Hydrogen in the home

Climate change may seem a million miles away when people are sitting in their own homes.

But therein lies the problem.

For how we heat our homes and hot water also contributes to the problem of CO2 emissions.

And that needs to change too, if the UK alone is to meet its climate change targets.

About 85% of UK homes currently rely on natural gas so there is much work to be done to decarbonise this sector.

Society has two choices: install costly electric heat pumps or switch to a zero carbon alternative gas.

To those in the industry, clean hydrogen is that gas.

In the 1970s, the UK converted the country’s entire gas network from what was known as town gas, which actually contained about 55% hydrogen.

The big switch to natural gas was only made to establish a more sustainable fuel supply. And that’s no longer the case.

Up to 20% hydrogen could be added to the natural gas network to start to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions without the need for a new boiler.

Many companies in the gas supply industry are already developing ‘hydrogen ready’ boilers for if, and when, the network makes a move to run on 100% hydrogen.