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How we use our heating and hot water to undertake everyday tasks in the home, will help inform new research being undertaken by Loughborough University.

A dedicated research team from Loughborough’s Design School is analysing UK consumers’ choices, habits and expectations and is encouraging people to fill in an online questionnaire to find out people’s preferences when it comes to drying clothes, doing the washing up, showering, and bathing for example.

The research will help determine whether current heating systems, ranging from radiators and boilers to solar panels and heat pumps, meet consumer needs.

The research team are also on the lookout for people from Leicestershire who would be willing to be interviewed at home about their use of hot water. The face-to-face interview process, taking place in June and July, will last one and a half hours. As a thank you, participants will receive £15 in vouchers which can be used at a range of high street shops. 

The project is being run as part of the University’s involvement with i-STUTE - an interdisciplinary centre for Storage, Transformation and Upgrading of Thermal Energy. It is one of six End Use Energy Demand Centres funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK).

Clare Lawton, Research Associate at Loughborough University, said: “i-STUTE’s remit is to develop technologies that aim to reduce energy consumption to help the UK achieve a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of at least 80 per cent by 2050.

“One of the ways in which this can be done is by delivering cost-effective heating and cooling, and by helping households to reduce their demand for energy. This is why we have launched the questionnaire to determine whether people’s needs and requirements are being met, as well as measuring energy efficiency.

“We are looking for more than 400 national responses to the questionnaire and we are hoping to interview an additional 30 people from Leicestershire. The data collected will be treated in the strictest confidence and will only be used in research that explores how to improve the energy efficiency of our homes.”

i-STUTE has received funding of £5.2 million from RCUK and will work with the five other centres to conduct research to help better understand the UK’s future energy needs.

To take part in the anonymous questionnaire by the deadline of Sunday 31 May, click here.

To find out more about the face-to-face interview process, contact Clare on 01509 226909.