This article explains how to read your non-smart electricity and gas meters. If your meter is a smart meter, you'll need our how to read your smart meter guide.
You can easily submit a meter reading using our app which lets you send in your readings using your smartphone's camera and takes the hassle out of reading your meter.
Use the links below to select your meter from the list, or scroll to browse all meter types.
Electricity meters
Gas meters
Electricity
Single rate meters
Your single rate meter may have an analogue or a digital display.
Write down all the numbers from left to right ignoring any leading zeros. Ignore any numbers shown in red or after the decimal place.
In the example above, the first reading is 30779 (analogue meter) and the second reading is 21138 (digital meter).
Two rate meter with dual display
Two rate meters are often referred to as Economy 7 meters. These record how much electricity you use during the day and at night. We need both sets of readings.
- ‘Low’ (L) or ‘night’ is the off-peak units of electricity you have used.
- ‘Normal’ (N) or ‘day’ is the units of electricity you have used during peak periods.
Write down all the numbers from left to right ignoring any leading zeros. Ignore any numbers shown in red or after the decimal place.
In the example above, the night reading is 34005 and the day reading is 87911.
Two rate meter with single display
Two rate meters are often referred to as Economy 7 meters. These record how much electricity you use during the day and at night. We need both sets of readings.
- ‘Low’ (L) or ‘night’ is the off-peak units of electricity you have used.
- ‘Normal’ (N) or ‘day’ is the units of electricity you have used during peak periods.
If your two rate meter only has one screen then you may need to press a button to get the second reading to display. Or, your meter may cycle through your display automatically.
Write down all the numbers from left to right ignoring any leading zeros. Ignore any numbers shown in red or after the decimal place.
In this example, the reading is 5468.
Dial meter
These are probably the trickiest to read! Each dial turns in the opposite direction to the previous dial. Your meter may have arrows indicating which way the dial turns.
Read the dials from left to right and follow these instructions:
- If the dial is between two numbers, then take the lower number as the reading. This is not necessarily the nearest number to the pointer.
- If the pointer is directly on a number, look at the next dial to the right.
- If the dial to the right is between 9 and 0. Take the lower number for the initial dial. If the dial on the right is between 0 and 1, take the higher number for the initial dial.
- The ‘1/10’ dial is the number after the decimal place. We don’t need this.
In this example the reading is 49953:
- In this example the first and second dial point exactly at the number. This means we need to look at the third dial.
- The third dial is between 9 and 0 so we take the lower number for the previous dial. This means the numbers are 49 (rather than 50).
- The fourth dial is between 5 and 6. We take 5 as the reading.
- The fifth dial is between 3 and 4. We take 3 as the reading.
Gas
Metric meter (measures in m3)
Your meter measures your gas usage in m3.
Write down all the numbers from left to right ignoring any leading zeros. Ignore any numbers in red or after the decimal place.
In this example, the reading is 27917.
Imperial meter (measures in ft3)
Your meter measures your gas usage in ft3.
Write down all the numbers from left to right ignoring any leading zeros. Ignore any numbers in red or after the decimal place.
In this example, the reading is 9710.
