Knowing how to read your home’s electric and gas meters is important to keep track of your home’s energy usage. To monitor your usage, compare your energy use to the number of days heat is needed in the same time period. You can do the same with cooling by comparing the number of days cooling is needed to your energy use.
How to Determine Heating and Cooling Degree Days
Weather affects your need to use energy, so it is important to determine the heating and cooling degree days for your area. One heating degree day is equal to one degree Fahrenheit below 65°F; one cooling degree day is equal to one degree above 65°F. Ensure that the ratio of heating and cooling degree days for a time period and your use of heat and air conditioning within that time period are about equal.
Meter Reading and Your Utility Company
Many utility companies provide detailed monthly bills that contain information regarding the number of usage days and usage comparisons. Keep in mind that readings may be for a varying number of days each billing period. It is also important that you confirm that your meter is actually being read by your utility company, as some companies prefer to estimate energy usage.
Reading Electric Energy Meters
An electric energy meter keeps track of the amount of energy being used by a home. As the electricity moves through the meter, gears rotate. Each revolution of the gears is recorded in numbers on a series of clock-like dials found on the face of the meter. The gears – and the hands of the dials, which move in opposite directions to one another – move more quickly as more energy is being used.
You can read your own electric meter by reading the clock-like dials on the face of the meter. If one dial is fixed on a number, determine if the hand dial to the right of it has passed 0; if so, the number is correct, and if not, one number lower should be recorded for the dial. If the hand of the dial is between numbers, record the smaller number. Write down the numbers shown on the dials by reading right to left.
Keep in mind that electric energy is measured in watts and kilowatts (one thousand watts). Utility companies measure energy use in kilowatt hours (kWh), which are the number of thousand of watts used in an hour.
Reading Natural Gas Energy Meters
Natural gas is not measured in kilowatt hours, but in cubic feet. Your usage is billed by hundreds of cubic feet (CCF), thousands of cubic feet (MCF), or Therm (about 100 cubic feet/1 CCF).
A gas meter is found between the point of the home’s energy distribution and the gas lines. Similarly to an electric meters, the hands of the dials rotate (in opposite directions to one another) as gas moves through the pipes, but natural gas meters should be read left to right when recording energy usage.
Reading Digital Meters
Some newer models of electric and natural gas meters do not have dials. By recording the numbers found on the digital display, you can keep track of your energy usage from one month to the next.
Related Topics
Check Your Home Heating Index
How To Read Your Home’s Electric And Gas Meters
