| Table A: Main Heating Fuel by Region, Quarter 3 2021 | |||||||||
| % of weighted households | |||||||||
| Natural gas | Heating oil1 | Electricity | Solid fuel2 | Other | |||||
| Border | 4% | 66% | 7% | 20% | 2% | ||||
| Dublin | 69% | 8% | 18% | 2% | 1% | ||||
| Mid-East | 45% | 36% | 8% | 6% | 2% | ||||
| Mid-West | 27% | 43% | 13% | 13% | 3% | ||||
| Midland | 16% | 44% | 6% | 31% | 2% | ||||
| South-East | 20% | 52% | 11% | 14% | 1% | ||||
| South-West | 33% | 44% | 11% | 8% | 2% | ||||
| West | 6% | 58% | 13% | 17% | 3% | ||||
| State | 37% | 37% | 12% | 11% | 2% | ||||
| 1Kerosene, diesel/gas oil and LPG | |||||||||
| 2Wood logs, coal, peat and wood pellets | |||||||||
Some of the main findings from the CSO Household Environmental Behaviours survey on Energy Use are:
Table A shows a breakdown by region of the main heating fuel or energy source used by households to heat their homes. The region most likely to use natural gas was Dublin (69%) while natural gas was least likely to be used in the Border region (4%) and the West (6%) where the availability of networked natural gas is limited. In contrast, home heating oil was most likely to be used as the main heating fuel by households in the Border region (66%) followed by the West (58%), and least likely to be used in Dublin (8%).
Dublin was also the region most likely to use electricity as the main household heating source (18%) while electricity was used by just 6% of Midland households as their primary source of heating. Use of solid fuels (wood logs, coal, peat and wood pellets) also varied by region and was highest in the Midland region where 31% of households used solid fuel as their main heating fuel. It was lowest in Dublin with 2% of households reporting using a solid fuel as their primary heating fuel.
Figure 1 shows a comparison of the main fuels or energy sources used to heat homes by urban and rural location. In urban areas 53% of households used natural gas as the main heating fuel in their homes while in rural areas 53% of households reported that kerosene was their main heating fuel.
Figure 2 shows a comparison of fuels used for additional heating in open fires by urban and rural location. A majority of households (73%) did not use an open fire for additional heating. In rural areas 22% of households used wood logs in their open fire for additional heating, 22% used coal and 15% used peat.