A hydrogen-heated home in Alberta lays ground for future low-carbon communities [Video]

On the outside, the new house just east of Edmonton looks like any other Canadian suburban home.

But inside, the home’s state-of-the-art furnace is fuelled not by the Alberta norm of natural gas, but by pure hydrogen — making it the first of its kind in Canada.

Built as a demonstration and open to the public for tours, the home aims to show that hydrogen gas can be used safely and effectively for heating buildings, while also being part of the clean energy transition.

The home in Sherwood Park, a community of about 75,000 people, is a joint project between electricity and natural gas utility company Atco and residential developer Qualico.

They say their ultimate goal is to have all of the 37,000 homes in Qualico’s proposed future Sherwood Park community of Bremner heated by pure hydrogen.

“We hear from our builders that there is a great deal of [public] …