The UK’s first hydrogen-heated homes in Low Thornley, near Gateshead, are now open to public viewing. Designed to offer a glimpse into a hydrogen-fuelled future, the two semi-detached homes have been built to demonstrate how hydrogen could eventually replace natural gas in a domestic environment and have been fitted with working boilers, radiators, cookers and fires.

Baxi Heating, which has has pledged to make only products compatible with low carbon energy from 2025, recently invited housing providers and industry colleagues to see its 100% hydrogen boiler in action. No bigger than a standard domestic boiler, the hydrogen-fuelled combi boiler on display will help to show that homeowners will experience very little change from any future fuel conversion. Heating and hot water is currently responsible for around one third of carbon emissions, but unlike natural gas, hydrogen produces  no carbon at the point of use, with the only by-product being water.

Nick Wilson, Commercial and Marketing Director at Baxi Heating (pictured) comments: “We are developing new technologies that will help customers to heat their homes and businesses without warming the planet. While we are not wedded to any one technology, hydrogen represents a great opportunity. It is carbon-free at the point of use and enables families to use their heating and hot water in the same way they do today, without major changes to their central heating systems or homes. What starts today with one house will become a community of houses next year and then we could see hydrogen boilers in millions of homes by the next decade.”

The two properties have been built by Northern Gas Networks in partnership with the Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and gas distribution network company Cadent, each investing £250,000 into the project. As well as customers and housing providers, it is hoped that the houses will be visited by schools and other educational establishments and could also be used as a training facility for gas installers and heating engineers.

In 2019, Baxi’s parent company BDR Thermea Group showcased the world’s first hydrogen powered high efficiency domestic boiler and Baxi Heating is already planning to produce boilers that are ‘hydrogen-ready’, meaning that they can easily be converted to work with hydrogen in the future.

Find out more about Baxi Heating’s pathway to the energy transition here.