Meter Readings | How to Read a Gas or Electricity Meter

Sending regular readings to your suppliers is important as without them, they’ll be forced to estimate your usage, which could result in higher utility bills. If you need help in taking meter readings for gas and/or electricity then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve gone through how to read a gas meter and electricity meter, along with the process of submitting meter readings.

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Navigate our article on meter readings:

• How to read a gas meter
• How to read an electricity meter
• Submitting meter readings

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How to Read a Gas Meter

Digital metric meter

A digital metric meter will either have a digital or electronic display. This display will show 5 numbers, followed by a decimal point and more numbers. 

To read a digital metric meter, you need to:

1. Write down the first 5 numbers from left to right
2. Ignore any numbers after the decimal point (these are sometimes shown in red)

Digital imperial meter

A digital imperial meter will also have either a digital or electronic display. This display will show 4 black or white numbers, followed by a further 2 numbers in red.

To read a digital imperial meter, you need to:

1. Write down the first 4 numbers from left to right
2. Ignore the numbers shown in red

Dial meter

A gas dial meter has 4 or more dials. These dials each point to a number between 0 and 9. Each dial on your meter will turn in the opposite direction to the ones on either side of it. Some dial meters begin with a clockwise dial and others begin with an anti-clockwise dial, so be sure to carefully check each one.

To read a dial meter, you need to:

1. Read the first 4 dials from left to right (while ignoring the larger dials or red dials)
2. If the pointer is between two numbers then record the lower of the two. If the pointer’s between 0 and 9 then write down 9
3. If the point is directly over a number then you can just record that number

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How to Read an Electricity Meter

Single rate digital meter

A single rate digital meter will either have a digital or electronic display. This display will show 5 numbers in black or white, followed by 1 or more red numbers (though these red numbers don’t always appear).

To read a single rate digital meter, you need to:

1. Write down the first 5 numbers from left to right
2. Ignore any other numbers

Two rate digital meter

You’ll have a two rate digital meter (also called a dual-rate digital meter) if you get cheaper electricity during certain times of the day. This variance means there’ll be two rows of numbers. The top row (labelled as ‘low’ or ‘night’) shows how much cheaper electricity you’ve used, whereas the bottom row (labelled as ‘normal’ or ‘day’) shows how much standard electricity you’ve used.

To read a two-rate digital meter, you need to:

1. Read the top and bottom rows
2. Write down any numbers from left to right that appear on either row
3. Ignore any numbers shown in red

Two rate single display meter

Some two rate/dual-rate meters only have one digital display. This is because they’ll either flash through the different readings in a cycle or have a button that allows you to navigate through them.

To read a two-rate single display meter, you need to:

1. Write down the numbers shown from left to right
2. Wait for the screen to flash through the different readings or press a button that allows you to navigate through them

Dial meter

An electricity dial meter will have five or more dials. They’ll each point to a number between 0 and 9. Each dial on your meter will turn in the opposite direction to the ones on either side of it. Some dial meters begin with a clockwise dial while others begin with an anti-clockwise dial, so be sure to carefully check each one.

To read a dial meter, you need to:

1. Read the first 5 dials from left to right (while ignoring any red dials or dials marked as 1 or 10)
2. If the pointer is between two numbers, then record the lower of the two. If the pointer’s between 0 and 9 then write down 9
3. If the point is directly over a number then you can just record that number and underline it
4. If you’ve underlined a number, then check the next dial to the right. If the pointer on that dial is between 9 and 0, reduce the underlined number by 1. For example, 6 would become 5 if next to a dial between 9 and 0

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Submitting Meter Readings

The more regularly suppliers receive gas and electricity readings, the more accurate your bills will be. Without regularly readings, they’ll be forced to estimate your usage which may lead to higher bills.

If you have a smart meter, then readings should be automatically sent to your supplier on a regular basis (with every month being the minimum). If they have a function for doing this through their website or on an app, then these methods are probably the quickest. Otherwise, all you need to do is call your supplier to give them the readings. 

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