Heat Treatment, Furnaces & Thermal Processing calculator

Atmosphere Gas Usage Calculator

Calculate supplied gas volume for separate purge and process stages. Enter each flow and duration, the delivered price and available volume on matching reference conditions.

What this calculator does

  • Total gas volume and cost for separate purge and process intervals.

Formula used

  • Process volume = process flow × process hours
  • Purge volume = purge flow × purge hours
  • Total gas = process volume + purge volume; gas-on time = process hours + purge hours
  • Gas run cost = total gas × delivered price
  • Supply margin = available gas − total gas

Inputs explained

  • Process Gas Flow: Flowmeter rate for the stated process interval and reference conditions.
  • Process Gas Runtime: Duration of this process flow, excluding the separate purge.
  • Separate Purge Flow: Flowmeter rate during the additional purge interval.
  • Separate Purge Runtime: Purge duration outside the entered process interval.
  • Delivered Gas Price: Invoice price using the same standard-volume reference conditions.
  • Available Gas Volume: Usable gas supply on the same reference-volume basis.

How to use the result

  • Best suited to gas supply reservations, separate purge cost estimates.
  • Does not determine purge time, oxygen concentration or atmosphere safety. Unentered idle flow and supply-system losses are excluded.

Current U.S. benchmarks

  • Industrial electricity averages 9.77 cents per kWh across the U.S. (EIA, Jul 2026), up 4.7% from a year earlier. Energy-intensive steps carry this directly into unit cost.

Common questions

  • Why separate purge and process flow? They can use different rates and durations. Separate intervals expose their consumption without hiding purge volume in an average.
  • Can I use actual cubic feet? Convert all values to the same defined reference conditions first. Actual and standard cubic feet are not interchangeable.
  • Does this validate the purge? No. Purge requirements depend on the equipment, gas and approved operating procedure. The calculator accounts for the supplied volume only.
  • How do I include idle atmosphere flow? Add its volume to a separately calculated run total, or include it in a matching constant-flow interval without counting time twice.

Last reviewed 2026-10-06.