Reading Meter

Your meter might be located inside or outside. If your meter is not mounted outside where the power lines come into your home, please check for your electric meter in your basement, laundry room, porch, garage, closet or attic.

If you live in an apartment building, duplex or other multiple-family dwelling, the meters for your building are grouped together in one place. Each meter should be labeled according to the unit it serves. Please make sure you read the correct meter. If the meters are not labeled, please check with your apartment manager or landlord to determine the correct meter for your dwelling.

Your meter number is usually stamped or printed at the bottom of the face plate in BOLD BLACK numerals and can be up to ten digits in length.

In order to utilize our Meter Read feature, please write down your meter number, along with your meter reading. These are required pieces of information needed in order to fill out the online meter read form.

Reading your electric meter can tell you many things, such as the effect of a large new appliance on your consumption, how well you’re conserving energy, or even the effect of the weather on your usage. You may want to keep daily, weekly or monthly records.

How to Read Your Meter

You can read your meter to determine your hourly, daily, weekly or monthly use. Stand directly in front of your electric meter, with the meter at eye level. Most residential meters have four or five dials. Both types are read the same way. Each dial on the meter is numbered from 0 to 9 and has a pointer – like the hand on a clock – that turns either clockwise or counterclockwise. The pointers advance only when electricity is being used. These dials measure the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) you use in 1s, 10s, 100s, 1,000s and 10,000s. To correctly read your meter, read the dials in order, starting from the right and moving to the left. Write down the numbers from right to left. In most cases, the pointer will be between two numbers on the dial. The correct number is the lesser of the two.

However, when the pointer appears to point directly at a number, use that number only if the pointer on the dial to the right has passed 0. Otherwise, use the lesser number.

In the illustration above, the pointer on dial B appears to be pointing directly at the number 4. Because the pointer on dial A has not passed 0, the number 4 on dial B should be read as 3.

To figure the number of kilowatt-hours you used during the month, subtract the last month’s reading on your most recent bill from the present reading. This will give the kilowatt-hours you used for the period. Follow these steps to determine your usage. The result will show how many kilowatt-hours of electricity you used and over what period you used them.

Submit Meter Reading

If your meter has an electronic digital display, we do not recommend attempting to read this type of meter yourself. Many factors are involved in determining an accurate bill for you, and many of these factors cannot be entered through our Web site. Please be assured our trained, professional readers will make every effort to obtain your meter data every month.

If you use 1,000 or more kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, you may be able to reduce your monthly electric bill by taking advantage of our residential load management option. If so, your electric meter will have either an electronic digital display or an additional mechanical indicator called a load meter. These types of meters allow us to measure and record your highest peak demand for electricity each month.

You can read a mechanical load meter yourself. One type of load meter, shown here, has a large needle that moves along a calibrated scale around the meter face. The scale measures kilowatts (kW). The needle indicates the highest peak load since the meter was last read. As when reading the round dials, if the needle is between two marks the lower one is read. In this example, the needle registers 21 kW.

Another type of load meter has two large needles moving along a kilowatt scale. One needle indicates the highest 30-minute peak load since the last meter reading; the other needle, with a red tip, measures how much electricity is flowing into your home at the moment. As shown in this example, the load is currently 10.0 kW and the maximum 30-minute load was 18.5 kW. The load reading you would enter is 18.5.

This load meter uses three small dials, similar to the electric usage meter, to measure peak load. The vertical black line between the dials indicates the decimal point. Thus, this load meter reads 0.07 kW.