Reading
Your Own Meter
After
you've studied your last electric bill, go outside and find your
electic meter. If it's like the one below, it's called a "dial"
meter. Notice that all the faces on the dials are numbered 1 through
9, with 0 at the top. Now look closely and you will see that the
numbers go around the face clockwise on some dials. But on every
other dial, the numbers go around counterclockwise. The hands on
the dials move in the same direction as the counting order of the
numbers on the dials.
If
you have a dial meter, you'll need to write down the number that
each hand has just passed. Remember some hands move clockwise while
some move counterclockwise.
To
obtain your reading, start with the dial on the left and proceed
right. The reading below is 66,649.
There
is one more thing to reading your meter. If a hand is directly on
a number and you don't know if the hand has passed or not, look
at the dial to the immediate right. Has the hand passed 0? If the
hand to the right has passed 0, write down the number the hand on
the left is pointing to.
Below
the left reading is "7," since the hand on the right has
passed 0
The
dials are read as "70" since the hand on the right has
passed "0."
If
the hand on the immediate right has not passed 0, write down the
number the hand on the left has just passed.
Below
the left reading is "6," since the hand on the right has
not passed 0.
These
dials are read as "69"