An alternative to electrifying heat in homes is to make use of the existing gas network by delivering hydrogen into homes. While this solves the capacity issues of delving heat to over 20 million households, the carbon intensity of the provenance of the hydrogen to be used has been challenged and disruption to householders has resulted in a significant amount of push back from the academic community. This has led to the cancellation of a pilot hydrogen town conversion project and put the future of hydrogen heating of homes very much in doubt. Our research explores the messaging required to gain public acceptability of hydrogen projects and provides insights into the likelihood that households would switch to other low carbon heating technologies’ including infrared heating. Many policy mechanisms and initiatives have been attempted and this paper collates the lessons learned for these and our research to inform the design of appropriate future retrofit policy.