Architecturally Appealing Solar Thermal Systems – A Great Marketing Tool in Order To Attract New Customers and Market Segments
Abstract
Architectural integration is a major issue in the development and spreading of solar thermal technology. Unfortunately, the architectural quality of integrated solar thermal systems in many existing buildings is poor, which often discourages new potential users [1]. Henning studied the attitude among people towards solar collectors and systems from a social anthropological point of view in 2000 [2]. Evidence showed that strengthened legitimacy and increased branch status is needed in order to attract new customers and market segments. As a contribution from IEA-SHC Task 39 [5] to the challenge of making solar thermal systems more desirable, a database consisting of showcases where solar collectors have been successfully integrated into the architecture have been established. The idea is to make solar thermal more de- sirable by showing examples of visually appealing solar systems – something people really would want to put on their houses and something architects would want to implement in their design of new buildings.