Natural gas consumption is now one of the most important energy cost drivers in industry. As with all Technical gases, the volume of Natural gas varies with Pressure and Temperature.

The standard cubic metre (Sm3) of Natural gas is invoiced. This corresponds to the amount of gas contained in one cubic metre at standard temperature/pressure conditions (0 °C and 1,013.25 mbar). When Natural gas is measured in companies, the standard cubic metre should therefore be measured.

The natural gas consumption of all processes added together results in the Total consumption displayed on the main meter. This makes it easy to allocate energy costs internally to cost centres.

With conventional mechanical natural gas meters, only the operating volume is measured in cubic metres. Additional Pressure and temperature sensors must be installed to obtain the Consumption in standard cubic metres. So-called volume correctors are then only used to provide the total consumption in Sm3 via a Pulse output.

Natural gas is measured directly in standard cubic metres (0°C, 1013 mbar) with CS INSTRUMENTS flow meters. In addition to the natural gas consumption, the current flow and gas temperature are also measured and transmitted to the energy monitoring software via modern digital interfaces such as Modbus RTU, M-Bus or Ethernet.