Commercialisation Strategies For Net Zero-Energy-Cost Housing in Japan

Today, Japanese housing manufacturers compete to produce net zero-energy-cost houses that are usually equipped with some renewable energy technologies-e.g. a solar photovoltaic electric power generating system, a CO2 refrigerant heat-pump water heater and a combined heat and power system. Interestingly, the manufacturers tend to install these costly renewable technologies as standard equipment rather than options. To initiate and maintenance the sales of their environmentally-friendly houses, the manufacturers bring into effect their quality-oriented production and user-oriented communication approaches. The manufacturers' way to commercialise their industrialised housing to some extent reflects their high cost-performance marketing strategy. This paper somewhat reflects the learning outcomes of the Zero-carbon PV Mass Custom Home Technical Mission to Japan that the first author organised in 2006 and 2007. It is aimed at identifying the manufacturers' essential commercialisation strategies being applied for the niche-marketing of their net zero-energy-cost housing.