Rural Home Heating Oil Conundrum – High Costs and Lack of an Alternative from Government

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September 21, 2026

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by Caroline O'Doherty and Stephen Conneely (Irish Times) For many of the thousands attending the Ploughing Championships, there was a year’s worth of news to catch up on, but this year one topic dominated: the cost of living.

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For most of the 700,000 households dependent on home heating oil, there are no practical alternatives and no discernible plan from Government to help them abandon kerosene, or home heating oil.

The issue is increasingly drawing attention as pressure grows to switch homes to clean, affordable and more secure heating.

Those pressures apply to most of the country’s housing stock as only homes built since 2019 are required to have high energy efficiency standards.

But homes reliant on kerosene are particularly problematic.

Kerosene is not only high-cost but it produces more climate-harming emissions than gas which is used by a similar number of households.

Long-term, the plan is to end gas use too and replace it with renewable electricity, but in the interim its emissions can be reduced by replacing some of it with biomethane – a low-carbon gas produced in anaerobic digesters from agricultural and food waste.

The fact that most homes using gas are on a shared network also means they are better candidates for district heating schemes which also feature in the Government’s decarbonisation plans.

District heating schemes connect homes to a single source of renewable heating so that each household gets low-carbon heat without having to individually retrofit.

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The discussions touched on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a low-carbon biofuel produced from waste food oils and specially grown crops.

It can be blended with kerosene in home-heating systems with minor alteration to most modern boilers.

But Ireland produces very little and what is imported is prioritised for blending with diesel to reduce transport emissions.

The Department of Climate, Energy and Environment has no plans to change that arrangement.

It cited a 2022 Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland study which concluded: “Bioliquids, such as HVO, are not an optimal option for heat in any sector.

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Alan Farrell, spokesman for lobby group, Liquid Gas Ireland (LGI), takes issue with those statements.

They appear at odds with the Programme for Government which commits to the objective: “Consider the use of sustainable biofuels to reduce emissions from existing home boilers where deep retrofits are not possible in the short term.”

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“In 2022 we published a report that showed a standard 1970s bungalow in rural Ireland could be brought to a B building energy rating from a D with a modest internal retrofit – new windows and attic insulation – and installation of a boiler ready for renewable liquid gas for €12,000,” he says.

He reckons the cost would be €20,000 now, still much less than a deep retrofit and heat pump, and for that, you would get a gas-heated home with 11 per cent fewer emissions.

The reduction is modest but adds up when multiplied 700,000 times.

Farrell has also thrown a key adjective into his pitch: “Renewable.”

LGI says that, just as grid-connected homes will have low-carbon biomethane added to their gas, off-grid homes should be able to avail of low-carbon liquid gas such as bioLPG.

BioLPG is not actually petroleum gas but is produced from used cooking oils, animal fats and other organic waste. Farrell says it cuts emissions by up to 90 per cent compared to kerosene.

Already available in Ireland in limited quantities, LGI says Government backing for its wider use would support the business case for its expansion.

Another potential alternative is renewable dimethyl ether (rDME), a liquid gas also made from organic waste but which consumes carbon in the process.

Farrell reckons two or three rDME plants in the country would suffice, but they too would need Government supports.

If the Government can plan for 200 anaerobic digesters to produce biomethane for the gas network, then, he says, it can surely consider a handful of alternative facilities for more dispersed homes.

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“Renewable liquid gas can plug a gap. It can operate as a transitional fuel. But it can also operate as a long-term, low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels.

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“Our policy objective is for Government to recognise that there are multiple ways in which a person or business can achieve those [decarbonisation] aims.”

However, EU regulations prohibit providing grants to buy new oil or gas boilers. READ MORE