What Is A Hydrogen Fireplace?

Fireplaces are one of humanity’s earliest discoveries and inventions and have seen many different changes and evolutions from those early piles of sticks and logs to the electric and natural gas fireplaces we see today.

Fireplaces are one of humanity’s earliest discoveries and inventions and have seen many different changes and evolutions from those early piles of sticks and logs to the electric and natural gas fireplaces we see today.

With cold winter weather hitting the West Midlands, many fireplaces in Stafford have been turned on for the first time in months, but with a major push to move away from natural gas and towards hydrogen.

This will most likely be seen in the adoption of hydrogen boilers as this most recent generation of boilers start to be replaced, but it can also be seen in our fireplaces, as one of the most comforting parts of the house gets a whole new look.

Fireplaces have changed a lot over the past decade, with more efficient models and increasingly sophisticated electric fires taking hold in living rooms across the region.

However, for those who want to maintain a real fire in their home, hydrogen fireplaces have gained some traction, and even a prototype developed by Gazco, although they have yet to reach store shelves.

The appeal of hydrogen comes from many areas, including sustainability, reliability, heat generation and the warm glow a hydrogen fire provides.

Practically, a hydrogen fireplace has considerable potential for fireplaces. It generates no carbon whatsoever, not only making it more environmentally sound but also reducing the residue in the fireplace that needs cleaning.

It also has an incredible energy output, which means that 1kg of hydrogen provides as much energy as 2.8kg of petrol, and that heat is delivered quicker, allowing for a room to warm up quicker.

The biggest current downside and the reason why only prototype fireplaces currently exist is in the production of hydrogen itself. There are two kinds of hydrogen: ‘green’ hydrogen produced through electrolysis that separates hydrogen from water, and ‘blue’ hydrogen that is made with natural gas.

Currently, blue hydrogen is considerably cheaper, but given that it relies on natural gas is not as environmentally friendly as green hydrogen, which is more expensive due to the limited scale of current green hydrogen operations.