Happy New Year! Here at Dial One Sonshine, we’re always looking out for what’s new and futuristic. Could hydrogen boilers be just the thing?
The environment
The California government is doing its best right now to find more environmentally sustainable heating technology. The goal is to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the not too distant future. But as for the near future, it’s the California Energy Commission that plans to make the rules on natural gas for heating your home stricter. They are going to do this with incentive plans to get home developers to try and install more efficient heat pumps instead of natural gas heating.
The main reason for this is that natural gas is responsible for up to 10% of all of California’s greenhouse gases. So, as a few of our cities like San Francisco have banned natural gas completely, it makes sense that home developers and home heating manufacturers are looking for other solutions![1]
Hydrogen boilers
One of those solutions is hydrogen boilers! Even though it’s a boiler, it would actually be an alternative solution to central gas heating. But, replacing natural gas fuel with hydrogen fuel instead is not as easy as it sounds. The difficult part is the fact that the gas lines are filled with natural gas, not hydrogen – and gas companies are not going to change this anytime soon unless they’re forced to. The good news is, even though an actual hydrogen boiler would require lots of cooperation from gas companies, and would also require a replacement and installation in people’s homes, there is a nice compromise. For people who already have gas boilers in their homes, there is the option for those to run on a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen fuels. It would run on 80% natural gas and 20% hydrogen, and the system wouldn’t need to be replaced, but would be slightly more efficient!
Current technology
Unfortunately, the new technology of hydrogen boilers, and the idea of tweaking existing technology to help the environment, are things that won’t happen even here in California for the next five or 10 years.
So what can you do to help the environment right now, and also save money with a more efficient and technologically advanced system? Well, you can invest in a heat pump from Dial One Sonshine in Orange County! Heat pumps are more versatile, more efficient, and even though they cost more upfront than a furnace, they can save you money in the long run. To learn whether a heat pump could be the right choice for you, contact us online or give us a call: (714) 613-1016