The private rented sector in England contains some of the least energy efficient properties in the country and houses more vulnerable households than any other sector. Occupants endure dangerously cold homes and fuel poverty but have no direct influence over the energy performance of their homes. The choices that occupants make regarding energy are constrained by the material characteristics of a property: something only the landlord can alter. Enduringly poor conditions in the sector indicate that an initiative that convinces landlords of the benefits of improving energy efficiency remains elusive. Based on a review of existing research and 30 interviews with landlords, this paper identifies factors which deter landlords from acting to improve energy efficiency. Factors include lack of knowledge regarding the consequences of energy inefficiency and possible solutions, the absence of direct financial incentives (the principal-agent problem), local housing market and cultural factors. It also identifies a number of motivating factors that may encourage landlords to invest in energy efficiency. It is argued that policies to tackle energy inefficiency in the sector should take account of these factors in order to improve effectiveness.

Oral history provides a means of understanding heating behaviour through encouraging respondents to articulate the past in terms of stories. Unlike other qualitative methods, oral history foregrounds the ontology of personal experiences in a way that is well suited to revealing previously undocumented phenomena in the private world of the home. Three types of change may be distinguished: long term historical change, change associated with the life-cycle stage of the individual and sudden change. A sample of eight in-depth interviews is used to demonstrate the potential of oral history in the study of home heating. The themes to emerge from the interviews include early memories of the home, the financial struggle to heat the home, the influence of childhood experiences in adulthood and the association between warmth and comfort. For the future, domestic comfort, energy conservation and carbon reduction need to be reconciled with one another. Finally, a third type -and this is the interest here -comprises the personal stories of individuals that may be collected to create oral history.The aim is to provide a 'proof of concept' of oral history in energy research, that is to say a demonstration of its feasibility, validity and usefulness. The aim is, therefore, not just to demonstrate the methodology, but to show how oral history can be used to illuminate issues. Other researchers are, at present, using oral storytelling methods to illustrate and engage the public in histories of the use and exploitation of energy by local communities in the UK.1 'Coal fires, steel houses and the man in the moon', byDarby (2017), published in this same special edition, has a similar theme in revealing the story of a local experiences of energy transition. In addition, public engagement is a theme in large-scale storytelling exercises undertaken by the mass media, for example by the US National Public Radio 2 and the British Broadcasting Corporation.3 However, searches undertaken by the paper's authors have not identified any comparable study, in the UK or elsewhere, using storytelling and specifically the methods of oral history to investigate heating as an aspect of the history of the home.The paper is divided into three main sections:First: an explanation of the advantages and distinctiveness of oral history;Secondly, a review of the themes that might be expected to arise in the stories of respondents; andFinally an analysis of the accounts given by eight respondents. Why storytelling as oral history?Oral history is an extension of various qualitative and survey research methods that seek to capture previously undocumented phenomena in the private world of the house and home-a world that technologists, designers and energy researchers can struggle to access (Stevenson and Leaman, 2010

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The project team are very grateful to many individuals and organisations for their invaluable support for this project. First and foremost we are indebted to those individuals who, despite their complex circumstances and often stressful daily lives, spared the time to participate in the citizens panel exercise and to recount difficult experiences to the team. We are hugely grateful for you time, your insights and your ideas about how experiences of energy advice could be improved. We are also very grateful to all those who participated in our Stakeholder Reference Group. This provided a vital sounding board throughout the project and ensured that the project remained sensitive to policy and practice. Thank you for your enthusiasm and for your many excellent ideas about how experiences for hard to reach energy users can be improved. We are also very grateful to Dan Wostenholme and Remi Bec for their support and for facilitating a lively and productive final stakeholder workshop. We also acknowledge the vital financial support provided the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) and for the in-kind support provided to the project by Sheffield Hallam University and Citizens Advice. research will provides important insight into how we must go about engaging with this policy challengehearing the voices of to deliver authentic, practical solutions to benefit all consumers.

As a method of qualitative research, video offers a means of looking into the world of a respondent and a means of stimulating a dialogue, both with the respondent and others. Video requires, however, the application of additional ethical procedures and may also increase refusal rates, if it is publicly disseminated. Applied to the home, the use of video reveals both practice and identity. Video records practice, showing how the spaces within a home are used at a particular time. For this reason, video is well adapted to understanding the implications of living in a home with an innovative design and technology, with all the complexities that this commonly involves. Equally, video communicates the appearance of the home and of its occupants to whoever is watching. Video is, therefore, intimately connected to identity and the home as a place.