Subject: What's a therm?

From: [email-masked] (Bill Urban)
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 14:32:33 -0500

Sorry about the elementary question;  I'd RTFM but I don't have any
reference books with the right info.

Judging from my gas bill, a therm seems to be an amount of gas measured by
energy content but sized to be roughly equal to a cubic foot -- they
correct my meter reading (presumably cubic feet) by a factor roughly equal
to one to get therms.

Am I way off here?

Thanks,

Bill

-- 
Bill Urban     [email-masked]    (415) 723-0560
High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory, Stanford University

---

From: "C. Wayne Parker" <[email-masked]>
Date: 1 Jun 1995 15:41:01 GMT

>correct my meter reading (presumably cubic feet) by a factor roughly equal

A therm is equal to 100,000 BTUs.  According to information I have 
available at out plant, for our natural gas the conversion is 1.031 MBtu 
per 1,000 cubic feet, which works out to be 0.01031 therms/cubic foot...

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
| C. Wayne Parker          Lockheed Martin Energy Systems |
| [email-masked]                              Oak Ridge, TN |
| HVAC Engineer                                       USA |
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

---

From: Gunsmoke <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 17:33:38 GMT

[email-masked] (Bill Urban) wrote:
>High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory, Stanford University             ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^
You guys really don't have a library of references?!?

1 therm = 100,000 BTU = 105.504e6 Joules = 25.216e6 cal

According to my reference, the volumetric heating values of natural gases 
sold in California are as follows:

California - A:  38.86 KJ/Liter = 0.010434 therms/cu.ft.
California - B:  40.84 KJ/Liter = 0.010966 therms/cu.ft
(You might want to check my conversion - 1 KJ/L = 2.685E-4 therms/cu.ft)
These are standardized to 1 atm; 68 deg F.           

Not too sure what the "A" and "B" designations are for.  I think it has 
to do with the variation in composition at the location where the natrual 
gas is located.  Somewhat similar to differentiating between a "Rosebud, 
Montana" or "Musselshell, Montana" coal.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "correcting" your meter.  I assume 
that they simply measure the volume and multiply by the HHV of the gas to 
derive the amount of energy.  They then charge you according to the 
number of therms consumed.

Hope this helps you solve your problem.

Matt Dillon

---

From: Gunsmoke <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 17:34:06 GMT

Matt Dillon