# Create your own hydrogen for a generator?



## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

A year or so ago I was watching This Old House and they were in Washington D.C. at some kind of Sustainable housing design competition that the Universities were involved with. One of the houses had a small shed behind the house that used solar panels to run some equipment which created hydrogen which was stored in a fuel cell which in turn was used to run a generator to supply power to the house.

Has anyone seen this before? Is it practical? Would this be cheaper than sizing a photo voltaic system for the house using batteries for storage? I would assume that since these were sustainable and green buildings they didn't use batteries because of the harm they cause to the environment from their creation to death.

I see some e-books on the web by a guy named Phillip Hurley, for about 16 bucks, I was going to order one, see what they guy has to say. Anyone have any experience with this guy? 

This seems like a pretty good way to create energy if it was cheap, then use it to run a generator but I'm just not grasping the benefit over a basic system that just charges batteries.

Any thoughts?


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

Electrolysis is the simple way to separate H2O into hydrogen and oxygen. It involves passing an electric current through the water and capturing the resultant gasses.

Obviously, a solar panel would produce the electricity, and by applying it to the electrodes in the water, you produce your hydrogen. 

That being said, I couldn't begin to tell you how much hydrogen you would need to produce to run the fuel cell, nor could I guess how much power you would need generate the hydrogen. You would also have to have power to compress the hyrogen into the storage tank for future use.

My guess would be that it would be more efficient to store the power produced by the solar panels in batteries and then convert that directly into AC. There would be some hydrogen gassing out of the batteries, but hardly enough to make it worth investing in a fuel cell.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

At the current level of technology of fuel cells and hydrogen production,deep cycle lead acid batteries are probably more efficient (I did research and calculations awhile ago), and battery recycling is a standard procedure with lots of environmental regulations to keep nasty stuff out of the water and air. Can't say that I know much about recycling fuel cell components, or the byproducts of their manufacturing. I keep hoping that hydrogen/fuel cells, with the hydrogen produced by my PVs and wind generator, will be an affordable practical substitute for my next set of batteries, but I don't see that happening in the near future.


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## alpha phi (Oct 16, 2007)

Seeing as how hydrogen is a much longer term energy storage medium, than a battery.
It would make sense to use a standard solar/battery system as the primary energy source.
Convert the extra energy produced durring the long sunny summer days into hydrogen.
That can then be used as a supplement on overcast days, and through the winter;
when the solar panels fall short of household demands.
It would make a good (very expensive) backup system.


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## redwall (Mar 10, 2007)

its good for a long term fix for storage. is it usefulness for the everyday man no way. but if you want to make a system that is idot proof hydrogen is the way to go. the simple system we built minus the flooding damage it might get
i bet it will last 40 to 50 years and the basics will still be good


by the way i have played with hydrogen systems for my camp and cool toys but 200 dollors to make a pilot light is not the way to go(we did a few experiments before that it was a 6 weeks leson)


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## Wanderer0101 (Jul 18, 2007)

An East Coast University Professor has a house that runs on hydrogen. Produces the gas with solar power, stores it, then uses it to run a fuel cell. He also fuels his car with hydrogen. It's all existing technology and you can do the same thing for a mere $500,000.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

Wanderer0101 said:


> An East Coast University Professor has a house that runs on hydrogen.


here's a link to that guy (i think):


> http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/17/homeowner-of-solar-hydrogen-house-has-0-00-utility-bill/
> Homeowner of solar-hydrogen house has $0.00 utility bill
> Posted Mar 17th 2007


looks like there's another guy in AZ, in an article from 2 yrs ago:


> http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0429hydrohouse29.html?&wired
> Hydrogen home an energetic test
> Apr. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
> By Maggie Galehouse


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