How to Read Electric and Gas Meters

If you don’t have a smart meter, you’ll need to send your meter readings to your gas and electric suppliers. Smart meters automatically send your energy usage to suppliers, but more traditional meters rely on the homeowner to do this themselves.

Thankfully, sending over the information is much easier to do now as most energy companies have apps or websites where you can submit this info rather than having to call them up on the phone.

It’s important to know how to read a traditional meter as this lets your energy supplier know how much to bill you, and you’ll want your reading to be as accurate as possible too so you’re not over- or underpaying your bill. But how do you know which meter you have and how to read it? We’ve put together a handy guide to make this task easier.

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If you don’t have a smart meter, you’ll need to manually read your gas and electric meters and submit the numbers to your energy supplier to make sure you’re billed accurately.

There are several types of electric and gas meters (digital, dual-rate, dial, imperial/metric), but most are read left to right, ignoring red numbers, decimals, or extra dials.

Smart meters usually send readings automatically, but if you need to read one yourself, ignore leading zeros and anything after the decimal, and submit separate readings for peak and off-peak rates if applicable.

What types of meters are there?

In your home, you’ll have meters for both your gas and electric (if you use both), and if neither are smart meters, you’ll need to take a look at their displays, work out the reading, and send the results over to your supplier. Your energy and gas meters will usually be located in a gas meter box or electric meter box on the outside of your home, or if it’s inside, it will be in a utility cupboard or under the stairs.

If you live in a block of flats, every property’s meter will likely be in a communal meter room on the ground floor.

Once you’ve found your electricity meter, it will be one of the below:

Single-rate digital meter
Two-rate digital meter
Two-rate single display digital meter
Dial meter

Your gas meter will be one of the following:

Digital imperial meter
Electronic meter
Digital metric meter

How to read an electric meter

Once you’ve worked out which type of electric meter you have, you’ll need to understand how to read it to find out your energy usage. We’ve detailed the process for every type of traditional energy meter below.

A single-rate digital meter will give you a 5-digit number followed by a single red digit. This is read from left to right (as are all meters), and your reading does not include the red number. So, if the display looks like this…

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… your reading will be 23578. This is the reading you’ll send to your energy supplier.

A two-rate digital meter works in the same way as a single-rate variation, but it displays two rows of numbers instead. Yours will have two-rates, showing when you’re using cheaper electricity (often energy used at night when there is lower demand) and standard-priced electricity. The top number will display your cheaper energy usage, and the bottom will be your normal energy usage.

Again, make sure to ignore the red number at the end and just submit the first 5 digits. So, if the display looks like this…

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… your cheaper off-peak reading will be 03578 and your standard peak time reading will be 17268. You’ll need to send both numbers to your energy supplier.

A two-rate single display meter shows you both cheaper and standard readings but only displays one at a time. For this meter, you’ll need to scroll through the display to see each one separately. There will be a button that you can press to toggle through the options. To distinguish between the two, you may see the following:

A small ‘1’ or ‘2’ OR ‘Rate 1’ or ‘Rate 2’ before the reading. The ‘1’/ ‘Rate 1’ will signify the standard daytime rate.
A small ‘N’ or ‘L’ before the readings. The ‘N’ stands for ‘normal’ (standard peak energy) and the ‘L’ stands for ‘Low’ (cheaper off-peak energy). Make sure not to assume this ‘N’ stands for ‘night’.

Top tip: if you’re not sure which is which, wait for a couple of hours and see which one changes. This will be the energy you’ve just used, whether that’s standard or off-peak.

Dial meters are less common now, and they’re slightly more complicated to read than digital meters. A dial electric meter will display five dials in a row, which give you the five digits you need for your reading, from left to right. There are a few important things to remember when you’re taking these readings:

If any dials land between two numbers, take down the lowest number.
If any dial lands between the 0 and 9, take down the 9.
If a dial lands between 0 and 9, and the next dial lands exactly on a number (not between two numbers), you need to subtract 1 from the second dial’s number. For example, if the next dial reads ‘4’, this will become ‘3’.

So, if your dials look like this…

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… your reading will be 31934. If there is a 6^th dial or an extra red dial, you can ignore this.

How to read a gas meter

Gas meters work in a similar way, giving you a string of numbers to write down and send over to your supplier. Here’s how each type is read:

A digital imperial gas meter gives you readings in cubic feet or ft³. Here you’ll see a reading of four numbers followed by two red numbers. Read these from left to right, ignoring the red numbers.

So, if the display shows…

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… your reading is 3462.

An electronic gas meter reading will look similar; except you’ll have five numbers to take down. Again, ignore any decimal points and include any zeros.

So, if the display shows…

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… your reading is 04626. You don’t need to round up the decimal; you can just ignore it.

A digital metric meter is read in exactly the same way but is measured in m2. You don’t need to worry about this technicality - just read the first five numbers, ignoring any decimals or red numbers at the end.

How to reset an electric or gas meter

You can’t manually reset an electric meter as this can be dangerous so suppliers tend to handle this themselves. You can, however, reset a gas meter, but you should check your specific meter’s instructions before you do this. This process will usually involve waking up the meter by pressing a button, and then the screen should walk you through the rest.

How to read a smart meter

While a smart gas meter and smart energy meter automatically sends readings to your supplier for you, there may be a few occasions where you’ll need to do this yourself. For example, if you’ve just switched supplier and they’re not yet connected to your meter, or if you just want to keep tabs on exactly how much energy you’re using. When taking readings from a smart meter, you’ll want to use the meter itself, not the smart energy monitor. Your meter will likely be in a utility cupboard, under the stairs, or outside in a box on your external wall.

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The main difference between a standard electricity meter reading and an electricity smart meter reading is that a smart meter reading will sometimes look something like the above. Here you can ignore the zeros at the beginning and ignore anything after the decimal point. So, the reading will be 15432.

If you have two energy rates, one peak and one off-peak, you’ll need to press a button on your meter to cycle through them, like a standard dual rate meter. Rate 1 will be your daytime reading, and Rate 2 will be the night reading.

Next time you need to send your meter readings to your energy or gas supplier, you’ve now got a handy guide to take you through the process. You’ll then get a more accurate bill rather than one based on estimates, so you know you’re only paying for what you’re using. Like many of us, after seeing this number you might have decided to try and cut down on your energy usage. For some short- and long-term ideas, explore our interactive Energy Efficient Home.

FAQs

A smart meter is designed to send readings to your supplier automatically, but it can also be read manually in case of connection issues or for when you switch suppliers.

Smart electricity and smart gas meters are not legally compulsory in the UK, but if your old meter is faulty or at the end of its life, your supplier must replace it with a smart meter. Some suppliers may also make smart meters a condition for certain tariffs, meaning that you may not have a choice. However, smart meters do come with a range of financial benefits, and they mean you don’t have to manually send readings to your supplier.