What’s Your Usage? You Can Read It Yourself.
Our meter reading crews at AUB read nearly 30,000 meters every month, rain or shine. Many of our customers like to read their own meters so that they can keep records of usage. We encourage it. Below are examples of each of the meter types used at AUB, with explanatory notes for each. Find the type meters you have and give it a go!
HOW TO READ YOUR ELECTRIC METER
At the Athens
Utilities Board we encourage our customers to read their electric meters
regularly. Your meter is read monthly, and your consumption is determined
by subtracting the previous month’s reading from the current month’s
reading.
You’re electric
meter can easily be read if you understand some basic rules.
Each of the five dials represent one digit of the present reading. As you can see,
the dials move both clockwise and counter clockwise. Reading left to right across
the dials, record the smaller of the two figures on either side of the pointer.
If you cannot tell if
the hand is past a number or not, simply look at the dial to the right. If that
pointer has not passed zero, write down the smaller number.
To practice, go outside your home or business and record the readings for several days
in a row. By subtracting yesterday’s reading from today’s reading, you can get a feel
for how many kilowatt hours you use each day.
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HOW TO READ YOUR GAS METER
The Gas Department
encourages all of our customers to read their gas meters regularly. Your gas
meter measures the amount of cubic feet of natural gas you use in a given month.
The meter measures the gas by counting the filing and emptying of the compartments
inside the meter. Though meters vary in size and shape, they all record gas
use in the same basic way. Well-maintained gas meters have proved to be over
99 percent accurate.
Most residential
gas meters operate like the odometer on your car. Read the numbers left to right.
The gas meter shown above left, for example, reads 1396.
If your residential
meter is a dial meter, there will be five or six dials depending upon the type of
meter you have. You will notice that the numbers will go clockwise on some dials,
but counterclockwise on every other dial. Your gas consumption is determined by
the top four dials. The dials should be read from left to right. If the pointer
is in between two numbers, record the smaller number. The meter shown below reads
5687.
Subtract the
previous reading from the current reading to find out how many cubic feet you
are using.
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HOW TO READ YOUR WATER METER
We encourage our
customers to read their water meters regularly. Your water meter is read monthly,
and your consumption is determined by subtracting the previous month’s reading
from the current month’s reading. Water meters are highly accurate and dependable
for water consumption evaluation.
You will notice
that your residential water meter has only one dial. The dial has a sweep hand
which measures water usage in gallons. The meter operates like the odometer in
your car. On the example meter above the meter reads 0385940. Since the odometer
registers in hundreds of gallons you do not record the last two numbers. (The last
number is a permanent number and the next dial registers tenths.) The remaining
dials register the actual (in hundreds) water used. The water bill would show a
reading of 3859.
Subtract the
previous reading from the new reading and you will know how many hundreds of
gallons of water you have used.
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