YAZAKI: Past, present, future. We are connected.

The first oil crisis of 1973 was sparked by the Fourth Middle East War, which erupted in October of that year. The crisis had a direct impact on the Japanese economy, which was heavily dependent upon Middle Eastern oil. The price of crude oil skyrocketed from two dollars a barrel to nearly twelve dollars, and toilet paper disappeared from Japan’s supermarkets.

However, as luck would have it, Yazaki had begun a solar project that made use of solar heat the previous year. And then, seemingly out of the blue, the oil crisis arrived. With the entire country now in a frenzy to save energy, the crisis provided an unprecedented opportunity for free and unlimited solar energy. On New Year’s Day of 1974, newspaper readers were captivated by a full-page ad that featured the sun in total eclipse against the jet black of space. Stating “Let us welcome the Sun on Earth,” the ad boldly declared Yazaki’s opening of a new age of solar power.

That July Yazaki completed the world’s first Solar House on the grounds of the Hamana Factory. Its entire roof was covered with solar collectors set at a 25° tilt. It also had a heat storage tank for storing solar heat in the form of hot water. This hot water was used to run Aroace, an absorption chiller-heater system, which provided heating, cooling and hot water. The house’s selective absorbing surfaces were improved so that 50% of heat coming from the sun could be used as energy. The house achieved the "best possible mix" of solar energy and the Hot Water-Fired Aroace, an absorption chiller-heater that lowered the operating temperature from the conventionally required 110°C to 85°C.

The Yazaki Solar House drew international attention from the moment it was announced to the public. The Hamana Factory attracted numerous people who wished to see it, among them government officials from Japan and abroad, academics, representatives of private companies and journalists. Particularly noteworthy were visits from representatives of the United States’ government and National Science Foundation. The attention suddenly gave the name “Yazaki” even broader international recognition.

When the second oil crisis arrived in 1979, the price of crude oil again soared to 35 dollars a barrel and interest in solar heat peaked. Calls with questions about the Yazaki Solar House and requests to see it flooded into the Air Conditioning Equipment Division, making days extremely hectic for its staff.

Yuwaita, a household solar water heater, also sold at an explosive pace that year, so much so that production could not keep up with demand. Yazaki responded by hurriedly building a new plant, the Ryuyo Factory.

The development of Yazaki’s solar-assisted cooling devices has been continuing ever since. With products like the Eco-Cute Solar Heat, a system that produces hot water economically with heat from the air and sun, Yazaki gives the public products that precisely grasp consumer needs.

At a time of growing belief that the global environment is in crisis, there is renewed interest in the use of solar heat, a clean, natural and unlimited source of energy. Yazaki will continue to take on the challenges of making life on our planet more comfortable and prosperous, and of realizing a sustainable future.