Kiloliter (kL)

The kilolitre is a unit of volume equal to one thousand litres, and therefore exactly one cubic metre. Its symbol is kL. The two names describe the same quantity, and which one appears depends entirely on the trade and the country: water utilities in the southern hemisphere say kilolitre where European ones say cubic metre.

Household water is where most people meet it. Australian, New Zealand and South African water bills are issued in kilolitres, tariffs are set as a price per kilolitre with rising blocks for heavier use, and drought restrictions are expressed as an allowance of so many kilolitres per household per quarter. A typical family uses between fifty and two hundred a year, so the annual bill fits in three digits.

Because the unit equals a cubic metre, it also carries an unusually direct physical meaning. A kilolitre of water weighs one tonne and would fill a cube one metre on each side, so a household allowance of a hundred kilolitres is a hundred tonnes of water, delivered, pumped and treated. Stating it that way is one reason the unit appears in conservation campaigns as often as on invoices.

Bulk liquid logistics uses it for cargo. A flexible tank fitted inside a shipping container carries around twenty-four kilolitres of wine, juice or edible oil, road tankers are rated in kilolitres, and depot storage is planned in thousands of them. Japanese petroleum statistics are published in kilolitres rather than in barrels, which makes Japanese energy figures awkward to compare with those of countries that use the barrel.

Industry generally prefers the cubic metre for the same quantity, because it is the coherent SI form and because it multiplies cleanly with metres of head, square metres of surface and other dimensional quantities. The kilolitre survives where the substance being measured is a liquid sold to the public, which is exactly where a name containing the word litre reads more naturally.

Converting is trivial in one direction and awkward in the other. One kilolitre is one cubic metre exactly and a thousand litres exactly, but 264.2 United States gallons and 220 imperial gallons, and about 6.29 barrels of oil, none of which are round numbers.

One kilolitre equals 1000 litres, 1 cubic metre, about 264.2 US gallons, or about 220 imperial gallons.

Kiloliter conversion table