In the summer, the available of solar heat exceeds the total heat demand of a building, but in the winter the heat demand is exceeding the solar supply. For the future conversion of a passive house into an energy neutral house, a solution is to store the excess of solar energy in summer, and to use it to meet the heat demand in winter. Water is traditionally used for storing heat (e.g. solar boiler), but seasonal heat storage requires large water tanks (>40m3) that are too large to be placed inside an average family house. An alternative option is to store heat by means of chemical processes using the reversible reaction: A + B ? C + heat. Such thermochemical heat storage has a 5 to 10 times higher energy storage density than water, with the additional benefit that, after charging, the heat can be stored for a long time without losses. With thermochemical materials, the entire heating demand of a low-energy house during winter could be met using a storage volume of 4 to 8 m3, that is charged during summer by solar collectors. Because of the large amount of thermochemical material required for such storages, as well as the strict safety regulations in the built environment, safety and cost of the materials are important aspects. Because of safety criteria, the focus in the present research is on water as the sorbate. Because of low cost and high storage density, the focus is on salt hydrates, rather than silicagel or zeolites. In this paper, R&D on system aspects, materials selection and characterization, as well as on reactor concepts is presented.