Research and analysis

Case studies (text version)

Published 11 March 2026

Names and personal information have been changed.

Adam, 30s, Lincolnshire

Attitude towards the environment

• As someone who works outdoors every day, Adam has some interest in protecting nature. However, he sees global environmental issues, and particularly climate change, as a “problem for tomorrow.”
• Adam has never really thought about the link between his home and climate change. He does have some smart appliances, including smart lighting and a smart washing machine, but sees these primarily as a means to save money on his monthly electricity bills, rather than to reduce his home’s impact on the environment.

“My philosophy would be why worry [about the environment] today when you could worry about it tomorrow”

Life

• Adam lives by himself in the centre of town.
• He moved to his current home around a year ago. Having always lived with others, he initially struggled to adjust to living alone.
• Adam likes to spend his time relaxing at home, or doing activities with his family at the weekend.
• His biggest interest is home gadgets –his house is already full of smart technology and he hopes to get more soon.

Home

• Adam lives in a one-bed flat in a converted warehouse building.
• The flat has an energy efficiency rating of A. He hasn’t made any changes to the flat beyond buying smart technology, such as lights and a washing machine.

Work

• Adam works at a local farm, a job that he has had since school.

Finances

• Adam’s life motto is “live in the moment and worry about it tomorrow.”
• Adam spends what he earns and doesn’t save much, so it can sometimes be difficult for him to make ends meet each month.

Information needs around home renovation:

Adam often finds online sources ‘overwhelming’, and prefers information that is closely tailored to his property type.

Adam is not confident in using the internet or navigating complex information online. He likes to be able to quickly identify what is specifically relevant to his situation, rather than trawling through lots of general information.

Adam doesn’t trust many sources of media as he feels like they are always trying to sell something. He prefers sources that feel neutral and without agenda.

Adam prefers information from sources that he is familiar with and places most trust in brands that he has used before.

Home renovation information journeys in the past:

Adam makes changes to his home fairly spontaneously, and rarely consults many sources of information.

When he does look into new purchases/options, he tends to default to trusted brands. For example, when buying a new car, he chose a make he had had before. On occasion he’ll also look on YouTube for reviews.

Homework task

Adam was asked to investigate how he might improve his Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Broad search

• Adam found Googling around EPC ratings overwhelming as there was “too much information” about the many different steps that people could take. He found a lot of this too broad for his situation –living in a flat –which immediately put him off searching further.

Visit trusted sites

• Adam enjoys watching YouTube reviews, so decided to look into reviews for ground source heat pumps.
• He was frustrated that most videos about ground source heat pumps felt like they were trying to sell him a product.

Weigh up benefits and costs

• Adam felt that the information on Simple Energy Advice and the Energy Savings Trust was not personalised enough to the type of property he lives in (e.g. a flat).
• He struggled to weigh up the costs and benefits of making changes to his home because he couldn’t tell which options would be better than what he had already implemented (e.g. energy saving bulbs).

Position

Adam sees global environmental issues, and particularly climate change, as a “problem for tomorrow.” Adam’s biggest interest is home gadgets –his house is already full of smart technology and he hopes to get more soon. 

Mark, 30s, West Yorkshire

Attitude towards the environment

• Mark thinks protecting the environment is fairly important, but has other priorities in his life that currently feel more pressing such as getting his house ready for children.
• Mark’s knowledge of environmental issues is informed by conversations he has with his friends and family, and he is aware that there are some things he does not have a full understanding of.
• Mark is considering buying an electric or hybrid car in the future.

I think most people in the area focus on the recycling element, I’m not so sure on some of the other stuff like saving energy and the water.

Life

• Mark lives with his partner in a small town near Leeds. They have both lived in the area their whole lives and most of their family and friends also live nearby.
• Mark and his partner are looking forward to becoming parents soon. All of their current plans are geared towards this objective.
• Mark’s partner currently works as a carer, but plans to leave this job rather than take parental leave when they become parents.

Home

• Mark lives in a detached three-bed house built in the 80s.
• He and his partner have already done up most of the house to prepare for having children. They are now planning to renovate the garage and the garden. They are not prioritising carbon-neutral options.

Work

• Mark is a retail manager. He has worked in retail since he was 16.

Finances

• Mark puts at least a thousand pounds a month into savings.
• He imagines that his biggest future costs will be the ongoing house renovation and potentially a new electric/hybrid car.

Information needs around home renovation

Mark prefers to give other people control of making changes to his home, and is not interested in technical details.

Mark likes home improvement projects to be simple and easy. He prefers the control and decision-making responsibility to be with the contractor and is not interested in learning the technical detail of what’s happening to his home.

Mark also relies on personal recommendations from friends and family, as he feels that these are more likely to be honest and have his best interests at heart.

Home renovation information journeys in the past

As well as searching online for a contractor when they were renovating their kitchen, Mark and his partner also asked friends and family for recommendations, with a particular focus on who might be most reliable.

When renovating their bathroom, they visited a local bathroom company who guided them in design, installation and cost. They liked that this was the full package and didn’t bother looking for information elsewhere.

Homework task:

Mark was asked to investigate how he might improve his Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Broad Search

• Mark felt most motivated at the start of the homework task, as he expected the searching process to be simple and straightforward.
• Mark did some Googling but struggled to find information that was relevant to his property – they have already replaced the windows and added some insulation.
• He lacked motivation to dig further as he realized that increasing his EPC rating was something he wouldn’t be able to do himself – as he believed he lacked knowledge and that someone with specialist knowledge would need to be involved.

Position: Mark thinks protecting the environment is fairly important, but has other priorities in his life that currently feel more pressing such as getting his house ready for children. Mark hasn’t invested in carbon-neutral/low-carbon solutions. 

Jessie, 40s, Somerset

Attitude towards the environment

• Due to her husband’s work at an environmental organisation, Jessie is quite conscious of global environmental issues and how she can make environmentally friendly changes to her life. She says that being a parent has also made her think about the future of the planet and what she can do to help.
• Though energy efficiency is important to Jessie and she and her husband have made a range of environmentally focused changes (including installing solar panels and an eco boiler), she would not want to make changes to her home that compromised its ‘cosiness’ or character. She is more likely to wait until other changes are being made in the home or something breaks down and needs to be replaced before making an environmentally focused change.

I guess you could say we live in kind of a bubble, one where everyone on the street has solar panels installed and cares about the environment.

Life

• Jessie lives in the city centre with her husband, songs and dogs.
• Jessie’s family love the outdoors – they often had to the countryside for walks or bike rides.

Home

• Jessie and her family live in a four-bed terraced house in Bath. They have been living there for a few years now.
• The home is Georgian because of this, the front of the home is protected so they cannot make changes to it.
• They recently refurbished the kitchen to make it a modern extension and hope to work on the bathrooms next.
• Home ownership is very important to Jessie, as she believes it gives you stability, especially when you have children.

Work

• Jessie works in the arts world, teaching adults and running events.

Finances

• In addition to her salary, Jessie also gets an income from a flat that she and her husband rent out to students.
• Jessie likes the security of having savings and describes her household as ‘very lucky’ in terms of their income.

Information needs around home renovation:

Jessie would like to be able to find information tailored to her type of home.

Jessie is keen to find information that is relevant to her home (a Georgian building). She finds that there are a lot of specific challenges in trying to “force new things onto an old house - it’s hard to make it work”.

It is also important to Jessie that she finds a ‘reputable’ company to make changes to her home. She feels that some modern adaptations are quite complex, and not all contractors will know how to complete them, let alone do a good job.

Home renovation information journeys in the past:

Jessie and her husband have made many changes to their home over the last few years, including installing solar panels for heating, getting an eco boiler, hot roofing, and adding insulated render to the back of their home.

Jessie likes to look at online blogs written by people who have made changes to property types similar to her home, in order to manage her expectations of what is possible.

Homework task

Jessie was asked to explore energy efficiency and low carbon heating options for her home.

Trigger:

• Jessie felt like she did not need to look up much information about low carbon solutions for her home as she has already made a number of changes to her home over the last few years.

Weigh up benefits and costs

• While browsing greenmatch.com Jessie was surprised to discover that there were grants available when making changes to your home. This motivated her to continue searching for information, as she previously had thought she would not be eligible for them.
• Jessie was keen to identify the unintended consequences – whether positive or negative - that come with making an environmental change in the home. This attitude came from her home unexpectedly becoming warmer and ‘cosier’ after they added the render to the back of the house.
• Overall, Jessie felt that the information on the energy advice websites was quite repetitive and general, and none of them offered her the specific information she needed about making changes to an older home. This makes her feel less enthusiastic and motivated to make changes to her home, as she struggled to identify whether they were possible.

Position

Jessie is quite conscious of global environmental issues and how she can make environmentally friendly changes to her life. Jessie and her husband have made many changes to their home over the last few years, including installing solar panels for heating, getting an eco boiler, hot roofing, and adding insulated render to the back of their home. 

Katherine, 40s, North Wales

Attitude towards the environment

• Though Katherine cares about the environment, she feels that she alone cannot make much of a positive difference.
• When it comes to making changes to her home, Katherine admits that cost is always likely to be a priority over choosing an environmentally friendly option.
• Katherine first learned about energy efficiency when buying her home, and she and her partner have worked to change their EPC in order to cut costs.

We thought we might as well go ahead and insulate our home if it’s going to reduce our bills in the long run. Rather than it being an environmental decision, it was more about the impact on the family.

Life

• Katherine lives with her husband and children in a small town in North Wales.
• Katherine and her husband have always been entrepreneurial – her husband ran his own business before they had children and Katherine has bought, developed and managed properties.
• Katherine enjoys buying luxury products, particularly handbags. She has also just bought a new car, a Mercedes.

Home

• Katherine and her partner have lived in a five-bed detached house for the last few years. The home was built 25 years ago, and Katherine describes it as “one of the oldest new builds on an estate full of new builds”.
• When she and her husband first purchased their house, they felt that it was not a “modern enough” design, and decided to renovate the entire home, at a cost of around £25,000.

Work

• Katherine works part-time in a dental practice and was recently promoted.

Finances

• The household’s combined income is around £60,000-£70,000.
• Katherine estimates their monthly household expenses (including spending money on luxury items) leaves them with £250-£500 a month to save.
• In the past Katherine’s focus had been saving, but now that their mortgage has been paid off, she feels more comfortable with spending.

Information needs around home renovation

Katherine prefers to get information from contractors instead of doing research herself.

Katherine rarely goes online to make decisions around home renovation, preferring recommendations from people she knows personally.

She was really pleased with the work done on her previous and current home and, if she were doing more renovation, would prefer to use that builder again rather than look for a new builder.

Home renovation information journeys in the past

When renovating their current home, Katherine and her partner used a builder they had hired in the past who they felt they could trust.

The builder managed the whole process and made most of the decisions about energy efficiency.

Homework task

Katherine was asked to investigate how she might improve her Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Trigger

• Katherine was already familiar with EPC ratings as she and her husband had previously worked to improve theirs in order to cut the costs of their energy bills.
• Katherine felt that she was most likely to try to improve her EPC if she was already making wider changes to her home (e.g. renovating for other reasons).

Weigh up benefits and costs

• Katherine looked at EPC guidance on energy providers’ websites that appeared on Google, but felt that this information was too generic and lacked detail on the costs and benefits of making changes. She found this frustrating.
• Katherine also searched for EPC surveyors, finding it quite easy to find organisations who offered this service. However, she did not look at costs or reviews for them, as this is not a usual part of her information searching process.

Position

Though Katherine cares about the environment, she feels that she alone cannot make much of a positive difference. Katherine first learned about energy efficiency when buying her home, and she and her partner have worked to change their EPC in order to cut costs. 

Isla, 50s, Merseyside

Attitude towards the environment

• Isla has some consciousness of environmental changes through watching the news (e.g. recent heatwaves and flooding in Europe), however she has thought very little about her personal impact on the environment.
• Isla has made no changes to her home in order to reduce its impact on the environment. The closest thing she could think of was installing a water meter –though she acknowledged that this was largely a cost-saving measure and of primary benefit to her.

I’m very careful –I don’t really like to spend money unless I have to.

Life

• Isla lives in Liverpool with her husband and cats.
• She and her husband are happy to lead fairly quiet lives – staying in most evenings to watch television and look after the cats.

Home

• Isla has lived in a three bed detached house with a small garden for over two decades.
• There are a few changes that she would like to make to her home, including adding a downstairs toilet, fixing the outside patio and general painting and decorating, but she worries about the disruption and effort that this might involve.

Work

• Isla has worked for a legal firm for 25 years. On the whole, she enjoys her work.

Finances

• Isla and her partner have a combined yearly income of around £50,000.
• Though they are ‘comfortable’ and have around £500 a month to spend as they wish, she is very careful with her spending and is keen not to waste money.

Information needs around home renovation

Isla needs significant motivation to make changes to her home, and values hearing from people who have done something similar.

Isla is keen to avoid disruption and keep costs low when making changes to her home.

She values hearing from local people in a similar situation to her that have completed comparable projects, for example to learn more about their experience of using local contractors.

She also likes to consult experts on a particular renovation activity, rather than researching things in the abstract online.

Home renovation information journeys in the past

A few years ago, Isla and her husband refitted their bathroom, adding in a walk-in shower.

Though she did some online research on the Wickes and B&Q websites, she relied on her plumber (who is a friend) to make all the final decisions.

Throughout the process, she worked to keep costs low and avoid disruption (spending £3000 and moving out for 2 weeks during the works).

Homework task

Isla was asked to explore energy efficiency and low carbon heating options for her home.

Trigger / Broad search

• Isla had never considered making changes to her heating so wanted to learn more about why this was important.
• She visited the Energy Saving Trust and found a useful graphic describing the energy consumption of different appliances, which helped her to realise why change might be necessary.
• She also discovered that a ground source heat pump might be an option, and was interested to find out more.

Weigh up benefits and costs / Visit trusted sites

• Cost is very important to Isla. She was glad to be linked to the governments’ RHI calculator to calculate the incentive she would be eligible for if she installed a ground source heat pump.
• She also visited Which? For additional information on the likely cost and disruption of installing a heat pump. Isla is familiar with Which?, and likes that information is presented simply and in short bullets.

Search for facilitators

• Local experience is very important to Isla, so she decided to visit local Facebook groups to see if anyone in a similar property nearby had installed a ground source heat pump, and to find out which contractor they had used and how installation had gone.

Position

Isla has some consciousness of environmental changes through watching the news, however she has thought very little about her personal impact on the environment. Isla has made no changes to her home in order to reduce its impact on the environment. The closest thing she could think of was installing a water meter –though she acknowledged that this was largely a cost-saving measure. 

Joan, 50s, Edinburgh

Attitude towards the environment

• Joan cares about the environment because she wants to protect her children’s future. She has made several changes to her lifestyle in order to reduce her impact on the environment. She has bought an Audi E-tron fully electric car, installed smart meters in her home, and also cleans all her recycling and tries minimises plastic wastage.
• However, she is not willing to make changes that will cause too much disruption to her home, such as installing a ground source heat pump.

For me it was between getting an electric car, or no car at all. I don’t want to be polluting the environment.

Life

• Joan lives with her husband, children and two dogs in the suburbs of Edinburgh.
• Joan is a family person – everything she does, including most of her decision making, is focused around her children.

Home

• Joan lives in a four-bed terraced house with a garden, which she and her partner have a mortgage on for the next 10 years.
• Over the last couple of years, they have done a lot to renovate the house, including doing up their kitchen and converting the loft.
• Other than the loft conversion, Joan and her husband led all their renovation projects themselves, enjoying the process of looking for information and making decisions.

Work

• Joan runs her own business from home. She likes the fact that this job gives her flexibility to fit her schedule around her children’s.

Finances

• Joan considers herself to be financially savvy and plans her savings carefully. For example, she has a number of savings pots to help her children go to university.

Information needs around home renovation

Joan finds reviews and information from other consumers particularly useful.

Joan likes information to be detailed and specific, so that she can make an informed decision at every stage.

She trusts consumer recommendations more than any other resource, she regularly goes on YouTube to watch vlogs and tutorials from consumers doing similar house renovations.

Joan prefers information from recognisable brands as she feels that she can trust them more. For example, she really likes Which? as she has used it throughout her life.

Home renovation information journeys in the past

When Joan and her partner did their loft conversion they relied on three key sources of information: Joan’s sister (who she trusts to give her reliable information), YouTube videos, and online forums (as both are information direct from consumers).

Joan found stories of bad experiences particularly useful, for example around how loft conversions had caused damage to people’s homes, as they helped her to understand problems she might not have anticipated otherwise.

She also explored the forums on the Money Saving Expert website to comment and debate with other consumers.

Homework task

Joan was asked to explore energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating options for her home.

Broad search

• Joan was expecting to find a trusted government website that would provide all the information she would need to purchase and install solar panels. She was disappointed that this wasn’t the case.

Visit trusted sites

• With no government website to get advice from, Joan went to websites that she was familiar with.
• She first visited Which? as she was already familiar with it and hoped to read customer reviews, but was disappointed by the lack of detailed information, particularly around the installation process.

Weigh up benefits and costs

• Joan used Money Saving Expert to weigh up the benefits and costs of solar panels as she felt that she could trust other consumers’ reviews. She particularly liked the navigability of Money Saving Expert, which she felt made a range of topics very accessible.
• She did look at some government grant websites but found the information too confusing so didn’t explore these further.

Position

Joan cares about the environment because she wants to protect her children’s future. She has made several changes to her lifestyle in order to reduce her impact on the environment. However, she is not willing to make changes that will cause too much disruption to her home.