How to calculate gas consumption in your motor home

Calculating gas requirements in five steps

To calculate your personal gas requirements, for example, on a summer's day, proceed as follows:

1. Write down what gas-operated appliances you use on one day (e.g. boiler, cooker, refrigerator).
2. Add how long the appliances are used per day (e.g. boiler: 30 minutes, cooker: 60 minutes)
3. If you know the gas consumption of an appliance per hour (you’ll find this in the operating instructions), calculate how much gas is consumed on one day in relation to the operating time (e.g. boiler consumption: 120 g/h if operated for 30 minutes per day: 120 : 60 x 30 = 60 g)
4. Add together the gas consumption of all appliances and this gives you the average daily consumption in summer.
5. If you now want to know how long a 6-kg gas cylinder will last, continue calculating. With consumption of 400 g gas per day, divide the total weight of the gas by the daily consumption: 6000 : 400 = 15. In other words, your 6 kg gas cylinder will last for about two weeks.

To calculate gas consumption exactly for autumn or winter, repeat the calculation for the gas consumption and include the running time of the heater. Remember that the heater consumes more or less gas depending on the setting.

Checking your gas supplies

To know how much gas you have actually consumed, you can weigh your gas cylinders. The weight of an empty cylinder is engraved as tare weight. With an empty 6 kg cylinder, this varies between 7 and 10 kilograms. In other words, a full 6 kg cylinder weighs approximately 13 to 16 kilograms. If you deduct the weight shown on the scale from the weight of the full cylinder, you see your gas consumption and know how much gas is left in the cylinder.

If you don’t have a scale handy or don’t want to lift heavy gas cylinders, you can use a filling level indicator.