Is there a better option for heating our homes?

Switching our grid from natural gas to hydrogen will either increase our reliance on natural gas (if hydrogen is made using steam reforming) or vastly increase our energy bills (if the hydrogen is made via electrolysis). 

To free ourselves from fossil fuels, renewable energy is always a more sustainable option - with the ability to remove our reliance on fossil fuel suppliers, reduce our carbon emissions and lower our energy bills. 

Additionally, reducing our energy consumption allows us to not only lower our carbon footprint, but also our household costs. Making our homes more energy efficient, so they don’t need as much energy to heat, as well as being mindful of our energy use, all adds up to much lower energy use. 

Measures like insulation and triple glazed windows help to reduce the energy needed to heat a home, or swapping to renewable energy sources like solar panels and air source heat pumps allow us to detach from the gas grid entirely. 

According to Citu, a typical air-source heat pump will deliver about 3 kWh of heat for every 1 kWh of electricity used to power it - this makes heat pumps six times more efficient than using electrolysis-created hydrogen power. Where 1 kWh of electricity could be used to make 0.5 kWh worth heat by producing hydrogen, it could instead be used to create 3 kWh of heat via an air source heat pump.