Calculator For Gas Meter

You should see advice from the wise sage that you pay your money to. They'll tell you how much they'll be extorting from you in exchange for gas. Do you have an old bill? I think it explains the caluculation on there.

Any calculator will do.

Assuming an imperial meter (still the more common):

1. Subtract previous reading from current one to get consumption in 100's of cu. ft.
2. Multiply by 2.83 to get consumption in cubic metres. (Omit this step if you have a metric meter, which reads directly in m^3.)
3. Multiply by the volume conversion factor of 1.02264 to correct for temperature and pressure. (Step can be omitted if you only want a rough answer).
4. Multiply by the declared calorific value (CV - see last gas bill) to get consumption in Megajoules.
5. Divide by 3.6 to get consumption in kilowatt-hours.
6. Multiply by price per kWh to get billed amount, ex. VAT, taking any price thresholds into account (e.g. x p/kWh for first 200 kWh and y p/kWh for the remainder).
7. Add standing charge, if any, and 5% VAT.

Very roughly one "unit" (100 ft^3) on an imperial meter corresponds to about 32 kWh, assuming a typical CV of 39.5 MJ/m^3.

Your gas meter measures the *volume* of gas which you use - either in cubic feet or cubic metres, depending on the meter. You pay for it in

On order to work out the cost, you need to:

• convert the meter reading into kW.Hrs
• multiply by the cost per kW.Hr

As others have said, the factors for converting meter reading into kW.Hrs (including the calorific value of the gas, which varies from month to month) should be shown on a recent gas bill - probably on the back.

Work through an existing bill, and make sure you get the right answer. Then apply the same principles to your current readings.

Don't forget that, to get the total cost, you'll have to add an appropriate amount of standing charge or - if on a tariff with no standing charge - you'll need to take account of the fact that the first so many units per quarter are dearer than the subsequent units.

I've always wondered why this is required. Does the calorific value vary ?

Yes. Not by much, but yes.

when I worked for BG, one of my jobs was to tabulate the output from the terminals of CV into a graph.

Suppliers were "fined" for gas which fell below a certain CV.

Yes, a bit. Looking at mine for the last 3 years, it has ranged from 39.0 to

Same here. Ranges from 30.9 to 40.7 over the last 5 years

Adam

Very roughly, one unit costs about 90p if the user is on a sensible tariff ;-)

HTH.

Am I right in guessing that a higher calorific value means that more energy is released when the gas is burnt ?

Is this just the gas companies fleecing people, or does it cost them more to supply gas with a higher calorific value ?

Yes

Don't know about the cost to them, but you're paying for *energy*, so can't really complain.

Same with electricity. If the voltage goes up, you get less amps per kilowatt - but it doesn't matter.