Gas measurement is the backbone of any gas utility. Without the ability to measure, it would be impossible to account for the flow of gas from receipt to delivery. Very much like an accountant that labors to keep the ledger balanced, a utility needs metering to balance the gas producer’s receipts against the end customer delivery.
The first natural gas utilities did not have the ability to measure their gas deliveries. The initial high costs and slow growth of the industry logically gave way to the need to measure the delivered energy. Today utilities spend millions of dollars to install, maintain, and upgrade their “cash registers”. Meters are placed throughout the transmission and distribution systems all in an effort to balance the inflows and the outflows.
Modern day LPG or Natural gas measurement is accomplished through the use of a variety types of meters. Different types of meters work on different measurement principals. We will be explaining the different types of gas meters and their measuring principals in the upcoming posts.
Gas meters are specialized flow meters, used to calculate the volume of fuel gases like natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. Gas meters are used in various applications like residential, commercial, and industrial setups that consume fuel gas supplied by a gas utility. Gases are significantly difficult to measure than liquids as the volume of the gas varies with a change in temperature and pressure. Gas meters calculate a defined volume, regardless of the pressurized quantity or quality of the gas flowing through the meter.
How to Read a Gas Meter
Gas is measured by the cubic content unit. On your gas bill, you may see that you’re charged by metric cube.
As the gas moves through the pipe into your home, the force of gas flow turns the gear assembly inside the meter. As more and more amount of gas is consumed, the faster the dial rotates.
Meter readings are done left to right. As you can see in the image below, there are 8 rotating dials located on the index of the meter. Out of the 8, 3 are marked in red color whereas the rest are marked in black.
The dials in black indicate the consumption in metric cube and the red dials indicate the consumption in liters.
For example if the index shows : 00122 435
This indicates that the gas consumed is 122.435 metric cube or 122 metric cube and 435 liters (1 metric cube = 1000 liters)
Benefits of Reading Your Own Gas Meter
The utility company sends a meter reader around each month or quarter. So, you’re not supposed to scan your meter. Although utility gas readings or estimates are usually correct, reading your own meter and keeping track of what proportion gas you employ can assist you in spotting any obtrusive discrepancies between what you recognize you used and what your bill says.
This will also assist you in managing your gas consumption related costs more effectively and in reducing unnecessary wastage.
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