Is it time we made our own hydrogen gas at home from water to run our central heating

Question

Very simple to make,the science of applying this to run our central heating must be considered.I am not an expert in this but have done a certain amount of research,would like to hear your views to this Feel free to contact me [e-mail].

Answer 1

no need to give us your address , we will know where you live when we hear the explosion

Answer 2

You are suggesting you do this reaction:

2H2O  -----> 2H2 + O2

You can do this by putting electical energy through water.

Then you want to burn the hydrogen gas produced:

2H2 + O2 ----> 2H20

This will in theory release the same amount of energy as you put into the water as electricity.

BUT you always lose some energy when you transfer it (for example any heat loss)

So overall its much better just to run the boiler off the electricity in the first place.

The point of using hydrogen is in things such as cars and other vehicles where you need a real kick that electricity can't provide. Hydrogen technology is only clean/low carbon technology if the hydrogen is generated in a clean/low carbon way. Right now if we all started making hydrogen in our own homes to power things such as our cars we would be getting most of the energy to do that burning coal.

Hydrogen technology is here and is improving all the time but there is no point in it untill we have a cleaner supply of electricity. So for the time being why not divert your thinking towards nuclear fusion?

Answer 3

Its a question of cost , the cost of producing the hydrogen outweighs the the heat produces , there is a way using solar energy to make the electricity but the  H2 / O split is reversed at night to generate power in reverse , big big out lay and very experimental at the moment ,

try this link to see what may be available in the future

http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_que...

Answer 4

The other answerers have basically summed it up.

It takes a lot of electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water. For each kilogram of hydrogen you produce, it would take 55kWh of electricity to do so, using electrolysis. Scientists are investigating other means of liberating hydrogen from water, but you still run up against the law of conservation of energy - basically, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Perhaps a solar powered hydrogen separation device would work, but why not use the solar power directly to just heat up your water, and supplement this with a wind turbine or fossil fuels?

Plus hydrogen is a bit explosive - I would want some expert help with this, not bodge something up myself!

Answer 5

What exactly do you think you do with hydrogen gas to get energy from it?

You combine it with oxygen to get water.  Breaking it apart just to put it together again is not going to yield you free energy.  It will require energy.

Answer 6

no.

basically, you're using hydrogen as an energy storage medium.

and you're not going to get as much out as you put in.

if you're going to use solar panels to create the electricity, then just feed it into the utility company lines.

around here, they have to pay the going rate.

then when you need heat, use electricity.

or, you could use large water vats to store heat.

kind of like solar hot water, on a larger scale.

in the summer, you'd have quite a bit to expend.

however, if you were thinking you'd use utility electricity to create the hydrogen, then burn the hydrogen, that's a losing proposition.  when you do such conversions, you lose energy in the process.  you'd be better off just to use the electricity for heat.

Answer 7

Rather you than me!

Read the answers above mine, the people who point out the problems are right!

Answer 8

er, its rather explosive... i wouldnt want to be ur neighbour if you were making it/using it..

Answer 9

Sure, just tell us how to do this in an energy efficient manner.

I've not done any research on it, but here's the glitch that I see:

When you use electrolysis to separate the hydrogen and the oxygen, you are using energy.  Then, you burn the hydrogen...which combines with oxygen to create water.  Since you've basically gone full circle. We can assume that the energy needed to extract the hydrogen is equal to the energy created with the hydrogen gas burns. (It's hard to get around the Law of Conservation of Energy!)

So...where is the energy coming from?