Reading your energy meters

Energy meters come in a wide variety of forms, as they have evolved over the years and some older meters look very different to new ones. If you have a smart meter installed then your energy company should be getting energy readings sent to them automatically. In most cases you will have a home display which shows you how much energy you are using.

Download the reading your energy meters guide

Electricity meters

Single Rate Digital Meter

Read the numbers from left to right.

Ignore any numbers in red and just read black or white numbers.

Two Rate Digital Meter

Read the numbers from left to right.

Ignore any numbers in red and just read black or white numbers. On some meters it might say ‘low’ and ‘normal’, instead of ‘night’ and ‘day’ rate. The top row will always be the low/night rate. You need to supply both readings to your energy supplier.

Two rate single display digital meter

Read the numbers from left to right.

Pushing the button next to the meter read will display the 2^nd rate.

Dial meter

Read the dials from left to right.

You should ignore any red dials or ones which include a number 10.

The dials always alternate between clockwise and anti-clockwise. If the dial is between a number, you should write down the lower number. If the dial is between the 0 and 9, then you must write down 9. In this example the meter read would be 24938. When a dial is directly over a number and the next dial to the right has a reading between 0 and 9, you can subtract 1 from the number before.

Gas meters

Digital metric meter

Read the numbers from left to right.

There are 5 numbers before the decimal point. Any numbers after the decimal point, which are sometimes in red, should be ignored.

Digital imperial meter

Read the numbers from left to right.

There are 5 numbers in black or white and up to 2 numbers in red. You should not include the numbers in red in your reading.

Dial meter

Read the dials from left to right.

You should ignore any red or larger dials.

There are 4 dials that always alternate between clockwise and anti-clockwise. If the dial is between a number, use the lower number. If between 0 and 9, always use the 9.