Reading gas and electricity meters isn’t always straightforward. Luckily for you, we’ve created this guide to help you become an absolute wiz at noting down numbers presented on dusty dials and electronic screens. Sounds fun right? Alright – perhaps not, but providing accurate meter readings ensures that you’re only ever billed for the energy that you’ve used and might even result in you getting some money back (fingers crossed)!
Location, Location, Location
Your gas and electric meters will usually be located under the stairs, somewhere in the cellar (if you’re fortunate enough to have one), by the front door (we hope you have one of these), or in a meter box just outside of your house. If you still can’t find you meters, get in touch with your landlord or letting agency and ask them where they might have hidden them.
Telling the meters apart
Your electric meter will display usage in kWh. Your gas meter will display usage in m³ or ft³. So, if you see kWh – its your electric meter and if you see m³ or ft³ – its your gas meter.
Reading the meters
Now here comes the tricky part: accurately reading the meters.
- Digital Meters
Relatively simple here: note down the numbers from left to right include the decimal point if there happens to be one.
- Two Rate Electric (economy 7 Meters)
Slightly more complex this time: Two rate meters typically display two sets of numbers, one labelled as the “night” or “low” read and the other as the “day” or “normal” read. You may need to press #6 on the dial pad (if there is one) so that the meter displays the day read and then press #6 once more so that it displays the night read. Again, note down the numbers from left to right.
- Dial Meters
For reasons unbeknownst to us, or anyone for that matter, the dials on these meters rotate alternately clockwise and anti-clockwise. If the pointer on the dial is directly on a number, then note it down unless the pointer on the next dial is on #8 or #9. If this is the case, lower the previous dial reading by one – ridiculous, we know. If the pointer is between two numbers, then note down the lower number. And yes, you read the dials from left to right.
Submitting the readings
Now this should be a complete doddle. Log into your Glide Portal, click the My Readings tab positioned at the top of the screen and input the various figures you’ve obtained after close and careful inspection of your meter(s). All jokes aside, it’s important that you submit meter readings at the start of your tenancy and then every 3 months up until the very end of your tenancy. So before embarking on that crisis cleaning quest to scrape back your house deposit (yes, we’ve all been there), why not submit final meter reads to guarantee that you’re charged exactly for energy that you have consumed. Doing this for your whole tenancy too, just means you know exactly where you are.
Don’t panic (too much)
You’ve located the meters, looked through our guide and had a pop at deciphering those pesky numbers but still can’t quite make sense of it all. Regretful? Yes. Cause for concern? Certainly not. If you’re still unsure about the readings displayed on your meters simply send over a snap of the reads to glide@glide.co.uk and we’ll figure them out for you!
Written by Isaac Parry