Reading your energy meters regularly is important. The meter reading tells your supplier how much gas and electricity you’ve used. Without this they will estimate your energy bill.
If you have gas central heating you will have two meters. One for electricity and one for gas.
If you have electric central heating, you will usually have one electricity meter, although sometimes you’ll have two.
Finding your meters
Electricity meters are usually located indoors near your fuse box. They are often in a cupboard near the front door, although this does vary. Sometimes, in new builds, the meter may also be outside.
Gas meters are often located outside, either wall-mounted in a white box, or at ground level in a brown box. They can sometimes be found indoors in a kitchen cupboard, this is more common in flats.
Checking the meter serial number
The first thing you should do, is check that the meter serial number matches the one the supplier has on record for you. While rare, sometimes meters can get mixed up which can occasionally cause billing problems.
The meter serial number is found on the meter casing, usually beside a barcode.
If the meter serial number does not match you should contact your energy supplier and rectify this.
Reading your meters
As a general rule, you read the meter from left to right and ignore any numbers in red or after a decimal point.
You should include any 0’s at the start of the meter reading.
You should provide your meter readings regularly, ideally monthly but quarterly will do.
Electricity meters
Electricity meters can come in a variety of configurations. If you have electric heating you may have a more complex meter such as Economy 7 or a Comfort Plus meter.
Standard or single-rate meters
A single rate meter will have one row of numbers.
The reading for this meter is 00569
Economy 7 and Economy 10 meters
An economy 7 meter provides cheaper energy for 7 hours at night. It will have a normal or day rate and a low rate. Make sure to submit these to the supplier the right way round.
Economy meters usually come in two varieties, the first displays both numbers. The second is more likely to be digital and you’ll need to press a button to change between rates.
The readings for this meter are 02623 for the normal rate and 03517 for the low rate.
The readings for this meter are 76384 for the day rate and 54820 for the night rate.
Comfort Plus meters
Comfort Plus meters are unique to Scottish Power and can be found across southern Scotland.
Comfort plus meters are actually two separate meters combined into one.
They provide 3 rates of electricity. You will have a day rate, a night rate and a control rate for electric heating. You will need to press a blue button to cycle through the rates.
Occasionally, you will find 2 separate meters instead of 1. One will be an economy 7 meter and the other will be the control meter, providing off-peak power for electric heating.
The readings for this meter are 78384 for rate 1, 54820 for rate 2 and 61289 for control.
Prepayment
If you have a prepayment meter you don’t need to submit regular readings. When you top up the supplier is provided these from your key. It is still important to read a prepayment meter if you move into or out of a property.
You will need to press the blue button the meter until you come to screen H.
The reading for this meter is 83742.
Gas meters
Your gas meter will either be imperial or metric. You should check this matches your bill to ensure you’re not being billed incorrectly.
Imperial meters will have four main numbers and metric will have five. Imperial meters will display a ft3 (cubic feet) while metric will show m3 (cubic meters).
Digital gas meters
The standard form of gas meters. These do not have an electronic display.
The meter reading for this gas meter is 02478.
Electronic display or prepayment gas meter
An electronic meter will have a display box. You may need to press a button to bring it out of sleep mode. You need to find the meter index screen.
The reading for this meter is 23451.
Smart meters
If you have a smart meter you shouldn’t usually need to submit a meter reading as these are sent automatically to your supplier.
Sometimes smart meters may switch over to ‘dumb’ mode. This is where they cannot communicate and function as a traditional meter instead. You will need to submit meter readings in this case.
Smart meters come in a variety of models.
Smart meters with a keypad
If your smart meter has a keypad you will need to press number 9 to display your meter reading.
Your electric meter will show IMP KWH and you then need to note the number that comes after this.
The reading for this meter is 8463.
Your gas meter will show VOLUME and you then need to note the number that comes after this.
The reading for this meter is 752.
Smart meters without a keypad
If your smart meter does not have a keypad the first screen should show the meter reading.
The electric meter reading will be followed by kWh and the gas meter reading will be followed by m3.
Get advice
If you’d like further advice on your meters or issues with bills you can request an appointment with our energy advisors.
Our energy advisors can be contacted by:
- Calling 01592 807930
- Texting COSY then YOUR NAME to 88440
- Emailing info@cosykingdom.org.uk
- Request advice online
- On our Facebook and Twitter social media pages