- LoafyLemon ( @LoafyLemon@kbin.social ) 10•10 months ago
Hydrogen is less efficient than electricity, and takes more energy to produce. Unless the process improves significantly, I can understand why it won’t be the major source of heat for home use.
- vzq ( @vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) 10•10 months ago
It’s just a sad ploy for the companies that own the pipes to pretend they can stay relevant for a few more years.
Pretty much
- HeartyBeast ( @HeartyBeast@kbin.social ) 6•10 months ago
I think there’s more to it than that. Much of the UK’s existing housing stick will find it difficult to switch to heatpumps in the short-medium term to replace existing gas boilers, so as part of netzero, the UK government did pilots to see if piping hydrogen could be a viable alternative.
Turns out the answer is “no, not really”.
- Wanderer ( @Wanderer@lemm.ee ) 7•10 months ago
Guess it’s back to electrify everything then.
Induction and heatpumps are the only answer.
For home heating and cooking, they’re definitely a good route.
Ordinary coil stoves are fine to cook on too (I did for decades) but don’t meet the need for upper-class signalling in the way that induction does.
- lud ( @lud@lemm.ee ) 1•10 months ago
I wonder if geothermal is something they can do there.
It’s common in the Nordics and is usually the cheapest way to heat homes.
Last winter electricity was so expensive that district heating won.
But geothermal has otherwise been cheapest.
- Sonori ( @sonori@beehaw.org ) 1•10 months ago
Most of the time when people suggest heat pumps they mean ground source ones. District cycle heat pumps would be the best solution from a cost and efficiency perspective, but require common action to install new infrastructure and so are harder to get than building level solutions.
Outside of that, unfortunately geothermal electricity tends to be very location and geology dependent. We absolutely should be taking full advantage of it where we can, but there are unfortunately limits on where is practical.