Consumers-and-domestic-heating-controls-a-literature-review

Consumers have reported that in-person advice is not always available. In a small-scale
1994 survey, users reported that main source of information on their heating controls had
been the installer or electrician. 65 However, the majority were dissatisfied with the level of
information they had received, mainly because they had not received any. 66 Some focus
group participants reported they had asked installers for advice but they had not been able
to spend enough time with them, although others did feel they had received adequate
advice. 67 Users may also have limited time, and interest in controls, to take on information.
In a case from the non-domestic sector, a user reported that representatives were not
knowledgeable when demonstrating the innovative features of a low carbon building and its
systems. 68 These problems can be exacerbated where users receive conflicting information
from a variety of sources, including friends and family, official information, or ‘common
sense’. 69
Consumer research suggests that advice on their specific control is in greater demand than
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advice on heating systems generally. The proliferation of control types and models makes
providing control specific advice difficult for energy advisers. Indeed one of the prompts for
this work was a claim by industry that they could not provide advice on heating controls as
part of the Green Deal advice service, as they could not rely on advisers being able to
program the different controls in British homes. 71 Providing advice may be particularly
difficult in the private rental sector, where there is likely to be a greater proliferation of
control models, a concern raised with Consumer Focus by energy advisers, and where
consumers may be less likely to have received information on their controls. 72
It is argued that while information and instruction are important, they are less likely to drive
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efficient control use than a well-designed control.
Use of controls
In the book ‘Designing Web Usability’, the author Jakob Nielsen says that usability is
essential because: ‘if [people] cannot find what they want quickly and easily they will go
away’. 74
If consumers find the controls hard to use they are less likely to use them
effectively, or at all. In the words of one user:
‘It’s very difficult to get any idea as to the key things which impact on energy
usage. Is it better to have the heating on constant and low or timed but higher
temperatures? ... [It is] very easy for everything to become “too difficult” and hence
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we do nothing’
65
Association for the Conservation of Energy, 2004, User Behaviour in Energy Efficient Homes
66
Ibid.
67
Rathouse K and Young B/DEFRA MTP, 2004, BNDH15: Use of domestic heating controls
68
Bill Bordass and Adrian Leaman, 2012, People, environmental control and buildings in use –
PART A Improving local control devices: How to please end-users and save energy. Presentation at
Reading University 12 January 2012 www.usablebuildings.co.uk
69
Rathouse K and Young B/DEFRA MTP, 2004, BNDH15: Use of domestic heating controls.
70
Stockton H/NEA. 2008, Survey of Warm Front grant recipients using the Horstmann Thermoplus:
Advice to DEFRA.
71
Discussion with DECC and industry on the provision of heating control guidance as part of the
Green Deal advice service, Green Deal Advice Forum, 2011.
72
Discussion with energy advisers at NEA fuel poverty forums.
73
Bell M, Wingfield J, Miles-Shenton D and Seavers J, 2010, Low carbon housing: Lessons from
Elm Tree Mews. York, Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
74
Quoted in Bordass B, Leaman A and Bunn R, 2007, Controls for End Users: A guide for good
design and implementation.
75
Heating control user quoted in Caird, S. and Roy, R. with S. Potter and H. Herring, 2007,
Consumer adoption and use of household energy efficiency products Report DIG-09, Dec. 2007.
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Consumers and domestic heating controls - a literature review 14