clocking gas meter

RianS

Free gas!!!!!!!!!!

Paul_44

clocking gas meter

How is a gas meter clocked to determine the BTU input of a boiler.

RianS

To clock a gas meter to determine BTU input you need to find the 2 foot dial on the gas meter. Start the unit you are testing, with an accurate stop watch time how long it takes for 2 foot dial to make one full revolution. 1 cubic foot of nat. gas is 1040BTU's. Example: 2ft. dial 1 full rev. in 2 minutes = 1040BTU's per minute X 60 mins. in 1 hour = 62,400 BTU input. This is a great way to determine if the unit is over or under fired.

Mark Hunt

What if


the meter sticks?

Mark H

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Mark Hunt

Uhh..........no


That is not the part that you are talking about. That part NEVER sticks..

Only one way to determine if a gas fired appliance is fired correctly and that is with a combustion analyser. Clocking the meter was all they had prior to combustion analysers, but that day is here.

Combustion readings are real, dials are false.

Mark H

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[Deleted User]

We agree, for the most part.

I clock devices all the time. When you start getting into large atmospheric gas fired appliances, it only makes sense to see if the appliance is firing anywhere near what its rated for. Before you test. If I test before, I can show the consumer how inefficient it is before AND after. But to be perfectly honest with you, a change in basic combustion analysis efficiency is not necessairily a directly proportional savings. In other words, just going from an 86 AFUE to a 96 AFUE appliance would make you think that the fuel bill will be, say 10% less. In the real world, it equates to probably a 30% reduction. That's almost a THIRD. Nothin to sneeze at with todays utility costs.

And, if you can fine tune the system and make it more efficient where the wheel meet the road, it WILL result in significant savings in money $pent for GA$

Here's a different means to the same end.

3600 divided by E.T. X unit of measure X the caloric content of the gas = btuH input.

In RianS case, 3600 divided by 120 = 30

30 times 2 (cubic feet per revolution) = 60 cu.ft.

60 cubic feet time the caloric content (1,050) = 63,000 btu's.

My method ends up sticking you with an additinal 600 btus, but if you generate about that muc per hour, and you're there, you won't need it, right? :-)

Either method works.

Regardless of what method you choose, you MUST perform a CO test, or you don't know if you left a safe appliance.


Simply stated, if you don't test, you don't know, and someone you know could be a victim of CO poisoning, or death.

Test every appliance you work on. TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST.

The life you save, could be your own.

ME