In mid-November, for the first time in Europe, an existing home will receive an individual connection to a local, underground hydrogen network.
This will enable residents to heat their homes and tap water entirely with hydrogen.
Hydrogen is a promising alternative to natural gas, the supply and price of which are currently under pressure.
The house is part of a replica 1970s housing block of the DreamHûs that stands on the grounds of fieldlab The Green Village (TGV) on the TU Delft Campus.
Last summer, the partners of the H2@Home consortium signed several agreements for the project. The decisive factor for the start was the permission of Omgevingsdienst Haaglanden (ODH) to use the local hydrogen network. Since then, the consortium partners have been installing the hydrogen plant and test facilities in the home.
After connection to the grid, residents will notice no difference in use, warmth and comfort compared to their current central heating system.
The H2@Home test facility is a first on the European mainland. According to H2@Home, the uniqueness lies in a combination of factors: the hydrogen is supplied via an underground pipeline network (comparable to a natural gas network), the home is occupied, it concerns an individual residential connection and the hydrogen pipes also run through the meter box and the user areas of the home. It is precisely this combination that makes the test environment very realistic and the results of great importance for providing households with access to hydrogen in the future.
Converting a natural gas plant to hydrogen is still uncharted territory. The standard procedures for the installation and use of natural gas are not easily applicable to hydrogen. It is precisely the extremely broad expertise of the H2@Home consortium2 , which consists of network operators, manufacturers and other parties, that makes it possible to jointly investigate all kinds of facets.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
