94% of homes in Andorra have no air conditioning

Only 6.3% of households in Andorra have a cooling system, according to the Residential Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. That means almost 94% of the homes surveyed have no air conditioning or other cooling system.

The survey also found that 60% of households use oil boilers for heating. Nearly six in ten have made no improvements to their home’s energy efficiency, such as replacing windows or upgrading the façade or roof.

Oriol Travesset, coordinator of the Sustainability Group at Andorra Research and Innovation (AR+I), said cooling would be an area to monitor to understand how homes are adapting to changing climate conditions.

The figure is based on responses collected in February and March 2026. Travesset said the proportion could have been higher if the survey had been conducted after the summer: “Possibly, if we had done it now, the figure would be different.”

He expects the use of cooling systems to increase in the coming years, although the survey has no earlier figures for comparison.

Renting makes home improvements harder

Nearly 60% of respondents said they had made no improvements to their home’s energy efficiency. Travesset highlighted the constraints faced by renters, who cannot decide what work is carried out. Other households have not renovated because of the cost, because they live in recently built buildings or because they consider their insulation adequate.

The survey also asked about renewable energy. Around 80% of households said they had not installed any renewable energy systems. Among those who had, the most common were solar photovoltaic panels, followed by aerothermal systems, solar thermal panels and biomass.

Oil remains the most common heating system

Oil boilers are the main heating system, used by 60% of households. Electric heating accounts for 24%. A comparison with the 2023 Living Conditions Survey points to an increase in electric heating, which stood at 18% then.

Travesset said detailed information about home equipment can help with energy planning and make it possible to estimate, for example, potential energy and emissions savings from replacing oil boilers with heat pumps. The data can also help forecast changes in electricity demand.

For lighting, 62% of households use LED bulbs, 26% use energy-saving bulbs and 12% still have incandescent bulbs.

Survey included 751 participants

The survey was designed by AR+I’s Sustainability and Sociology groups, with support from the Government’s Energy and Climate Change Office and FEDA. Telephone interviews were conducted between 23 February and 18 March 2026 with 751 Andorra residents aged 18 or over.

The overall margin of error is 3.59%, with a confidence level of 95.5%. Travesset said the results are representative at national level, while parish-level figures should be interpreted more cautiously because their margin of error is higher.

The study is part of the Climate Change Vulnerability and Impact Study (EVICC). The research team says it would be useful to repeat the survey every five years, although no such schedule has been confirmed. Descriptive results are publicly available on the AR+I website.