ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the relationship between householders' mental models of home heating at both the device and system levels. It considers how differences in the mental model held can explain householders' self-reported behaviour with heating controls. The chapter investigates the influence of users' mental models of devices on their pattern of device use. It proposes the understanding where omissions, inaccuracies and inconsistencies occur in users' device models of home heating could provide insights into how to reduce energy consumption resulting from non-optimal operation. The chapter aims to demonstrate the existence of distinct mental model descriptions of the functioning of present-day UK home-heating systems, which differ significantly from actual functioning. It refers to mental models in three different ways: in terms of its function, in terms of its source and in terms of its individuality. The chapter determines mental model descriptions of thermostat function can be categorized according to the shared theory types in the literature.
