Electricity

1. The Digital Meter

Read the numbers from left to right, writing down all digits even zeros. noting any change in colour of the digits or the background towards the end of the right hand side of the display. This will usually indicate where a decimal place is. Check whether there is a meter multiplier i.e. x 10 in which case this should also be noted with the meter reading.

Note that when the total number of units used reaches 99,999 the meter starts again at 0.

The reading on this example is 094694.5 kWh

The reading on this example is 00152370 kWh

If you have an Economy 7 or a Day/Night meter, your meter will have 2 rows of figures.

The row marked 'LOW' is the rate for night or off peak units.

The row marked 'NORMAL' shows how many units you have used at the day or peak rate.

2. The Dial Meter

To read a dial meter look at the position of the pointers on the dials and follow these instructions:

a) Read the dials from left to right starting with the dial marked with the highest number i.e. 10,000.

b) Note that the pointers rotate in opposite directions on each dial. The numbers tell you which way the pointer is going.

c) When the pointer is between two numbers, always write down the number that the pointer has gone past. This is not necessarily the nearest number to the pointer. For example if the pointer is between 4 and 5 but very close to 5, the pointer has gone past 4 and not yet reached 5 and so the answer is 4. Remember that when the pointer is between 0 and 9 the pointer will have gone past 9 and not yet reached 0 and so the answer will be 9.

d) If the pointer is exactly on a number, or extremely close to one such that you are not sure whether it is on it or not, write that number down and underline it.

e) If any of the numbers that you have underlined are followed by a 9, you will need to take 1 away from the number that you have underlined.

The reading in this example is 94694.9 kWh

3. The Electronic Meter

Electronic meters will have a liquid crystal display (like a calculator display) and on the meter face there will be one or two buttons. To bring up the information from the meter, one of the buttons has to be pressed a number of times (it should be marked but do not worry about pressing the wrong button, you can do no damage). Each time the button is pressed a different item of data will be displayed, including the time, date and other values. The information that is displayed depends on the type of meter and supply and it is therefore best to write down everything that is displayed in sequence and then seek advice from ourselves as to which are the relevant items which are required every month.

Examples of electronic meter are shown below.

Gas

1. The Digital Meter

Read the numbers from left to right, including all 'zeros' but ignoring the red number(s) or any number(s) after a decimal point.

When the total number of units used reaches 9,999 or 99,999 the meter starts again at 0.

If your meter looks like this example (imperial meter), use the first four numbers.

The reading in this example is 1234 ‘00 ft3

If your meter looks like this example (metric meter), use the first five numbers.

The reading on the example is 32764 m3

2. The Dial Meter

a) Read the dials from left to right starting with the dial marked with the highest number i.e. 1,000,000

b) Ignore the large dial and the red dials.

c) Note that the pointers rotate in opposite directions on each dial. The numbers tell you which way the pointer is going.

d) When the pointer is between two numbers, always write down the number that the pointer has gone past. This is not necessarily the nearest number to the pointer. For example if the pointer is between 4 and 5 but very close to 5, the pointer has gone past 4 and not yet reached 5 and so the answer is 4. Remember that when the pointer is between 0 and 9 the pointer will have gone past 9 and not yet reached 0 and so the answer will be 9.

e) If the pointer is exactly on a number, or extremely close to one such that you are not sure whether it is on it or not, write that number down and underline it.

f) If any of the numbers that you have underlined are followed by a 9, you will need to take 1 away from the number that you have underlined.

The reading in this example is 7619 ‘00 ft3

3. Water/Oil Meters

Water and oil meters may be one or other of the dial or digital type seen for gas and electricity, or a combination of the two. Use the same techniques as shown for gas and electricity but in the case of a combination meter (see photos below) then you need to establish what units each part of the meter is reading i.e. the pointer may reading litres and the dial (or digits) reading in cubic meters. Since there are 1,000 litres in a cubic metre then one rotation of the pointer will result in the lowest digit clocking up 1.

In this example, the pointer is reading litres and the digits cubic metres. The reading is 36042.720 m3