Reading Your Electric Meter: How And Why - Dynowatt, Texas

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It is tempting to ignore your electric meter, particularly if you are afraid of what it will tell you about your recent energy consumption. Taking periodic measurements from your meter however, is a good way to seize some control when it comes to your monthly utility bills. Indeed, your electricity provider will take their own readings to make sure they know how much to charge you. Knowing how to take your own measurements empowers you to gauge your month-to-date usage so you are able to adjust the rest of the months usage accordingly.

Your electric meter is a device that measures the amount of electricity that flows from the power grid to your home. (In some homes with lots of solar panels or other juice-generating sources, the meter also measures how much electricity flows back to the grid.) There are two general types of meters out there: analog and digital. "Smart" meters with digital readouts are in use in many places, but they are not yet ubiquitous. These "smart meters" also make it possible for you to view real-time assessments of your power usage.

Digital meters are extremely easy to read. They feature ...
... an LCD (liquid crystal display) screen that simply displays how many kilowatts your home has used. Some devices even allow you to push buttons to toggle between different usage statistics. As Energy Right notes, reading a digital power meter is a great deal like reading your cars odometer: you just look at the numbers and jot them down.

Unfortunately, reading many standard meters is a different proposition. An analog meter is a small box on the side of your home that features a glass bowl covering a number of dials. These five small dials spin whenever you consume energy. The more power you use, the faster they go round and around.

There are numbers painted around these dials. If you will notice, the number zero is always at the top of the dial, but the numerals one through nine alternate being set clockwise and counterclockwise. This mimics the directions in which the dials spin. The first, third and fifth dials will turn clockwise. Think back to when you were learning large numbers. Each of the dials represents a numeral "place." The first dial indicates tens of thousands of kilowatts. The second dial indicates thousands of kilowatts, the third hundreds and so on.

Your instinct might be to automatically read these numbers from left to right. Instead, start with the fifth dial. The United States Department of Energy reminds you that, if the dial is between to numbers, you should write down the smaller number. If one of the hands of the dials is directly over a number, then look back to the hand to its right. If the counter has already spun past zero, then go ahead and write down the number it is covering.

Once you have that five-digit number, make a note of it and subtract the previous reading from the new number. This is the number of kilowatts that your home has consumed since your last reading. You may want to keep a small notebook so you can catalog these measurements over time. If you take measurements every week, then you will have a much more detailed account of your homes power consumption than you may currently receive from your power company.

How can you use this information to save money? If you know your month-to-month usage statistics, you will know when you are exceeding your homes power consumption goals. Should there be a warm or cold spell, knowing how much energy your home has already used will let you make better decisions. For example, if you are too close to your predetermined monthly goals, you can turn the air conditioning or the furnace down to keep your power bills where you would like them to be.

In many places, smart meters are already being phased into use. In addition to providing you with an easy-to-read digital display, these meters allow you to receive this information in a number of exciting ways. Googles PowerMeter program, for example, will allow you to access power consumption graphs in a number of different forms. (These new meters, of course, will be accompanied by a slight, additional, usually prorated cost.) Until then, reading your five-dial electric meter is a minor but helpful chore that puts you in charge of your monthly power bill.