> But the complaints did not cease. At one property the manufacturers visited, the customer had taken to going out into their garden and physically disconnectin

> But the complaints did not cease. At one property the manufacturers visited, the customer had taken to going out into their garden and physically disconnecting and reconnecting the heat pump whenever they wanted the heat to come on. The manufacturers despaired of persuading the British public to give up their need to control their heating devices, until they came up with an ingenious solution. The Heat Boost button. This was a big red button installed on the inside of the property that, when pressed, switched a red light on and made a fan start whirring for at least 20 minutes. It didn’t actually do anything to the heating system, but it created the impression that the consumer was in control. > Consumers in properties with heat boost buttons reported considerably higher satisfaction with their heat pump, even though none of the physics of the system had actually changed. The feeling of being in control was significantly more important than the reality of their warm house, which had not changed. > Contemporary heat boost buttons do actually kick in an additional resistive heating circuit as the minor upgrade this offered to the heating experience was even more gratefully received by consumers, but this anecdote illustrates the perils of trying to engender a technological shift from Whitehall.