Abstract
Despite indications that they could play an important part in shaping how people heat their homes, central heating installers have been largely overlooked in energy research. As a means of addressing this oversight, this paper draws on a British ethnographic study to explore the ways in which these ‘missing middlemen’ can be said to comprise a ‘community of practice’. Two aspects of community membership are explored in detail: social learning processes and shared identities. This exercise shows how socially acquired understandings of their professional role and their relationship with homeowners can influence the selection and installation of heating products. The paper concludes with suggestions for how industry and policy makers might engage with this group. These suggestions focus on strategies aimed at reducing the energy used for home heating, and the installation of alternative heating technologies, both of which might benefit from an appreciation of the informal processes of community formation.
Highlights
In most of Europe, space heating is the largest single contributor to domestic energy consumption [15]
In the UK context, gas central heating systems1 are the dominant form of space heating [40], and heating installers are tasked with the selection, installation and explanation of these systems in homes
Established research traditions and policy strategies have focused on domestic technologies and the building occupants using them, this paper has explored the role of the missing middlemen of central heating
Summary
In most of Europe, space heating is the largest single contributor to domestic energy consumption [15]. In the UK context, gas central heating systems are the dominant form of space heating [40], and heating installers are tasked with the selection, installation and explanation of these systems in homes. They are the bridge between those who design relevant technologies and those who use them. Whilst such research is necessarily situated, in our case with the UK gas heating installer community, the approach and findings we present here are of wider relevance to those interested in the many building professionals and intermediary groups whose actions shape energy consumption. Graphic analysis of a group whose routine practices have significant domestic energy use implications: heating installers
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