How to read your business electricity and gas meters

How to read your electricity meter

There are three kinds of meter: digital, electronic and dial meters. This is how to read them.

Electricity digital meter 

Here's a typical digital meter display:

Write down numbers from left to right, ignoring any numbers in red or in a red surround.

If your tariff gives you lower-priced off-peak electricity like Economy 7 your meter may have two rows of figures as shown below:

If your meter has more than one row of figures write down all the numbers from left to right in each row, ignoring any numbers in red or in a red surround. The previous meter readings on your bill will indicate which is 'day rate' and which is 'night rate'.

Electricity electronic meter

Here's a typical electronic meter display.

Some electronic meters have a cycle display button that you press to take readings and some automatically scroll through the various displays. As with a meter with two rows of figures, write down all the numbers from left to right in each display, ignoring any numbers in red or in a red surround. The previous readings on your bill will indicate which is 'day rate' and which is 'night rate'.

Electricity dial meter

Here's a typical electricity dial meter:

Each dial turns in the opposite direction to the one before it. Before you read your dial meter, check the direction of your dials. They may not be exactly as those illustrated above. Every dial on every meter revolves from 0-1 and on through to 9 before continuing to 0 again.

To read correctly:

Read the dials from left to right
If the pointer is between the two numbers, always take the lower number
If the pointer is directly over a number, write down that one
If the pointer falls between 9 and 0, write down 9 and reduce the reading you've already taken for the dial on it's left by one. For example, if you originally recorded 5, reduce it to 4
Don't read the last dial on the right

In this example shown the dial meter reading shows as 44928