A recent review of 32 independent studies focused on the future role of hydrogen have cast doubt on its effective usage for domestic heating and hot water requirements.The review was undertaken by academic journal “Joule” finding that hydrogen in domestic heating is significantly less economic, less efficient; more resource intensive, and has a bigger environmental impact than many alternatives, including heat pumps, solar thermal panels and district heating (where whole blocks or neighbourhoods are supplied through the same hot water system).
Generating electricity from wind or solar, converting it into hydrogen and then burning the hydrogen at home uses more energy than just using the electricity to directly heat a home with a heat pump. Jan Rosenow, Europe director at the Regulatory Assistance Project think tank in Brussels, who led the research stated. “Using hydrogen for heating may sound attractive at first glance. However, all of the independent research on this topic comes to the same conclusion: heating with hydrogen is a lot less efficient and more expensive than alternatives such as heat pumps, district heating and solar thermal. Rather than hoping for hydrogen to eventually be able to replace fossil gas used for heating our buildings, we should focus on speeding up the roll-out of energy efficiency and heat pumps, technologies consistently identified as critical for reducing carbon emissions from buildings.”
In the UK nearly nine in 10 households use natural gas to heat their homes. David Cebon of the Hydrogen Science Coalition and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge University, stated “In the UK, heating homes with green hydrogen would use approximately six times more renewable electricity than heat pumps. We do not have the time or resources to waste further investigating hydrogen’s role in home heating, especially when the well-known laws of thermodynamics determine the answer.”
Technology and innovation may change over time, but heat pumps are a “here and now” renewable energy solution with proven benefits.