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

Hi @Richard Gascoyne , your gas meter normally reads in either cubic feet or cubic metres. 
Was your reading different somehow?

For kw, there’s no ‘imperial’ kw .. a kw is a kw  

The difference is in the meter reading in feet or metres

The conversion from those readings are 

Also, which particular price hike are you talking about?

Just to add to BP’s comment, some meters are capable of showing both volume and kWh, so you have to look carefully to see which number you’re looking at. I don’t think any gas meter produced this century will measure cubic feet (ft³, cu.ft.); they’re all cubic metres (m³) now. 

We have seen recently a case where a customer submitted the kWh reading from his meter instead of the m³ reading the system expects; the conversion is only approximate, so the supplier (e.g. OVO) will do the conversion using the appropriate daily CV as BP’s picture shows. Perhaps this is what you did back then.  

Can someone explain please- this gas metter reads in Single ft cubic or 100s of cubic feet?! 
 

I decided to give this metter reading to my gas company and they have treated it as : 

14.6990 Estimated reading

244.0000 Customer reading

229.3010 Units (100s of ft cubic) 

and this jumps my bill to 700£ debit even though I have paid gas regularly ! 
 

From gov website not all the imperial gas measure in 100s of ft cubic) but EDF wont agree! 
 When turn it into cubic meters they calculate it by 2.83 instead of 0.0283 ! 
 

Am i wrong? Can anyone help? Thnx

Hi ​@Evaaa ,

It looks like you posted a new thread by mistake. Don’t panic! I can get this fixed for you. I’ll arrange to have this merged back into the existing thread and we’ll carry on from there.

​@Ben_OVO could I borrow the keys to the towtruck real quick? :)

The meter is measuring in single ft³, but for submission to the supplier, you should give only the first four digits and ignore the ones highlighted in red. The meter in your picture is reading 0244 (x100 ft³). To convert a volume in 100s of ft³ to m³, multiply by 2.83.

What was the last actual reading you submitted before this one?

They have been estimating it this whole time! Dont know if i have ever given a reading since moved in.

their bill was  :

14.6990 Estimated reading

244.0000 Customer reading

229.3010 Units (100s of ft cubic) 
 

in the gov web it says that not all imperial meters would read it in 100 of cubic feet! 
 There are single ft3 meters thaw would need to multiply by 0.0028…

and there are the 100s of ft3 that multiply by 2.28…

And my meter looks like reads it on single ft cubic instead of 100s of cubic feet?! 
From what i read online the single red 0 also indicates that it is in single ft3 

Actually no .. see the two red digits (at the end, one fixed, the other moving), both are to be ignored and are the two digits after the hundreds reading

So for example to get the used kWH for this reading! 
I need to convert it into cubic meters ! 

The conversion factor from cubic feet to cubic metres is 0.0283 therefore:

• 1 cubic foot = 0.0283 cubic metres
• 100 cubic feet = 2.83 cubic metres

MY METTER READING : 244 cubic foot

244 cubic foot x 0.0283 =  6.9052 cubic meters
 

Edf converts it using the 2.83 factor! Charging me for over 7000kwh and thai is why it does not make sense to me?! 
 

No - that has little meaning. The reading is 0244. This represents the volume of gas that has passed through the meter since it was installed. Since that appears to have been 35 years ago, it’s likely that the meter’s dials have rolled over (passed 9999), possibly more than once. It’s impossible to say from your photo whether the total volume having passed through the meter is 24,400 ft³ or 1,024,400 ft³ or even more. 

You need to know what the reading was at some earlier date - when did you move in? There must have been a reading then to make it possible for you to open an account with a supplier. You should have taken it and submitted it yourself, but if you didn’t, your account may have been based on the last reading submitted before you moved in, either by the previous occupant or the landlord if this is a rented property. 

Once you have an earlier reading, you subtract it from the current one to find the volume consumed in the intervening period. Once you have the volume in 100s of ft³, multiply by 2.83 to convert to m³ and then use the formula BP showed you to arrive at the equivalent kWh used. 

Thank you very much for your time! 
so i found on my first bill that my first ever reading sent to EDF was 9424 on Feb 2023---

While the last estimation made from them  is  :

Now we’re getting somewhere!  That was a long time ago, but we can now assume that the meter reached 9999 sometime after you moved in, started again at 0000 and has now reached 0244. Over those 2½ years, then, you seem to have used 820 units of gas, or perhaps 27 per month on average. 

27 x 2.83 = 76 m³ which equates to something of the order of 850 kWh, probably £50 or £60 each month on average, plus, of course, the standing charge of around £9 a month. If this is very different from the amounts you’ve been paying, you’re either in for a nice windfall or a major shock to the wallet. I’m afraid that with the latest estimated reading you showed above being so much lower than the actual one, you may be presented with a big bill. If it’s too big to manage, your supplier will make it easier for you by giving you time to pay, so call them when you get the bill. 

So i have been paying 60£ direct debit every single month for the past yeras for both energy snd gas! But once in three month EDF would sent me a gas bill usually for over 150£ which has been paid too! 
Now when i decided to give this metter reading they did sent me a 700£ debit! 
 

The reason why i was sceptic about is the fact that it is too much  and smth seems off because i have already paying and it still is to high debit after the redading! 

i have raised a complain to them but for the fact that i believe they mis calculate it...now i am lost ahha! Thank you very much for the explain! 
 

I would also be pushing EDF to fit a new gas meter, the one in your image has a date of 1990 on it so it’s 35 years old.

(They may be reluctant to change it though, some gas meters could be certified for 40 years).

Can someone explain please- this gas metter reads in Single ft cubic or 100s of cubic feet?! 
 

I decided to give this metter reading to my gas company and they have treated it as : 

14.6990 Estimated reading

244.0000 Customer reading

229.3010 Units (100s of ft cubic) 

 

and this jumps my bill to 700£ debit even though I have paid gas regularly ! 
 

From gov website not all the imperial gas measure in 100s of ft cubic) but EDF wont agree! 
 When turn it into cubic meters they calculate it by 2.83 instead of 0.0283 ! 
 

Am i wrong? Can anyone help? Thnx

Personally I don’t think you are wrong, I’m having the exact same issue with EDF with the exact same meter and the exact same conclusion of being overcharged, mine states .071ft3/rev just like yours, I have watched the proving clock, mine flicks over the red digit in 10 revolutions, should be just over 14 revolutions, so I have concluded that the rotating red digit is relative to the .071ft3/rev on the face plate, EDF requires the 4 black dial digits, as you said, there billing formulas as well as being stated on the bill, seems to consider the digit to the immediate left of the red dial as (100s of ft3), I have it in an email and EDF still say it is the correct multiplier x2.83, i personally think it should be (units) x 0.283 not (units) x 2.83 as that is for calculating HCf - cubic meter. Have you had any further developments as any help would be appreciated as I’m still fighting, mine started around 2022 aswell, send me an email and I’ve got screenshots of their online system changing it immediately after I sent a reading and by morning it has been deleted and reversed charges are taken off a much higher figure 

These photos were taken immediately after sending a meter reading, reversing charges till the balance was £1067 in credit

2 hours later in this instance, all the information has changed shown here with the exact same dates and reversed charges except they are taken off a much higher initial balance that just shows up out of fresh air, I am convinced that there is something wrong and all I get in the complaint department is we’ve checked the billing and it’s correct 

So my old Parkinson Cowan meter reads in Ft3, the proving wheel rotates 10x to increment the red digit so the red digit is proving relatively accurate (accounting for mechanical flick over in the gearing)to the.071ft3/rev on the face plate, (should be just over 14 revolutions) but that’s not the argument, what is the argument is why the black digit immediately left off the 1ft3 red digit is considered 100ft3, not 10ft3 when a full 0-0 rotation of the red digit increments the black dial 1, Any help will be appreciated 

This image is from the official government guidelines about gas meter readings:
  

The ‘4 black dial digits’ you mention give the reading in hundreds of cubic feet, and you can just ignore the other figures.

100 ft³ = 2.83 m³, so that is the multiplier to be used when calculating the volume used to convert to kWh. ​​​

​@Firedog  but why is the each unit of the black dial charged as the 100s if the red dial is the single ft3 which does increment relative to the proving wheel which is correlated to the.071ft3/rev on the face plate, should it not be charged as

(black digits 10000,1000,100,10.) which I submit to EDF?

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the red dial is not single ft3. That is shown by the ‘clock’ style dial, which turns once every single unit - hence the painted on 0 after the red figure. 

NB- this should really be with the main thread so that others can follow the full details

Hi ​@enadwalker and thanks for your post. Just to let you know I’ve edited the screenshot of the email you sent in so that it doesn’t include your email address anymore. 

It sounds as if your billing is correct now, but that doesn’t explain why so many bills were reversed and re-billed. Definitely one for the complaints team as you say, and please do keep us updated as to how you get on. I’d recommend just getting back in touch with them and asking why so many bills were reversed.

The text underneath the picture of an imperial meter explains how the black digits represent hundreds of cubic feet. I think you’re chasing a red herring by concentrating on the standard ‘0.071 ft³/rev’ marking. That is referring to (possibly virtual) revolutions of the metering mechanism, not the clock dial which rotates one turn per ft³. 

​@enadwalker just to let you know I’ve merged the thread you made about this same subject into this thread, to avoid confusion. It’s always best if we do this, as means that these useful threads can be seen by others having the same issues in future.

I’m hoping the info given to you by ​@Firedog and ​@BPLightlog has answered your concerns about the meter?