Britih Gas: Cubic Feet to Cubic Matres

[Brian Sharrock]

For many years I've only checked the 'readings' on my quarterly Gas Bill and not bothered to perform the calculations leading to the money bill.

However having recently completed a change of plumbing circuitry, I've become an 'anorak' about gas consumption and I've been reading the meter everyday.

My meter registers consumption in cubic feet. British Gas charges in KwH. There is a 'conversion carried out to convert cubic feet (consumed) into cubic meters thence into KilowattHours.

According to British Gas's helpful explanation on their bills and website; the cubic feet consumed is _multiplied_ by 2.38 (the website states that his step my be omitted if the meter registers in m^3) then transmogrifies into KilowattHours via a series of multiply by the number you first thought of .... :)

As far as I can see: British Gas are stating that one cubic foot equates to

2.38 cubic metres! I've asked British Gas to confirm this but all I've got are flunky's responses that the 'equation' leads to a correct calculation of my bill.

Given that one cubic foot is 12 in x 12 in x 12 in and that one cubic metre is 39.37 in x 39.37 in x 39.37 in, I can't reconcile where the 'multiply by

2.83' statement originates.

Surely, a cubic-foot is smaller than a cubic-metre! Why multiply by 2.83?*

Any body with an explanation?

[Bob Eager]

100 cubic feet is 2.83 cubic metres. I'd bet that the meter registers in hundreds.

[SJP]

1 cubic foot =0.02831685 cubic metres

[John Rumm]

Your meter probably reads in 100s of cubic feet which may go some way to explain the difference.

The conversion:

There is a 'conversion carried out to convert cubic feet (consumed) into

2.83 sounds more like it...

Their explanation seems to be wanting somewhat! For 100s of cubic feet to m^3 however, the numbers look ok.

[Phil L]

A cubic foot is 0.028316849999999997 of a cubic metre. There are 35.31466 cu feet in a cubic metre.

35.31466 X 0.028316849999999997 = 0.9999999993002099989405602

or 35.31 X 2.83 = 99.9273

Later on in the equation it must divide by 100

[Alan]

In message , Brian Sharrock wrote

The gas meter reading is in units of 100 cubic feet. You don't read the last two dials/figures when submitting a reading.

100 cubic feet = 2.831685 cubic meters.

[Grumps]

According to Google, 1 cubic foot = 0.0283168466 cubic meters. Which is correct?

[Phil L]

0.028316849999999997

I use a British site, to avoid misunderstandings - Wiki says it's

0.028316846592 too, but this is ammended at will by members of the public 's dozens of calculators on that site and I've been using it for years, it's never let me down yet when ordering stuff.

[Andy Wade]

I make it 0.028,316,846,592 /exactly/.

Start with 1 in. = 0.0254 m exactly, by definition.

Multiply by 12, so 1 ft. = 0.3048 m exactly.

Multiply the cube out longhand (ages since I've done that).

3048 * 3048 * 3048 = 28,316,846,592

Therefore 1 ft^3 = 0.028,316,846,592 m^2.

QED.