How to Read Your Meter

Your electric meter is a highly accurate measurement device, usually located on the outside of your home, about five feet off the ground.

Your meter has four or five small dials that record your electricity consumption. Adjacent dials turn in opposite directions — some turn clockwise and others turn counter-clockwise. As electricity is used in the home, a disk in the meter revolves. This disk moves the hands on the dial, just as a car's odometer records mileage.

Since the hands on the dials are moving, and the right-hand one the fastest, the dials are read and recorded from right to left, in order to obtain the most accurate reading. When the hand is between two numbers on the dial, the lower number is recorded. The only exception is when the hand is between the numbers 9 and 0. In this case, think of the 0 as equal to 10, 9 is the number you record because it is actually the lower number.

Here are examples of two electric meter readings.

To calculate your electrical consumption or find the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity used in a given period, subtract the previous reading from the present reading.

For some meters, the actual amount of energy that customers use is too large to be registered and the meter displays a fraction of the actual use. A multiplier is then applied to the difference between your present and previous readings to determine your actual energy use. If you have a meter multiplier, you'll find a sticker on the front of your glass meter case.

Last Modified: November 12, 2004