Hot water tank BTU consumption

Jim_163

Perhaps a question that I may not get a respones; but her it goes
I have a natural gas hot water tank (50 gallons- 2 years old) I think my MCF consumption seems high, at this time of the year. I have used 4-5 MCF's per month (last three months)in natural gas. My boiler pilot is shut off, and I have nothing else running on natural gas. I live alone, and take one shower per day, and run dishwasher once per month. I travel at least one week per month also. It seems to me that 4-5 MCF consumption is high? just to maintain a hot water tank, and would like your thoughts. Thanks for any responses, and again, maybe this seems like a silly question.

J.C.A._3

Jim,

What's MCF/month stand for?

If your saying "Therms"....a measurement usually used by gas suppliers, this is completely in line.1 therm = 100000 btu's roundabout.

If you're inferring Million Cubic Feet....you better be running some hot water 24/7 for quite a while and supplying the surrounding community.

Look at the gas bill again and get back to us. Chris

Jim_64

Typical--Considering the Source and LOW Usage

Are you postive regarding your consumption? Natural gas is typically billed in CCF (100 cubic feet) increments. MCF is 1,000 cubic feet. For some strange reason, Roman numerals are still used in strange places like gas billing, printing quantities and movie dates.

I bet you've done the math and found that comes out to about 15,000 btus per day which would raise 150 gallons from 50F to 130F @ 80% efficiency. (Unless you used thousands where you wound up with utterly unrealistic 150,000 btus per day.)

You then think, "I don't use anywhere near that amount of hot water."

You're right. You're not using it--you're loosing it.

Modern, American, stand-alone, gas fired water heaters have their WORST efficiency when used very litte. Stay away for a month and consumption will likely be around 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 CCF. 'tis the nature of the beast.