How do I read my electric meter?

There are two different styles of meters installed on most homes. The newest style is digital. The readout on this meter will flash the kWh or Kilo-Watt Hours every few seconds. This is the amount of power your home has consumed since the meter was installed. 

The more common meter style has dials on its face that records the kWh you house has used. The dial looks like this.

You might notice that the numbers go in different directions because each little dial spins in a different direction. Just look at the dial and see if you can see what it reads. It reads 17269. 

Sometimes you can't tell if the dial has passed its number or not, like the fourth dial above...is it just before the 7 or just after? When that happens, look at the dial to the right of it. If it's on a big number like 8 or 9, the dial has not passed the number yet, so you should write down the next smaller number. In the example above, the dial to the right says "9," so you should write down the next smaller number, in this case, "6." If the dial to the right is on a small number like 0 or 1, then you write down the number the dial seems to be pointing to. 

By keeping track of the amount of the amount of power you use it is easier to see where the power being consumed. Just write down the numbers. Wait 24 hours. Write them down again and look at the difference for the amount of power you consumed in 24 hours. Compare an air conditioned day with a non-air conditioned day.