Net Zero Home Heating With Hydrogen
Last Updated: Apr 7, 2025It has become increasingly apparent that a fundamental shift in how we source our energy is urgently needed. Fossil fuels are the most evident contributor to global warming and are progressively harder to source. Relatively inexpensive natural gas has helped stave off some of the challenges associated with our move away from fossil fuel energy sources. However, the claims of natural gas as a "clean" fossil fuel are often exaggerated. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that the carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions from burning natural gas accounted for 79.9 percent of the direct fossil fuel emissions from the residential and commercial sectors in 2018.
Renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind, are widely considered a necessary part of a sustainable and environmentally friendly energy transition into the future. However, alternative "green" energy sources are publicized as utopian sources of emission-free power for our society. Thermonuclear fusion is just one example. It is a potential energy source that is hypothetically safe, carbon-free, and abundantly available. Thermonuclear fusion could use the hydrogen isotopes found plentifully in seawater to generate unlimited amounts of emission-free energy. Unfortunately, scientists still haven't quite determined how to make this energy source available.
Hydrogen, the third most abundant element on Earth after oxygen and silicon, is another potential source of clean and renewable energy that could power our future civilization. Recently, hydrogen energy has been touted as a solution for the heating of net-zero energy homes. Is hydrogen energy truly a potential source of clean energy that homeowners can get excited about, or is it another futuristic proposal that is more science fiction than reality? Below, we look at where hydrogen energy currently stands and if homeowners can expect to have a home heated by hydrogen soon.
Table of Contents
- Do Renewables Have a Carbon Footprint?
- What Promise and Challenges Does the Hydrogen Economy Pose?
- What Advances Have Been Made in Hydrogen for Net-Zero Home Heating?
Do Renewables Have a Carbon Footprint?
Earlier this year, the director and filmmaker Michael Moore released a documentary titled "Planet of the Humans." Through various interviews with people involved in the renewable energy industry, the film claims that the carbon footprint of the most common renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, and especially biomass burning is comparable to that of fossil fuel sources of energy. While the film received a tremendous amount of criticism, it did raise several valid questions. This line of thought is often avoided by people involved in the renewable energy movement.
Much research has shown that the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of renewable energy sources are generally lower than fossil fuels. However, unlimited demand for any energy will inevitably cause problems to surface. For example, lithium mining to power millions of home batteries and electric cars connected to rooftop solar panels comes with enormous environmental costs. The documentary mentioned above, despite some rather outlandish claims, did its job. It forced its viewers to grapple with the need for restraint and limitation in our demand for energy sources, even if they are renewable.
But what about those futuristic sources of green energy that promise to be a "silver bullet" for our energy crisis? Might there be a source of unlimited, emission-free energy that could power our civilization?
The Hydrogen House
In New Jersey, Mike Strizki, an engineer by profession, has converted his own home to run on solar-hydrogen power, complete with a hydrogen vehicle fueling station. Strizki chose to create his "hydrogen house" because he believed that hydrogen was an energy storage medium similar to a battery that could be stored indefinitely. When burned for heat, the only by-product was chemically pure water.
From the garage of his home, Strizki takes the renewable energy produced by rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels to extract hydrogen from tap water. This unique system essentially means that Strizki thoroughly heats and powers his home (and car) with water as the only by-product and has an electricity and heating bill of $0. His "hydrogen home" relies on a small electrolyzer (about the size of a washing machine), a tank of 100 batteries for nighttime power, and ten, used propane tanks that can store 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Strizki estimates that the system cost him an astounding $500,000 to self-build and install, about $400,000 of which came from utility grants and technology firms. He says that with his learnings and the reduction in solar costs, he could build a new system for about $90,000.
Despite the lack of cost competitiveness, Strizki's hydrogen house shows how the combination of solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells could very well be the future of emission-free energy.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
