Although the future of home heating is fast changing we do not expect to see a mass roll out of hydrogen boilers until the early 2030’s as it is unlikely that homes, which are currently on the gas grid, will have a hydrogen supply to their doorstep much before then. Hydrogen ready and 100% hydrogen boilers come at a cost premium to the end user, until manufacturers can build at significant scale. For some installations there will be no tangible benefit of their wall-hung boiler being hydrogen ready as they may never see hydrogen in their lifetime.
For hydrogen boilers to be rolled out before this date, we would need hydrogen to be mandated with the fuel cost to the end user clearly defined. Urgency on decision making is key here, there are approximately 1.6 million new boilers installed each year, and therefore Vaillant estimate it would take over 16 years for fossil fuel boilers to be phased out of the housing stock. The quicker we start this transition, the sooner we will start on our path to achieving our net zero targets.
What we are doing to support you and your business
Research
We involve ourselves in the public hydrogen discussion and keep an open dialogue with all relevant stakeholders because we are convinced that the use of green hydrogen in heating has great benefits. We follow discussions at the regional, national and EU level.
In the UK, we are participating in HyDeploy, a project to test and define the safety of boilers to run on a hydrogen admixture of up to 20%. Since November 2019 the Health and Safety Executive have been monitoring several boilers at Keele University where one boiler is run on Natural Gas and the other is run on an admixture of Natural Gas and up to 20% hydrogen. The project aims to understand whether this admixture is a viable option to cut our carbon emissions in the UK. The next step begins in 2021 where a live test will take place in a real village just south of Gateshead, heating more than 650 homes with an admixture of up to 20% hydrogen. If stage two is successful, the 20% admixture will be rolled out to the rest of the UK starting in the North which could save up to one fifth of greenhouse gasses emitted by homes today.
Migration Support
As a European leader in wall-hung condensing boilers we will continue to support our installers with the conversion to hydrogen, just like we have in the past decades in the migration from non-condensing to condensing boilers.
Technical Support and Tools
You can rely on our expertise in more complex technologies like heat pumps and now, hydrogen. We will provide you with all the support needed, including technical advice and tools.
Training for Partners
In the course of our ongoing training programmes, we support installers, architects and planners in becoming experts in hydrogen.
This now includes our accredited training course 'Hydrogen: The Role of Green Gas in the Decarbonisation of Heat. Find out more here.