cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/22128148
Experts from a “nudge unit” have been hired to help ministers fight misinformation about heat pumps to try to encourage take-up of the devices.
The appliances run on electricity instead of gas and are regarded as a way of decarbonising homes at scale. A target of installing 600,000 a year by 2028 is part of a drive to achieve Britain’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050.
However, misinformation shared in the media and by “other stakeholders” is impeding uptake, according to a £100,000 government contract awarded to the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), which specialises in ideas to “nudge” the public into taking different actions.
The contract awarded to BIT contains details of a previously unpublished research by the Department for Energy.
It found that individuals who self-reported that they knew a fair amount or a lot about heat pumps were less likely to want one. However, people who correctly answered a simple knowledge question about heat pumps were more likely to want one.
BIT is finalising a large survey of householders’ views and coverage in the media that will be used in planning how the government will push back against misinformation.
“Information about heat pumps is being shared by the media and stakeholders, which may be skewed to negative, incorrect or exaggerated stories of heat pump adoption,” says the contract, which cites examples including claims that the pumps are noisy, cost too much to install and are not reliable and don’t work in older homes.
Articles about heat pumps in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were cited in the document, which states that some of these stories “are generally well-founded, such as believing that heat pumps are expensive” but adds that some include incorrect misconceptions, such as believing they might not work well in the cold.
“Online information which is imbalanced or skewed towards incorrect and exaggerated claims could be considered an environment where misinformation is a problem,” it reads.
Huh? For the UK to be able to become self sustainable in terms of energy, they absolutely need to switch from gas combination boilers to heat pumps. We obviously know of the benefits of heat pumps because we follow this kinda news, but for the average person, their opinions have been set by people with vested interests in the old system and terrible early installations. I think it's actually the government doing a good job by promoting technologies like this.
I am pointing how ironic it is that the government is throughly discredited in the eyes of the public that they have to pay some "private" company to conduct what is likely a social media shill OP
I think there's some confusion because OP is often used to mean "original poster" but I assume you're using it as shorthand for "operation", which makes more sense here