What is the OM solar house?

OM solar is a pneumatic system that harnesses the solar power to warm the house during winter and provide hot water during other seasons. The system is based on extensive research and design experiments “designing heat and air” that was first introduced by the system developer, Prof Okumura. The OM system is installed and tested in different parts of Japan that have different climatic conditions, starting from the very cold Sapporo in the far north,  and moving down to Okinawa island, with the semi-tropical climatic features.

Contribution of Mae lab

Mae laboratory has been contributing to the development of the system and its incorporation in buildings for a long time. Our lab has been investigating many factors including the optimization of the heat storage (PET bottles are used as thermal mass mediums) on the suspended floor, the need/operation of the air-conditioning units, the verification of incorporation of the Vaccum Insulated Panels, and other topics that have been vital thesis topics for master as well as doctoral students. The imporant point here is that the optimization of these measures does differ from climate to climate, upon this, each one of the five demonstration houses (refer to image above) has its customized set of strategies.  The 6th house is now under construction and compared with the old ones, and it uses a pump to drive the whole system.