Bosch has introduced a groundbreaking hydrogen hob, set to be tested in approximately 300 apartments in Buckhaven and Denbeath, Scotland.

  • @SquiffSquiff
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    29 months ago

    Doing a little bit of research via Google on this, it seems that the 300 homes are the total for the hydrogen heating project. They are receiving hydrogen boilers presumably for hot water and central heating. An unspecified number of these appear to also be being provided with these hydrogen hobs. Safety fears have already been raised about leakage and safety in use. During demonstrations, they’ve added sodium carbonate at the burners to give an orange flame, but this will not be implemented for deployment in this project. Instead, they will use a light on each burner to indicate whether it is lit.

    If my understanding of the above is correct, I struggle to see how this hob could be safe in use. Gas leakage is a major safety issue in a domestic setting. There’s no mention whether they’ve been able to add a scent to detect a gas leak. Not being able to see the flame directly in daylight is another major issue and I’m surprised that having a lamp to indicate that the burner is ignited is considered sufficient. Quite apart from reliability issues, how obvious can it be that it means ‘this bit is hot’?