Reading Your Meter
If you have an electric or gas meter with dials rather than a digital read-out, you can use these guidelines to learn how to read your meter.
Your electric meter shows how many kilowatt-hours you use. By reading it regularly, you can monitor your energy use. The dials on your meter work much like a car odometer with the dial farthest to the right advancing the dials to the left.
Remember to always read your meter from right to left. This will minimize your chances of making an error. Note that dials A and C move clockwise while B and D move counterclockwise.
For example, look at the meter below, start with dial A on the right and read to dial D on the left. If the arrow is between numbers, record the smaller number unless the dial is between 9 and 0, then record 9.
If the arrow is close to or exactly on a number, look at the dial to the right. If the arrow has not yet reached 0 then record the smaller number. For example the meter above shows a reading of 8367.
Once you have obtained your reading, subtract this read from the previous month's read and multiply the difference times the multiplier found on your electric bill.
For example, subtract last month's reading of 5509 from this month's reading of 5699, giving you your usage of 0190 kWh. Multiply 190 times the multiplier of 10 which equals 1,900 total kilowatt-hours used.
Your gas meter is a lot like the mileage indicator on your car. If you want to know how far you've driven, you write down the number of miles shown before you start your trip and the number shown when you reach your destination. To find out how much natural gas you've used over a period of time, such as a billing period, you do the same thing, take readings at the start and at the finish. Here's how you can read your meter. The meter has four major dials -- each with the numbers 0 through 9. Beginning with the first dial on the left, they alternately turn counterclockwise and clockwise. (There are also some smaller dials which we use for testing purposes only.)
As you read the four dials, write down the lowest number the hand of each dial has passed. For example, if the numbers on these dials read (left to right) 2, 5, 3, 6&emdash;indicates 2,536 CCF (hundreds of cubic feet) of gas have been used. The dials record the amount cumulatively, so if your meter read 2, 4, 3, 6 the month before, then you've used 100 CCF of gas during the billing period. The current conversion factor for your area is then used to convert usage in CCF to usage in therms.
Your gas usage will vary from month to month. Weather changes, new appliances, a move to a different house or apartment, additions to the family or other changes can affect your usage. If for some reason you believe your meter is not recording your gas consumption correctly, let us know. We'll be glad to look into it.
