Show S oS BUSINESS t I I JAPANS JAPAN'S ADVANCES IN SOLAR HEATING Since Japan Is almost entire entirely without natural energy resources it is not surprising that the island nation has led the way with its intensive research into the field of sol solar power Even before the Industrial world was plunged into 11 the energy crisis in 1973 Japanese scientists and researchers ha hamade had made substantial strides i In translating the rays of the su sun into practical heating healing and eve even cooling systems The swift rise in the cost of imported petroleum gas an and coal since that time ha has prodded Japan toward eve even more ambitious endeavors t to bring about wider use of solar sola energy Relatively few Japanese commercial outfits have been bee involved in such work but their progress has nevertheless been bee considerable Greatest headway headway headway head head- way appears to have been madin made mad in the heating of water fo for general use and well over i a million homes depend largely largel on the suns sun's rays for their hot ho water The producing firms firmi originally aimed almost solely at the domestic market with will their heat collecting units buthe but bu butth th the continuing worldwide energy tightness and the persistent per per- advance in prices have encouraged Japanese manufacturers to extend their sales efforts to more outside ma markets US U.S. WATCHING JAPANESE PROGRESS America has been relatively slow to delve into new sources of energy and even President Carters Carter's call for fresh efforts in inthe inthe the solar-energy solar area has not been too enthusiastically received The potential for such systems however has been more clearly revealed by the headway made in Japan than by ay our own efforts More U US U.S. S concerns are likely to o respond to the Chief Executives Executive's proposed t tax x credits and other incentives In his nis drive to 25 5 r million nillion American home owners owners ownEr ti tito i to 0 turn to the use of solar energy by y 1984 If our own corporations are arc hesitant there is the feeling in inmany inmany many nany quarters that Japanese firms will attempt to capitalize on m the situation as has been the he case in so many other developing industries But if we will we can learn a great ireat deal from Japans Japan's ex- ex and successes True Yue installations costs are arc still till about twice those for units employing the regular fossil fuels But once they are in operation the solar units require almost no maintenance- maintenance and md the family fuel bills are usually greatly reduced WATER WAn HEATING SIMPLE PROCESS The procedure of collecting the ic heated water is relatively uninvolved involved with little to go wrong rong The regular Japanese unit lit consists of thirty glass segments about forty by eighty inches ches covering the house roof Each ach section contains tubes made ade of stainless steel painted black ack in order to ensure fullest absorption of heat from the sun sunt t From a central tank water is circulated at a moderate pace pare through rough the sun heated pipes and id is then returned to the central container For each hour ur of exposure to direct sunlight the water rises about nine ic degrees F. F It is estimated that at the water is pumped through rough the glass units at al a pace pac of about eighteen and a half gallons lions an hour If the sun se sets sou or goes gocs behind clouds a tern tem temperature censor automatically turns ns off the pump until the s sun un reappears In some Japanese homes the hot 1 water flows through pipes under der the floor to heat heal the rooms ws or it can be circulated d in front mi of fans to warm the air ail Tests indicates that the water inthe inthe in ins the s system once fully heated healed can i go for three days before it becomes omes cool enough to trigger a supplementary water heater to fill ill in until there is once more full I sunlight on the roof unit Despite espite the slow pickup in III inar solar ar interest within n the I l' s sh such h heating mechanisms UK are definitely on the way When the units ts are finally produced here herein herein in fair air numbers costs will begin begirt to settle to more reasonable levels els But Cut there will of course he be the inevitable gyps out to get the early birds wherever i N r I 2 |