Would anyone kindly help with converting a very old imperial meter reading to kwh please?

Let us know how it goes if you can. It all helps to understand. Hope you get a resolution. Don’t forget to take readings yourself on the day

Thanks everyone, it's been most helpful, I will keep you posted. CW

Best of luck with the meter tests, @Colin W. Great to see the support that was offered in this thread. 

I must say I’m learning a lot today reading this. I am a bit confused though, and @BPLightlog you are just so good at explaining things. Can I ask you something?

Just to confirm, this is from the gov website 

explaining what the readings show (bottom one is imperial) and what reading to give (without the red digits)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation

In the metric meter picture, the red numbers are decimals. So rounding up, the reading in the example is 2418. So far so good. In the imperial meter, the red numbers aren’t decimals. But because the supplier doesn’t  want them included in the submitted reading, it’s the same affect: ignore the figures in red. But given that a feet isn’t that much difference in size to a meter, why is one measured in hundreds and the other one isn’t?

Yes I work on a forum for an energy company and Yes I should probably know this, but lets remember there’s no such thing as a stupid question! 🤣

Ask a question and be a fool for five minutes.

Don’t ask a question and be a fool for life.

:)

Of course

 

Just to confirm, this is from the gov website 

explaining what the readings show (bottom one is imperial) and what reading to give (without the red digits)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gas-meter-readings-and-bill-calculation

 

In the metric meter picture, the red numbers are decimals. So rounding up, the reading in the example is 2418. So far so good. In the imperial meter, the red numbers aren’t decimals. But because the supplier doesn’t  want them included in the submitted reading, it’s the same affect: ignore the figures in red. But given that a feet isn’t that much difference in size to a meter, why is one measured in hundreds and the other one isn’t?

It’s cubic feet of course not just feet. There are several reasons but I think it mainly comes down to the calculations required to convert ft3 to m3 (which are deemed to be the base units once we moved from BTU’s. As Firedog mentions earlier in the thread: … but from what I read the meter will show consumption in 100s of ft³ (with 10s in red and units on the clockface). That’s why the conversion imperial > metric is x 2.83: 100 ft³ = 2.83 m³ (and 1m³ = 35.31 ft³).

The multiplier of 2.83 was seen to be better to deal with for consumers than 0.0283 .. well that’s my take on it - there may be other technical reasons. You can also see that some of the older meters did not have reading capabilities down to 1 ft3, many showed movement but not a reading. On the meter shown in this case, there is a dial showing revolutions but the single units is a painted on 0.

lol

To be fair, these ancient relics are slowly dying out as they all come to the end of service life and hit recertifications. So this problem will eventually go away naturally once the final Imperial Meter gets MEX’d out.

These young folk like Li’l Timmy over there probably won’t have ever seen them! So it makes sense they don’t know how those meters work.

Thanks again for your help with this. Imperial to metric can be a nightmare especially when squared or cubed. I always suggest to people to think of it as a square balloon or a large sugar cube (a little condescending but it seems to work for some). There are 35.315 cubic feet in a cubic metre, remember it is ‘3D’ not flat.
My whole point has been two fold. 1) Is the meter being read correctly, is it reporting cubic feet or 100’s cubit feet ? and 2) Is it measuring accurately.
I suspect that when the meter is checked back at the lab, it will be found ‘to be within tolerances’.  I have had my boiler and the whole gas system in the house properly checked twice and the modern condensing boiler is absolutely spot on as the manufacturer recommends. There is absolutely no loss of pressure anywhere in the house pipework from the meter onward, the heating runs for 6 hours a day and the stats are set at 19 or 20 degrees so I suspect that no one will accept responsibility despite the fact that it is impossible for a small three bed semi to burn the volume of gas that the meter is reporting.

So we shall see when I get the test report back.

I will keep you posted.

I believe the tolerances are +/-2% (but there are specifications for mechanical and digital) .. hopefully they will find a reason. 
 

Hello BPLightlog, thanks for your help.

Re ’Just one thing .. 35.315 is the factor for cubic metres to cubic feet .. not the other way around’.  It’s the same thing, having a factor or multiple is the same thing as fitting ft cube boxes into metre cubed boxes or unpacking feet cubed boxes from metre cubed boxes, it’s just a different way of expressing it. I didn't mean metres into feet although multiplying number of metres by 35.315 will give the number of feet 3. Apologies if I was confusing.

I do agree about a long and protracted way of pricing anything, could only happen in the U.K.

Yes sorry, I re-read your post and saw that I’d mistaken what you meant. I’ve always thought that our gas system was confusing