The high cost of energy is partially to blame for an increase in the number of home fire deaths, Fire and Rescue New South Wales says.

Five more people died in the state in 2015 due to home fires than in the previous year.

"In 2015, we experienced unfortunately 17 preventable fire deaths in homes out of about 4,000 plus home fires in New South Wales," Assistant Commissioner Mark Whybro said.

Assistant Commissioner Whybro said 2015 had a colder winter than the previous year and the cost of heating led some people to heat their homes in dangerous ways.

"There were indications that the perceived high cost of energy has led to some people bringing coal burners and heat beads and things like that into their homes," he said.

"We had unfortunately a number of carbon monoxide poisonings as a result of people trying to find cheaper ways to heat their homes."

Assistant Commissioner Whybro said that while winter was usually the peak period for homes fires, the Christmas holidays have been busy as well, with "four home fire deaths and nearly 300 house fires in December alone".

"Unfortunately this holiday season has been particularly busy with barbecues and overloaded power boards and festive lights causing problems," he said.

Assistant Commissioner Whybro said it had also been disappointing to see home fire alarms still not working properly.

"Our own research shows that in our at-risk communities, around 50 per cent of people do not have a working smoke alarm and that is the one big contributing factor to your survival if there is a fire."

Fire and Rescue NSW is working towards zero accidental fire deaths in the community.