Anyway to figure out cost per hr of a natural gas heater?

[cruzmisl]

Hi All,
I have a StaRite 333K BTU nat. gas heater and was hoping I could figure out how many cubic meters of gas it uses so I can calculate how much per hour this beast costs me to run. Any ideas?

Thanks,

[Poconos]

Since you're on nat gas then there is a gas meter with a dial that's in cubic feet or meters. I'd just make a note of the readings over 15 minutes or so when the heater is full on and doesn't cycle. Knowing this you can look at a previous gas bill, which should show cubic something used and the cost, from this you can get a pretty good estimate of the cost.
Al

[cruzmisl]

I thought of that after I posted. Good idea. I'm just not sure I can keep up with the meter spinning at warp 9 :)

Thanks!

[cleancloths]

Hi All,
I have a StaRite 333K BTU nat. gas heater and was hoping I could figure out how many cubic meters of gas it uses so I can calculate how much per hour this beast costs me to run. Any ideas?

Thanks,


When the unit is running it is consuming 333,000 btu/hr. Thus, for one hour of run time it consumes 333,000 btu. Your gas bill most likely has some indication of how much you pay per therm. A therm is 100,000 btu, so your unit consumes 3.33 therms per hour.

[Poconos]

Have to verify the 333K is total or output, that is whether efficiency has to be figured in the calculation. Not sure of this but it may be that gas companies may charge per cubic foot in which case you have to figure in the cubic foot to therm factor which is very close but not quite 1.00
Al

[cleancloths]

Have to verify the 333K is total or output, that is whether efficiency has to be figured in the calculation. Not sure of this but it may be that gas companies may charge per cubic foot in which case you have to figure in the cubic foot to therm factor which is very close but not quite 1.00
Al


That number is the amount of fuel consumed per hour, it has nothing to do with efficiency. The actual heat put into the pool will be less than that based on efficiency of the burner and heat transfer - but that is still the amount of fuel you are consuming.

[cruzmisl]

OK, here's what and how I measured. I don't really care about how much my pool heats up, just how much it costs me to run it per hour. It's heats it up really fast anyway.
My bill is in cubic meters, no therms on it anywhere. I turned the heater on and timed the meter and this is what I got.

.05/m3 used every 20 seconds
20 seconds x 3 = .15/m3 every minute.
.15m3 x 60 = 9 m3/hr

With transport charges, storage, delivery I pay 45 cents/M3 of natural gas so....

9x.45= $4.05/hr to run the heater.

Seems low (good for me) but maybe I calculated wrong. I am not a mathemetician by any stretch of the imagination.

Thoughts? If it's correct at least others may be able to compare what a heater costs to run.