ABSTRACT
This chapter provides insights that inform the design of a home-heating digital control interface to encourage appropriate heating control. 'Appropriate heating control' is considered, to be pragmatic operation of heating devices so householders fulfil their heating goals with minimal wasted energy. The chapter insights into why householders use their heating system inappropriately, often leading to wasted energy. These insights were thought to be important if considering the design of digital interfaces tasked with enabling users to better control their home-heating systems. The chapter proposes a 'design model', 'compatible model' and recommended system state of a UK home-heating system. The design of the system image influences whether a compatible model is reinforced to the user when they interact with the system. In the home-heating context, the system image was considered at the system level by envisioning the household as an 'interface', as well as at the device level, by examining the human–device interface for key home-heating controls.
