this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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Hydrogen gas is really hard to store. It is tiny, so it's basically always leaking, no matter how good your seal is.
Underground caverns can store it for years. This is simply not true.
What do you mean it isn't true? It's a well known fact. It's just a proton and an electron, so it's absolutely tiny. There is almost no way to seal it perfectly, especially in gaseous form. It's always going to leak. Even for rockets this is an issue. You can make that amount relatively small, but it pretty much always has some loss.
Caverns may make sense for large-scale solutions, because the quantity is so large compared to the loss. Most people don't have massive caverns under their house though, nor do they have a need for that large of a quantity.
Even in tank form, you can store it for months. It is not much different than CNG.
Large-scale solutions matter too. The utility companies can utilize such a thing.
The question was specifically about home hydrogen. Yes, it makes sense for utility companies, as well as large vehicles, as I said before. It's a great solution to turn renewables into a shipable commodity. Home use though doesn't make sense. A regular battery has much better properties for home use.
The same applies for home hydrogen storage too. Compressed hydrogen is good for months. Another option would be metal hydrides which apparently last a long time too. The problem is that you simply cannot power your house entirely with batteries alone.