Space heating preferences in UK social housing: A socio-technical household survey combined with building audits

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the relationships between dwelling, household, and motivation, behaviour and perception characteristics and winter heating setpoint temperatures (n=111) and heating periods (n=148 and 145) used in UK social housing. The work capitalises on primary data from a socio-technical household survey, undertaken in Plymouth, UK, during 2015, which was merged with building audit data collected by the social housing association managing the properties. The mean reported heating setpoint temperature was 20.9 • C and the average weekday and weekend day heating periods were 9.5h and 11.2h respectively. The results suggest that heating setpoint temperatures and periods vary greatly among UK social houses, but there are clear systematic variations according to dwelling, household, and motivation, behaviour and perception characteristics. The research could enable social housing providers, the government and commercial organisations to target energy efficiency measures (i.e. thermal upgrades) and social interventions (i.e. behaviour change) at those dwellings and households where their impact may be most beneficial. The results presented could also be used to better inform the assumptions of heating preferences in energy models, which could result in more realistic predictions of the space heating demands of social housing and the potential energy savings from refurbishment measures.

Towards energy-efficient retrofit of council housing in London: Assessing the impact of occupancy and energy-use patterns on building performance

“…In addition, retrofitting domestic buildings helps improve health and comfort of occupants besides meeting the energy and fuel poverty reduction targets [6]. As a result of the thermal and economic benefits of retrofits, energy loads for space heating and thermal comfort levels in cold seasons have been the focus of research in the UK [14]. However, many studies have found that the benefits from retrofitting can be compromised through shortfalls in the building performance where achieved benefits may not necessarily resonate with the expected outcomes of the interventions [15,16].…”

Analysis of the temperature distribution in a space heated by a dynamic (fan) storage heater

“…Similar studies are presented in [10]. The dependence of the room temperature set on the type of a consumer (his home, age, preferences, etc.)…”

“…It concerned those consumers who during the survey indicated that they wanted to reduce the cost of heat. According to [10], these consumers set a higher temperature than those who neither agreed nor denied the need for reducing the cost of heat. But the averaged room temperature in this study also was lower than in the project.…”

“…In [9][10][11], room temperature was considered as a single value without fluctuations at different points in the room. The temperature values in these studies were derived from the indicators of thermostats.…”

The role of thermostatic radiator valves for the control of space heating in UK social-rented households

“…Unnervingly, 4% of all homes with a boiler do not have any controls at all. Research has shown that in addition to external temperature and building fabric, the key factors that influence a dwelling's space heating energy demand are the heating system's thermostat and timer settings chosen by the occupants (where such controls are available) [9]- [12].…”