Participant selection

This study consisted of three parts, requiring participants from both the service recipient side and the service provider side. The service recipients, tenants, were recruited for the focus group through the social housing landlord (service provider). The researcher wrote a covering letter and an information sheet outlining the study and expectations of the participants. This was forwarded to the social housing organisation and distributed by them under their own covering letter to tenants with a heat pump installed in their home. The introductory letter for recruitment of participants was sent to tenants from the social housing landlord because of the relationship of trust between them and the landlord’s duty to protect the tenants’ personal details. Furthermore, it was anticipated this would return better response rates. For these same reasons, a representative at the social housing organisation was provided as the contact to respond to. The researcher’s contact details were also available on the information sheet, should the tenants wish to contact the researcher directly for any further information.

177 It was determined crucial that users involved in this phase of the research were existing users, not potential users. With such new technology in question and a demonstrated lack of understanding amongst experienced tenants with a heat pump installed, as evident in the review of literature and findings of the exploration phase, it was deemed unsuitable to recruit a random selection of tenants of the social housing organisation to participate. It was essential to ensure that all participants were heat pump users. Furthermore, in focus group research, specific responses based on experience are given more weight (Krueger, 1998) therefore the contribution of tenants with a heat pump was more likely to provide substantial, valid information.

A level of experience with this specific technology was required to be able to relate to the service, the areas identified for improvements and to contribute ideas about how to tackle these improvements that the tenants would find beneficial. Those who had been through the existing service would know what would have improved the experience for them at various stages of the process. Novices would be very unlikely to have enough prior understanding to be able to give substantial insights. Thus, the sample could not be random as participants had to fit particular criteria. Only tenants with a heat pump received the recruitment letter and it was therefore an opportunistic sample from this sub-set of tenants, in that participants were recruited on the basis of responding positively to attend from targeted requests.

Table 5 shows the sample information for the participants who were recruited to represent the service recipients in the focus group; the first and main part of the tenant data collection for this research phase. Whilst the target audience to be recruited was tenants, in the group of eight participants, six were tenants of the social housing organisation and two were a relation of a tenant. One was the partner of a tenant with a heat pump, who lived elsewhere but had experience of the heat pump system, and one was the daughter of an elderly tenant with a heat pump. The daughter attended both as a user of her mother’s heating system and also to support her mother in contributing to the focus group itself because of her physical ailments.

178 The researcher had less control over the recruitment because this was done by the social housing organisation, as explained earlier, beyond the content of the

recruitment documents and specifying participant requirements to the social

housing organisation. Interaction at the point of recruitment was between the social housing organisation and the respondents. It was determined that the relations could appropriately contribute to the discussion as stakeholders who use the system and have experience of spending time in the properties with the systems. Participants 4E and 5F had been involved in the previous phase of this research, interviewed in their home about their heat pump experiences. This helped to validate the reliability and accuracy of the findings of the first phase of research through the repetition of them discussing their experiences.

Exact ages of the participants were not obtained when collecting data but it was determined whether they were under or over 65 years old. This age was the lower limit of what classified the population of older people, as outlined in the literature review section 2.2, being studied in this research. Therefore, it was appropriate to determine which participants were in this category and which were not, to

determine any differences between the demographics in their responses.

Table 5: Service recipients focus group participants

Code Gender Heat pump system User Type Age

1.A Female Air-Air Source (ducted) Tenant Over 65 1.B Female Air-Air Source (ducted) Daughter of I.A Over 65 2.C Male Air-Air Source (ducted) Tenant Over 65 2.D Female Air-Air Source (ducted) Tenant Over 65

3.E Female Ground Source Tenant Under 65

4.F Female Ground Source Tenant Over 65

5.G Female Air-Air Source (fan) Tenant Under 65

5.H Male Air-Air Source (fan) Partner of tenant

5.G Under 65

Some tenants responded to the focus group recruitment, by contacting the social housing organisation representative, to say that they could not attend the focus group but wanted to partake in the research. The tenants were unable to travel to

179 the focus group location. Therefore, it was decided that contextual interviews would be a suitable supplementary method of data collection, to obtain the viewpoints of these participants. It was better to extend the investigation through an alternative method than to omit the contribution of others because of their inability to attend the focus group. The researcher would instead visit the tenants in their home after the focus group had been carried out. A modified structure of questioning to suit the setting was developed, aiming to elicit information

comparable with the focus group data collection and to validate and develop further the findings from the focus group. Table 6 outlines the participants who were involved through contextual interviews. Again, these participants were contacted by the social housing organisation first with information about the interview process and to arrange an appointment.

Table 6: Service recipients interview participants

Code Gender Heat Pump System Age

CI1 Male Air-Air Source (fan) Over 65

CI2 Male Air-Water Source Over 65

CI3 Female Air-Air Source (fan) Over 65 CI4 Female Air-Air Source (fan) Over 65 CI5a Male Air-Air Source (ducted) Over 65 CI5b Female Air-Air Source (ducted) Over 65

The service providers appropriate to inform this phase of research were employees of the social housing organisation who are involved in the installation process for heat pumps and who interact with tenants regarding their heat pump and the contracted installers of the systems. As was the case with the tenant recruitment, participants representing the service provider perspective needed to have

experience of the processes involved in installing renewable technology. A sound understanding of the processes involved, their knowledge of activities and

180 and negative aspects of the service. Recruitment of participants with these criteria was requested with the representative contact at the social housing organisation.

The project contact at the social housing organisation recruited the participants, both internally and the external contracted installers, and communicated the purpose of the study to all, with a study information sheet supplied by the researcher. Again, it was determined that this would produce a better response rate, particularly from the external installers. Table 7 gives details of the participants in the focus group with service providers. For these participants, age details were not obtained as they were not necessary for the research. Their job role was the key piece of participant information, to understand their position in the service and the type and level of interaction they have with tenants in relation to heat pump installations.

Table 7: Service Providers Focus Group Participants

Code Gender Role

A Male Council employee – Contract Officer B Male Council employee – Energy Officer C Female Council employee – Energy Officer D Male Council employee – Energy Officer E Female Council employee - Business Support

(Energy)

F Male Installer

G Male Installer

181 5.2.2 Method

The second study to refine requirements and develop solutions was divided into three parts as previously outlined. Two user-centred research methods were used, as described above; a focus group method was used for eliciting further information from service users and service providers and contextual interviews were used as a supplementary research method to obtain further information from service users. The diagram below in Figure 19 depicts how this study formed. How these methods were applied and carried out in each part of the study is explained in the following sections.

Figure 23: Refinement and Development Study Diagram