To monitor your electric usage, you should know how to read your meter accurately. Taking periodic readings will help you control your usage, let you see when your personal "peak" usage may be and what appliances may use more or less electricity than you think.

Once you locate your electric meter (typically on the side of your house or apartment), you will probably notice that some hands turn right and some turn left, as in the example below:

The meter above would give a fairly easy reading in kilowatt hours (KWH). When determining what each digit reads, simply write down the smaller of the two numbers each hand falls between. For example, the hand on the first dial falls between 7 and 8. So you would write down 7 for the first dial. Using this system, the meter reading above would be:
 

In some cases, the hands may be too close to one number to tell whether the hand actually falls slightly above or slightly below the number. For example, take a look at the pair of dials below. It may not be immediately obvious whether the dial on the left should be read as a 6 or a 7:

Just look at the dial to the right of the dial in question. If the dial on the right has passed 0, then the dial on the left should be read as the higher number. In this case, the dial on the right has passed 0, so the left dial should be read as a 7.

Likewise, if the dial on the right has not yet reached 0, then the left dial should be read as the lower number. So in the example below, the two dials would read 6 and 9.

Now that you have the basics down, try a harder example. If you're not sure how to read one of the dials, just use the guidelines above:

So what do you think? If you read the meter above correctly, you came up with:
 

You can now use these numbers to calculate your utilities costs. Let's say that the two full meter readings above were your home's readings on the first day of last month (the first example of 73,256 KWH) and the first day of this month (the second example of 73,988 KWH). You home's usage in KWH for the past month is this month's reading minus last month's. Multiply this times your electric rate to find your approximate electric costs for the month.
 

Now that you know how to accurately read your electric meter, try keeping track of how your monthly use fluctuates and changes. Read the meter once a week (or at least once a month) at the same time each day. Keep track of the KWH use and compare it to your previous consumption history to determine how it fluctuates depending upon what you do. Find more information on approximately how much energy (in cents) appliances around your house use. If you have questions about reading your meter, call the OUCustomer Connection at 407.423.9018.