Calorific value

[bobpape]

As our gas meter records in M3 and charged for in KWs I phoned the supplier (EON)
and asked them for a ball park figure of how many KWs in a M3 (cubic meter)

I was told they can not tell me because the price of gas varies as does the calorific value.

They also told me to go to the gas wholesaler which I did and got near enough the same reply,

Me thinks there is something smelly going on.

I can of course go the BTU route but I thought it would be more interesting to ask yous.

I have two questions

Anyone know of a quick way of checking the calorific value (other than a measured amount of water etc.)

And second a ball park figure of KWs in a cubic meter I think I remember the figure 11 (eleven).

 

[Bernie2]

Hi! Bob,

Its not that easy really, the National Grid tell the supplier on a day to day basis what the CV is.

But it can vary between 37.5 MJ/m3 to 43.0 MJ/m3. 3.6 MJ = 1 Kilo watt hour.

And its the MJ energy they charge you for, not the amount of gas.

That must involve a load of number crunching each month to find out how much energy you have used in the month. Have a look at "nationalgrid.com" about cv, its interesting.

Seems a bit mad though, having a meter that doesn't tell you how much energy you have used.

 

[bobpape]

Thanks for that Bernie2
I have already had a look at that and the "vary between" numbers are what intrigue me.

I mean who checks up on the Grid?

I fancy checking the calories myself on perhaps a daily basis.

The reason for my concern being this house and annexe is curently paying £200.00 per month on a yearly basis for gas and electricity,

The house has a Thorn Appolo 30/50 set at 50000 BTUs serving 11 rads and is about 25 years old

The Annexe has a Potterton Performa 28 serving just 4 rads

 

[Renewable M]

11 is the ball park figure kW/h/m3. Our home bills with Eon have gone over to kW/h, which is convenient.

We use this lot daily, calculating customers potential savings if they go over to a heat pump, for which all the data is in kW/h, so we need to compare carrots with carrots.

Did you know that BTU and kW measure different things? A BTU measures heat (energy), while a kilowatt (1000 watts) measures power (energy per unit time). A common misconception.

1 BTU equals 0.0002928 kilowatt-hour by the way.

Hope you've got those boilers cranking today!

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

I understand Bob's point about it varies between. It would be interesting to know as Bob says just exactly how much energy we do get.

 

[justlead1]

With a 14 percent difference between high and low of CV you may well have cause for concern, if the utilities air on the side of profit? Will we see automatic jet sizes developed to maintain burner efficiency?