USERS’ MEANING OF WARMTH

Whereas engineers tend to talk about heating and temperature, in users vocabulary ‘warmth’ is the associated with the practice of heating. Users consider ‘warmth’ as an indoor climatic condition. Users consider ‘heating’ as to make something warm. In this understanding of ‘to heat’ they focus rather on the quality of ‘warm’ as a characteristic of a room or their body, instead of the action of ‘making’ or a certain temperature. Hence this theme is called ‘warmth’. ‘Warmth’ was mainly discussed in relation to the living room and bed room. The interviewed users spend most of their time at home in these spaces and prefer these rooms be comfortable warm. Other rooms are rarely associated with ‘warmth’. During the interviews, other rooms were hardly associated with the climatic condition ‘warmth’.

Users give meaning to ‘warmth’ and the organization of ‘warmth’ in relation to other circumstances and factors in their socio-material environment.

Users associate warmth with temperature. User tends not to talk about just ‘temperature’, but as a qualifier for a circumstance that warmth is comfortable to them. Temperature was described as:

“Steady 20 degrees with fresh air.” (Karina)

“Somewhere between the 19 and 21 degrees is nice depending on what I do.” (Tineke) “Always 20,5 degrees with a blanket.” (Tamar)

It seems that a temperature in the range of 19-21° C appears to be comfortable warm for users. But their descriptions about temperature to define ‘comfortable warmth’ circumstance were always accompanied with further information about other factors like fresh air, activities, and clothing.

68 Users do not consider temperature as a singly qualifier to define ’comfortable warmth’: also other factors in the environment contribute at the same time to comfortable ‘warmth’.

Users link the organization of warmth to ‘heat sources’. Most mentioned heat source factors are central heating and block heating. But also other factors were brought up. The sun was mentioned by multiple users:

“We have a large south-facing window and the sun shines in all day […] you can really notice that. If it freezes and the sun shines in all day, at the end of the day, we have a warm room, we do not have to turn on the heating. When we come home after work, it is actually warm here. Perhaps later at night we will to turn on the heating system.” (Brenda)

Furthermore, the some users talk about ‘candles’ and ‘cooking’ as factors that contribute to warmth. Karina told that they eventually lower the heating once they have lit candles in the evening. Brenda lowers the heating when she cooks. Various ‘heat sources’ at home influence together the daily heating practice. They adjust the main source for heating according to other sources in their environment; otherwise it will become too warm. The factors like the sun, cooking and candles contribute not all at the same time, but vary throughout the day. Furthermore, these factors have in each practice a different influence on the heating practice. Thus, users coordinate the various sources throughout the day in order to balance warmth at a comfortable level and the coordination practice of heat sources differs among households.

Users associate their own practice of ‘warmth’ with that of their neighbors. Factors like ‘the location in the building’, ‘isolation’ and ‘pipes’ make that they are related to their neighbors. Karina, Tamar, and Brenda emphasize that their house is isolated between their neighbor’s houses. In this meaning of isolation, they imply the place of their house as being built-in between neighbors. The location of their home in relation to that of their neighbors’ makes that they ‘gain’ heat of their neighbors.

“And what probably contributes as well, is that we are completely in between our neighbors. Built-in between the other houses and yet we get heat from our neighbors. […] as a result, I believe that I have to heat less here.”(Brenda)

The location of their home in the flat compared to other neighbors gives them the impression that they get warmth from them. Brenda, Tamar, Karina consider that as comfortable, because they have to heat less themselves. In contrast to Emiel, who lives at the top floor of a building and does not have to heat at all. Emiel focuses on the technical setup of the pipes of the central heating system and material construction of isolation of his roof that connect him to the heating practices of others in the building. The warmth of neighbors’ downstairs rises and lingers in his apartment. Through this, is becomes too warm in home and Emiel considers this as extremely uncomfortable. As a counter action he leaves his windows open to get rid of the surplus warmth. According to users the heating practices of neighbors contribute to their indoor warmth, and their comfort thus depends on their neighbors.

Users associate warmth also with the speed at which a room can be heated and how the warmth can be kept in a room. Factors like the size of a room, doors and windows play major roles: most users expressed that they close doors and windows in order ‘make the room smaller’ and ‘to lock up’ the heat inside. Emiel however does usually the opposite, in order to get rid of all the warmth. The possibility to play with the speed of heating and hold the warmth inside by means of doors and windows is extremely important for the users. They consider it as uncomfortable if they would lack these options. Doors and windows serve as extra tools that they can use to control their indoor climate. Also further solutions were mentioned to realize a higher speed and retain heat.

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“This extension made the living room rather large. We had to place an additional radiator, because otherwise it would take too long to heat the room.”(Tineke)

“When I’m cold, then I set the thermostat on 30 degrees, because I believe; well, now I just want to become warm quickly, and afterwards it will be suffocating hot and then I will turn it off again.”(Brenda)

Factors like (additional) radiators and thermostats encourage users in their strategies to control the speed of heating. All users have their own strategy to increase the speed and hold of heat, and make use of the available ‘control factors’ in their own environment in quest for comfort.

Users related warmth to certain activities. They mentioned mainly intensive physical activities like tiding up and vacuum cleaning, that heat up their bodies. Furthermore they also pointed to other activities that release heat to the room, like cooking. During such activities, there is less need for a warm environment. Usually they take steps lower the warmth by turning the thermostat lower, open doors and/or windows, and otherwise they take off some clothes. Moreover, the users describe activities that require sitting, like watching television or computer work. During such activities, most participants need more warmth. Sometimes they heat the room a little more, but most participants prefer extra clothing. What comfortable warmth means to users varies among various types of activities. Users have different strategies and make use of various factors in their environment to lower or higher the warmth of the room or body so that it is comfortable in line with what they are doing at home. When users associate warmth with activities, they usually make a distinction between body warmth and a warm environment. Apparently, there exists a kind of limit what the participants experience as a comfortable warm environment; above a certain temperature it becomes discomfortble in combination with some activities. I.e. if the environment is too warm, some participants clarified that this makes them drowsy; this is undesirable in cases that have do work that requires concentration, like Sanne:

“If I have to work at home, the environment should not be to warm. It makes me sleepy. I’d rather snuggle into a blanket, which makes my body pleasantly warm.”(Sanne)

In such cases, the users choose often to put on some extra clothes or a blanket to tune their body heat with the environment and activities in such way that they experience comfort. Clothes are also used by the participants as a means to overcome differences between variations between people’s preferences for a comfortable warm environment.

“I am the shivery one of us, I get easily cold in this room. But well, I also adjust myself to him. I wear extra socks and a warm sweater. Because, I see that as the first solution to overcome differences between preferences for warmth.“ (Karina)

Users told that they use clothes to adjust to the environment and become comfortable warm. In conclusion, clothes clearly are an important means for these them to adapt themselves to the environment and tune their individual preference for warmth.