Plans to heat millions of homes with hydrogen in jeopardy as experts fear its potential to blow up homes is being swept under the rug

Plans to install hydrogen heating in homes are in jeopardy after a row has broken out out its potential to blow up homes. 

Northern Gas Networks (NGN) has been criticised over safety measures relating to plans to supply 2,000 homes with hydrogen for heating and cooking - instead of natural gas.

It involves installing hydrogen detectors in homes located in Redcar, North Yorkshire, but experts have said that not enough information has been provided to potential participants. 

As hydrogen is easier to ignite and is more prone to leaking than natural gas, homes will have to undergo some changes in order for it to be installed. 

The experiment is seen has the last chance to prove whether hydrogen heating can work in the UK. 

However, NGN is locked in a row over safety as experts and residents clashed with NGN over the proposed modifications. 

Early safety assessments recommended that homes should have holes drilled in their walls in order to prevent the gas leaking and setting alight, reported The Telegraph.

NGN said that this was unnecessary and instead proposed using high-tech sensors to find leaks. 

Michael Liebreich, an independent energy analyst, said the lack of information was 'outrageous'. 

He told the outlet: 'They were never properly told about the original safety case for the trial and are now being asked to consent without a new safety case having been published.'

Mr Liebreich added that people were not given information about what was going to happen to their houses. 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) previously set out measures that it said would bring the risk of using hydrogen down. 

It said installing excess flow valves and outdoor metres at homes, 4x4 inch, permanently open vents and making hydrogen smell like natural gas would help. 

But NGN instead proposed detectors that will be able to sound an alarm if there is too much of the gas in a closed space. 

The gas network also told Redcar residents they would not need vents and dismissed fears about explosions as 'misinformation'. 

And a safety assessment found hydrogen installed in homes could cause 65 injuries or fatalities annually.

This is not the first time an area has objected to having hydrogen installed, as plans to make Whitby in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, the UK's first 'hydrogen village' were abandoned in July.

It was following a backlash from local residents who complained that they 'didn't sign up to be lab rats'. 

Energy Minister Lord Callanan said at the time: 'After listening to the views of residents, it's clear that there is no strong local support.'  

In an open letter, Mark Horsley, chief executive of NGN, said: 'There is absolutely no scenario in which we would ever install a product in anyone's home or community that compromised their safety.' 

Tom Baxter, an energy consultant and fellow at the Institution of Chemical Engineers, said that hydrogen could ignite just by switching on a light or burning a candle. 

An NGN spokesperson told the outlet: 'As a responsible gas network, safety is always our number one priority and we have decades of experience safely and reliably delivering gas.

'The project will not go ahead without the UK's independent safety regulator, the HSE, being satisfied.'

The company has said it will hold a meeting for Redcar residents next month to discuss any concerns.

Those who do not want hydrogen installed will receive an electrically powered heat pump instead. 

A study by energy analysts Cornwall Insight last year warned that heating homes with hydrogen could double energy bills compared with natural gas. 

Ministers have said they will only go ahead with the Redcar scheme if it has support from the community.

An HSE spokesman said: 'No community trials will take place until all necessary safety assessments have been successfully carried out.'