Many features have been developed over the past few years which, when used singly or in combination, have the potential to significantly improve the performance of active solar systems. It is the objective of Task 14 to analyze, construct and monitor a number of different systems incorporating one or more of these features. Five-year cost/performance improvement goals have been established by the participants.

The projects fall into three general application areas: domestic hot water, ventilation air and space heating, and large scale heating systems. Working groups have been formed to facilitate interaction among participants with similar interests.

The countries participating in the domestic hot water group have focused on developing generic, cost-effective, "dream systems" which represent national preferences as well as the collective wisdom of the group members as to the best components and design.

The ventilation air and space heating group is studying an innovative technology for heating ventilation air in industrial and commercial buildings. The perforated solar absorber promises to be 35 - 40% more cost-effective than conventional solar air collectors for low-temperature air heating applications. The systems in the large scale heating group include a desalination project, an agricultural process heating project, and a central solar heating plant.

The work of the dynamic system test procedure working group is now continuing under Task 14. The aim is to establish better solar collector and DHW system test procedures for standardization.