Principle and purpose

Whereas in electric traction on-board energy measurements are a prerequisite for exact energy billing, in diesel traction such a problem does not arise for obvious reasons.

However, the introduction of fuel flow meters in diesel stock could make the actual fuel consumption visible for drivers in real time. This information will draw the attention to the load dependence of energy efficiency and facilitate an energy efficient driving style. Besides raising general awareness of diesel consumption, diesel meters help to verify LCC guarantees given by manufacturers and provide relevant information to evaluate energy efficiency measures.

Diesel stock is usually not equipped with diesel flow meters but such measuring devices exist and an integration into existing stock should not meet any major hurdles.

Technical details

Diesel flow meters measure the fuel flow in the ducts from the fuel tank to the engine. Since the diesel flow at a particular moment is of limited interest, there is usually an additional tool processing the measured data to provide aggregated consumption profiles (at a 15 min or other rate).