There are many different types of meters. Here's how to identify and read common electricity, natural gas, metered LPG or hot water meters.
Meters are used to record your usage as you go. There are many different types of meters for electricity, natural gas, metered LPG or hot water. Here's how to identify and read some of the most common ones.
Smart meters
A smart meter or digital smart meter records your electricity usage hourly, and feeds it back to your retailer (us) every 1 to 2 days. As soon as we get that data and check it for accuracy, we upload it to your account. You can see it on your Usage screen in My Account or the app.
Basic meters
Have you received an estimated bill or seen the option to submit a self-meter read in your account? This means you have a basic meter and may be eligible to submit your own meter reads.
Digital display meter
This is a basic meter with a digital display. Heads up, although it looks digital and smart, the sort of meter pictured above cannot be read remotely.
For digital display meters, read and record all the numbers you see (from left to right). You don’t need to add any numbers after a decimal point – we only count whole numbers.
Odometer display meter
Odometers can have up to three rows of numbers. Make sure you include all the leading 000s. If a dial is between numbers, record the lower number.
Seeing more than one set of numbers? Read each one and record them separately – these are for peak, off-peak or shoulder readings.
Clock display meter
Before you get started: You will see four “clocks”. The clocks are read from left to right. The clocks turn in opposite directions. If one clock turns clockwise, the next will turn anti-clockwise.
Things to look out for
A clock hand between two numbers:
Is the clock hand between 9 and 0?
Yes – record 9
No – record the lower number (so 2 not 3, or 5 not 6)
A clock hand that's close or on a number:
Before you add that number, you’ll need to look at the next clock first.
If the next clock hand is between 0 and 1, go ahead and add the number the clock hand was on from the previous clock.
If the next clock hand is between 9 and 0, then you’ll add the number before the number the clock hand was directly on.
Domestic diaphragm gas meter
Diagram gas meters are read from left to right – take note of the black dials with white digits to confirm your meter reading (do not include the red digits).