READING ELECTRIC KWHR METER REGISTER TUTORIALS

READING ELECTRIC KWHR METER REGISTER TUTORIALS
How to read an electro-mechanical kilowatt-hour meter?

The revenue an electric utility company greatly depends on the competency of its meter reader. Although misreading of kilo-watt hour meters by meter readers is not a serious issue especially on residential and other typical energy meter since it can be corrected once the succeeding reading is done. However, misreading of meters in demand meters poses a great risk since this is where big consumers belong.

Demand meters read the maximum kilowatt demand that the user reached during the month and are billed accordingly. If a demand meter is misread as lower than the true reading, the error can never be corrected because the register is reset after the reading is taken.

This tutorial will be first discussing the basics in reading electric meters especially with electro-mechanical type. Usually, two kinds of meter exist in a utility which is a dial type and a digital type meter register. Reading a digital meter is relatively easy of a normal person but reading an electro-mechanical requires special knowledge in ways to read energy meter.

Steps in Reading Your KWHR Meter

1. Stand in front facing your meter. Usually you can find four to five dials in the face of the meter. Notice that each of these dials is numbered from 0 to 9 in alternating counter-clockwise and clockwise directions.

2. You can begin by reading the dials from right-to-left order or in the direction of the arrow just above or below the faces of the small clocks.

3. You must remember to record only the lowest number on each clock face. It must always be in mind that if the dial falls between a 7 and 8, record the number 7.

4. Reduce a dial number by 1 if that dial is on a solid number and the clock directly to the right is between 9 and 0. As an example, if a dial is on a number 7 and the clock directly to the right is between 9 and 0, subtract a 1 from the 7 for a reading of 6. Keep the number 7 if the same clock dial to the right is between 0 and 1.

5. To find out your consumption for the month you must subtract the previous month's KWH reading (found on your electric bill) from this current reading. This will give you the amount of power consumed for the current billing period.

6. Look and see if there is a multiplier on the face of the meter. It will be notated as "X2," or some other number with an "X" in front of it. It will also be listed on your monthly statement if it is used at all. Multiply the subtracted reading by this number to find the actual KWH usage.

Here is an example of a five-dial electric meter. The pointer in each dial moves from a smaller number to a larger one. Some pointers move clockwise, others counter-clockwise. Dials are read by starting at the right and moving to the left. When a pointer is between two numbers, the smaller number is recorded.

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