While it might seem like a simple matter, you’d be surprised how many people don’t know how to read an electric meter. It is actually fairly simple, and in this article, we’ll guide you through the steps needed to do an accurate reading.
What Are Electric Meters, And How Do They Work?
Let’s start with the basics. Electric power is measured in watts (W); a thousand watts is a kilowatt (kW). If you use one kilowatt in one hour, you’ve spent one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy. Why is this important? Because your electric bills are based on the number of kWh you spent during the month.
Knowing how to read an electric meter can make you more aware of your power consumption and help you reduce your bills — and it’s also good for the environment!
There are three main types of residential electric meters based on the way they display power usage:
- The more old-school dial meter
- The mechanical power meter
- The digital meter
All of these meters also have two-rate versions (if you get a cheaper rate during off-peak electricity hours). They just show two sets of numbers or dials. In case you have a two-rate meter, simply follow the same steps for both rates.
There are also smart meters, which offer many perks (such as prepayment plans) and automatically send the readings to your supplier. They usually come with a monitoring app or a portable in-home display that indicates how much power you’ve used.
Dial Meters
The dial meter is a clock-like device with a rotating disk that measures current power consumption. When you use electricity, it rotates the small disk inside. How fast the disk rotates depends on the amount of power you use — the more energy you use, the faster the disk rotates.
It usually has five or more dials, which all point to a number from 0 to 9. Every dial rotates in the opposite direction of the one next to it. You should check the directions of your dials before you read them because some meters start with a clockwise dial while others have a counterclockwise one. Now let’s get to the actual reading of a meter:
- Read the dials from left to right
- If a dial is between two numbers, then write down the lower one
- If the dial is directly over a number, then write that number down
- If the dial is between 9 and 0, write down 9, but reduce the number to its left by one.
- Ignore the last dial on the right.
Mechanical Meters
Mechanical meters use a simple mechanical display, in addition to the clock-like disk mechanism. It usually features five numbers in black and white, followed by one or more red numbers. To read a mechanical meter correctly, you simply need to:
- Write down the number on the display from left to right
- Ignore the red numbers
Digital Meters
Electric meters can also be digital, which makes them very simple to read. They have an LCD display, which shows five numbers and (usually) three decimals. In certain cases, you might need to press a button for the numbers to show. Reading a digital meter is easy, as you just need to:
- Write down the number on the display from left to right
- Ignore any decimals
In Conclusion
There you have it! Even though there is a huge variety of electric meters, both old and new, reading them is actually easier than it might seem. Hopefully, we helped you learn how to read all kinds of electric meters and monitor your power usage.
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