2009, BER audits have been conducted for 2,032 non-domestic buildings constructed between 2020 and 2023. Over two-fifths of these buildings (42%) received an A rating, compared with 21% of the 1,648 audits for buildings constructed from 2015 to 2019 (See Table 13).
Building Type
The most energy efficient building types audited during 2009-2023 were Schools and Colleges, with 44% awarded an A rating. The second most energy efficient buildings were Nursing Residential Homes and Hostels, with 13% rated A. The least energy efficient building type, defined by proportion of the lowest rating (G), was Workshops and Maintenance Depots, with 23% G rated (See Table 3).
Local Area Analysis
The highest proportion of A ratings by county was in County Kildare (5%). Sligo, Kilkenny, and Limerick City had the highest proportion of G rated buildings at 17%, 16% and 16% respectively (See Table 4). Among Dublin postal districts, the highest proportion of A ratings were in Dublin 20 (7%) and Dublin 15 (5%) (See Table 5).
Floor Area
The average floor area of all audited non-domestic buildings was 709 square metres. This average size varied from 3,193 square metres for hotels to 287 square metres for Restaurants and Public Houses (See Table 10)."