7/31/15
What is an Electric Meter and How to Read It
June 25, 2015
An electric meter (or energy meter) is a device used to measure how much power your household consumes. It’s typically installed on the outside of the house and is locked and encased in glass. Electric meters are supplied, installed and maintained by the electric company that provides electricity in your area or by the Maryland Public Service Commission. As a Maryland master electrician, I get plenty of questions about electric meters, especially from first-time homeowners. If you are in the same boat, here is everything you need to know about electric meters.
How Electric Meters Work
As you might know, an electric meter is the way for your electricity provider to track your electricity usage. Electric companies send out meter readers on a monthly basis to take the reading and bill you accordingly. These technicians typically have to enter your property to take the reading. However, some electric companies are switching to automated metering technology that allows technicians to take a reading from their car that is parked on the street near your home. This method not only offers homeowners more privacy, but also reduces the number of situations when a reading can’t be taken due to closed gates, dogs, and other circumstances. If a technician can’t take a reading from your meter, the company will usually send you an approximated bill based on your average electricity use.
How to Read Your Meter
Sometimes you may need to read the meter yourself to make sense of your utility bill or to track the amount of power consumed by various devices in your home. If your meter is a digital one, reading it shouldn’t be a problem, because the numbers are conveniently displayed on the screen. However, if your meter is an old-school one, it may look really confusing, with all the dials, arrows and numbers.
If you ever need to read you electric meter, use these tips offered by BGE. Also feel free to visit the website of your electric company to find out their recommendations for reading meters in case they use different metrics.
- Note which way the pointer is moving on each dial. An average meter has 5 dials, with every other dial rotating counter-clockwise.
- Start reading and recording numbers from right to left.
- Record the lowest number the pointer has passed, even if the pointer is directly on the number.
Simple enough, right? Take a look at the image below to better picture how this works. The dials in this image read 85900.
But what exactly does this 85900 mean? The most common type of meter measures electricity consumption in kilowatt-hours (kWh). This means that your household used a total of 85900 kWh. Meters don’t reset every month, so in order to get data for the past 30 days, you would need to subtract the previous reading from the one you’ve just recorded (assuming you took the previous reading exactly a month ago.)
1 kWh means that 1000 watts of electricity is used in one hour. Let’s say you are starting seeds in your basement to plant a garden. If you use 10 100-watt lamps to generate light for your seedlings, you’ve just used 1kWh.
Why is My Electric Bill so High?
Reading your meter is a valuable skill you can use to evaluate your household electricity usage, identify energy hogs and lower your energy bill. Need help with any of the above? KD Electrical will be happy to help you save money on electricity through timely electrical upgrades or repairs.
Call us or contact online to request an estimate or schedule an appointment.
