Monitoring Your Meter

By Author: Dave Sabri
Total Articles: 29
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Knowing how to read your meter is important so that you can make sure that your energy bill is correct. Additionally, if you are finding your energy bills are too expensive, it might be possible to change your meter to make monitoring your energy use more easy.

What type of meter do you have?

There are three different types of meters in the UK.

Standard meters

A standard meter measures your electricity consumption in kilowatt-hours, that is, the amount of energy used, in kilowatt units, used over one hour. All electricity units are charged at the same rate every date.

Variable rate meters

Variable rate meters, or economy 7 meters as they are sometimes called, give two readings: one for daytime usage and one for night-time electricity usage. You might have one of these meters is your energy supplier offers variable rates (for example, you may pay less for your electricity at night).

Prepayment meters

Prepayment meters are the easiest way for you to ensure that you don't use too much electricity per month. The meter accepts cards or tokens that can be bought or topped up ...
... and when they run outyour electricity stops.

How to read meters

Numeric Display

Reading your meter is simple. If it is off the standard type, the first five figures, read from left to right, give you your energy reading.

For a variable rate meter, you will have to read off both sets of numbers, but ignore the last number from each row.

Meter Disputes

Energy suppliers are subject to strict regulations. All meters in the UK have to be approved by Ofgem to make sure that they are accurate for billing. It is important that you check the accuracy of any meter reading that is made by your supplier and if there are any problems you should make sure that you contact them. Ofgem provides a service to test meters in the case of any irresolvable disputes.

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