How To Read Electrical Meter

How to Read Electrical Meter you ask?

EM 2500 Meter Reader

There are currently quite a few electrical meters on the market, and would take me 2 weeks 2 write about all of them and you 2 weeks to read all the instructions for learning how to read electrical meter. While some are more sophisticated than others, with a computer interface and other nice features, they basically all perform the same functions and have the same
functionalities. They also primarily have the same readouts so I won’t need to go into details on how to read your meter data for each electric meter.

For beginners, your typical home electrical meter, which is usually located outside your house or dwelling, has a number of dials on it, usually 4 or 5. If you stand straight ahead of the meter, you will be able to see them and get an accurate reading. The first dial on the right spins clockwise, the next dial to the left spins counter-clockwise, and repeats that pattern for additional dials, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise and so forth. If the pointer has not crossed the 0
yet, you use the next lower number. Typically they round down, so even if your dial is almost on nine and the next number is only eight, then it will be 88. The whole number is read from left to right, just as in any reading. Most newer models of standard home electrical meters have a digital readout without dials. Those are easier to read both for you and for the meter man.

What do those numbers mean?

Those numbers are measurements in KWh’s or 1000 watt hours. That is the standard basis for any electric companies measurements and billing parameters. The same holds true for a home power meter which is used inside to measure exactly how much electricity your are consuming in real time. If you turn an appliance on or off while watching the home energy monitor, you will see the display of KWh’s either increase or decrease, depending on whether you turned something on or off. You can think of those KWh’s on your personal home electric meter literally as the same as what you would observe on your outdoor electric companies electric meter. They are just much easier to read, and you don’t have to watch the spinning wheels or dials to make a guess as to how much you are consuming at any given time, and you don’t have to run out in the rain, snow, or middle of the night to do so either. That is the simplicity and usefulness of your own home personal energy monitor, which will give you real time data as to how much energy in KWh’s you are consuming. When you read your electrical meter for an indoor power meter, it may say your current use as 6.02 kW, or 6.02 kilo-watts per hour. It will then also give you a daily average of 7.01 KWh, and depending on your model, have memory of hourly, daily, weekly and monthly totals going back up to a year so you can compare. If you read your electric meter frequently it can tell you a lot about your electrical use patterns and give you opportunities not otherwise known to you to adjust your electrical use and thereby reduce your electrical consumption and your electrical bill. Some will even have a function to give you estimated electrical bill totals, based on data that you supply.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to read an electric meter, and I don’t have to show you how to read your power meter in great detail for you to be able to understand your personal energy monitor, all you need to know is KWh’s. So if you are using an average of 10 KWh’s daily, in a 30 day period, you would be using approximately 300 KWh’s, and based on your electrical utilities rates, which you multiply with your 300 KWh’s, like they charge $2.00 per KWh (just a number I picked for example) and you used 300 KWh in the billing period, your bill would amount to 2.00 x 300, or $600.00. I hope this helped show you how to read electrical meter, and that you can know enjoy many of the benefits of having your personal energy monitor. For more information on personal home energy monitors visit Home Energy Monitors home page, they have a variety of articles on the subject of personal energy
monitors and electrical consumption and energy conservation.