Constructive narratives for home heat decarbonisation

Improving public understanding, trust and engagement with low-carbon heating technologies
heat pump

Constructive narratives for home heat decarbonisation

Improving public understanding, trust and engagement with low-carbon heating technologies
Project title: Constructive narratives for home heat decarbonisation
Project duration: September 2025 – March 2026 
Project partners: University of Plymouth, Users TCP, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
University of Plymouth staff: Dr Hanne Knight, Dr Sue Langford
 
This research project examines how heat pump narratives are developed, communicated and received across different national and institutional contexts. The project falls under the International Energy Agency’s UsersTCP and addresses the urgent need to improve public understanding, trust, and engagement with low-carbon heating technologies.
 

Project objectives:

  • Evidence synthesis: A review of academic, policy and professional literature to identify common findings on heat pump narratives, communication framings, trusted messengers, country-specific contexts and evaluation practices.
  • International expert insight: Through interviews with experts from policy, industry, research, communication and intermediary organisations, to explore how heat pump campaigns are designed, adapted and delivered in practice.
  • Narrative and campaign analysis: To identify key narrative themes on heat pumps, including affordability, comfort, energy security, trust, localisation, digital communication, policy access, tools and installer engagement.

  • Guidance for effective communication: To develop practical lessons for designing credible, locally relevant, evidence-based heat pump narratives that are connected to clear adoption pathways.
  • Support for policy and practice: To inform future communication strategies by showing how narratives support public confidence, reduce uncertainty, counter misinformation and strengthen links between policy incentives and household action.
  • Evaluation learning: To highlight how heat pump communication can be evaluated beyond basic reach and engagement metrics, using changes in perception, message uptake, enquiries, policy traction, installer feedback, and adoption-related indicators.
 
 
Heat pump
Heat pumps are central to the decarbonisation of domestic heating, but adoption remains shaped by more than just technical performance or financial incentives. Public responses are influenced by narratives around affordability, comfort, reliability, energy security, installer trust, policy accessibility and local relevance. 
At the same time, communication takes place in increasingly contested information environments, where misinformation, incumbent pushback and uncertainty around costs can affect public confidence.
The project brings together rapid evidence assessment, international expert interviews, and campaign case analysis to identify which heat pump narratives are most effective, how they vary across countries and contexts, and how communication campaigns can be designed to support adoption more effectively.
It focuses not only on message content, but also on the wider communication ecosystem, including installers, intermediaries, digital platforms, policy schemes, interactive tools and trusted messengers.
The findings show that effective heat pump communication needs to translate decarbonisation into practical, household-relevant terms. 

Campaigns are most persuasive when they make adoption feel financially supported, comfortable to live with, locally appropriate and easy to navigate. 
The research also highlights the importance of trusted intermediaries, especially installers and peer examples, and the need for communication to be closely aligned with policy design and customer journeys.