H2OME

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Hydrogen power and the tiny home

A tiny home uses little power but often sits somewhere hard to supply. Here is where a 15 kW home hydrogen system makes sense for one, and where it is more than you need.

Honest about scale

A single tiny home with a small fridge, a few lights, a laptop and an efficient heat pump uses a fraction of what an average house does. A system built for 15 kW continuous output is oversized for one tiny home on its own. It makes more sense where several tiny homes share a site, where the tiny home is one building on a lifestyle block with a workshop and pump, or where the location has no grid at all.

What it would keep running

  • Small fridge and induction cooktop
  • Efficient heat pump
  • Water pump from the tank
  • Lights, laptop and router

Off-grid charging

Tiny homes are often parked where a grid connection is expensive or impossible. The system can charge from a wind turbine or micro-hydro, then store energy as hydrogen that keeps for weeks without losing charge. That carries power across calm, dry spells when a battery alone would run flat. The electrolyser needs filtered, de-ionised water, about 9 litres per kilogram of hydrogen, and the fuel cell returns most of it to the loop.

Round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so the turbine or hydro needs to produce a good deal more than the home uses. That is a real design question for a small site, and it would be worked through honestly in pilot planning rather than assumed.

How it works →
The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

No generator, no fuel runs

Many off-grid tiny home owners fall back on a petrol generator for flat spells, with the noise, fuel runs on a gravel road and maintenance that comes with it. A fuel cell has no engine and its by-product is water. The hydrogen store sits outside at 30 bar or less, with leak sensors, automatic shutdown and venting, and needs space on the site away from the cabin.

Questions

Is it too big for one tiny home?

Usually, yes. It is designed for an average home at 15 kW continuous. It fits better where several dwellings share a site or the tiny home sits alongside a workshop, pumps and other loads.

Can it run with no grid at all?

It is designed to charge from a wind turbine or micro-hydro off the grid. Because round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, the generating source needs to produce well more than the home uses.

Can it be moved with the tiny home?

It is designed as a fixed installation with an outdoor hydrogen store. Moving it would be a reinstall, not a tow behind the house. Placement on the site and the store's distance from the cabin would be planned in the pilot.

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