If you want to know how many cubic feet of natural gas you need to produce X amount of BTU, you have to convert BTU to cubic feet. These are basic heat content and volumetric units for natural gas. To help you out with this conversion, we have created a simple-to-use Cubic Feet To BTU Conversion Calculator, accompanied by a chart where we converted 1 BTU to 1,000,000 BTU into cubic feet of natural gas.
This conversion is quite easy. Let’s first look at these basic units that we are converting:
- BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. This is the basic unit for heat content. 1 BTU is the amount of energy needed to increase the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.
- CF stands for Cubic Feet; we are usually talking about cubic feet of natural gas. This is a volumetric unit for natural gas in gaseous form. For other fuels, like propane, diesel, and gasoline we usually use gallons (liquid volumetric units).
You will find the number of cubic feet of natural gas used on a residential gas meter, for example.
To convert BTU to cubic feet of natural gas, we only have to know 1 relationship, namely:
1 cubic foot of natural gas contains 1037 BTU of heat content.
These 1037 BTU per cubic foot of natural gas is a measured quantity. US Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes the average heat content of natural gas per cubic foot here.
We can calculate the cubic feet of natural gas we need for a certain BTU of heat content using this BTU to cubic feet formula:
Cubic Feet = BTU / 1037
Example: Let’s say you want to convert 200,000 BTU to cubic feet of natural gas. Just insert the BTUs in the equation, and you can calculate the number of cubic feet of natural gas that contains 200,000 BTU of heat content like this:
Cubic Feet (200,000 BTU) = 200,000 BTU / 1037 = 192.86 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas
200,000 BTU is equal to 192.86 CF of natural gas.
The following calculator and the chart (with 1 BTU to 1,000,000 BTU converted to cubic feet of natural gas) will help you convert BTU to CF quite easily:
BTU To Cubic Feet Calculator For Natural Gas
Just insert BTU, and the calculator will automatically convert that into cubic feet of natural gas (you can play around with numbers to see how the cubic feet output changes):
Here is a quick example of how to use this calculator:
Let’s say you want to know how many cubic feet of natural gas you need for 50,000 BTU of heat content. Just slide the slider to ‘50000’ and you get the result: 50,000 BTU is equal to 48.22 cubic feet of natural gas.
Here is full BTU to cubic feet conversion chart:
BTU To CF Chart (1 To 10,000,000 BTU)
BTU (Heat Content): | Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas (CF): |
1 BTU | 0.00096432 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
100 BTU | 0.096432 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
1000 BTU | 0.96432 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
5000 BTU | 4.82 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
10,000 BTU | 9.64 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
20,000 BTU | 19.29 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
30,000 BTU | 28.93 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
40,000 BTU | 38.57 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
50,000 BTU | 48.22 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
75,000 BTU | 72.32 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
100,000 BTU | 96.43 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
150,000 BTU | 144.65 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
200,000 BTU | 192.86 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
250,000 BTU | 241.08 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
300,000 BTU | 289.30 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
350,000 BTU | 337.51 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
400,000 BTU | 385.73 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
450,000 BTU | 433.94 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
500,000 BTU | 482.16 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
600,000 BTU | 578.59 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
700,000 BTU | 675.02 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
800,000 BTU | 771.46 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
900,000 BTU | 867.89 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
1,000,000 BTU | 964.32 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
2,000,000 BTU | 1928.64 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
3,000,000 BTU | 2892.96 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
5,000,000 BTU | 4821.60 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
10,000,000 BTU | 9643.20 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas |
For example, let’s say you want to know how much natural gas (in cubic feet) you need for 100,000 BTU of heat content. Just consult this chart, and you can see that 96.43 cubic feet of natural gas contains 100,000 BTU of heat content.
Using this BTU to cubic feet of natural gas calculator and chart, you are now fully equipped to make this conversion. If you have any problems with the conversion, you can use the comment section below, give us some numbers, and we will help you out.