How to Read Your Electric Meter, Save Money and Lower Your Carbon Footprint
How to check your electric meter
When we moved into a different house we were worried about the price of central air. Not wanting to be shocked when we got our 1st bill I set out to figure that meter box out.
How much will your next bill be? Do curtains help lower your electric bill? What can a shower curtain rod and a blanket do for you? How do fans help?
Today we will learn how to check an old electric meter. If you have one of the new digital ones still read this article because there are a lot of energy saving tips.
Reading your meter can tell you how much energy you are using in a day, if a new practice is saving energy and if you will be able to afford your next bill.
How big is your Energy Footprint?
Reading your meter can be a challenge, but soon you’ll be reading it with ease. With the old meters you will see 5 dials. Look at the dials as place values. For instance the 1st dial from the right would be considered the ones column and the 2nd dial is the tens column. You will simply follow this same pattern. Just like in adding or subtracting you will want to start with the ones column when writing your numbers down.
The reason that you start at the ones column is because when the dials are on 0 it changes what the next number will be.
For instance if you see that the 1st dial is on 0. That means that when you look at the dial the arrow is closest to the 0. Now when you look at the next dial you will use the number that it is pointing to. Say that it is 5. If the ones, or 1st dial is on 0 then the arrow will be right on the 5.
Let’s say that the 1st dial is on 8. Now you look at the 2nd dial and it is in between 4 and 5. You notice that it is closest to 5. But, it is not on 5 yet. The 1st dial showed you a high number. This means the tens column or 2nd dial is about to change. Though, it has not yet changed. This time write down 4.
Confused?
Look at the pictures. Then come right back here to learn of ways to save energy.
The meter will not ever be set back to zero. It will continue to get higher. But now that you know how to read the meter it will be easy for you to see your energy usage and your electric footprint.
Keep Track
The first day I wrote down the numbers that I thought to be correct. Miracle of miracles I got the 1st one correct. The next day with the little understanding that I had I made a mistake and read the hundreds dial 1 too high.
This of course was a bit shocking. When I subtracted yesterday’s number I was amazed. From my account on our 1st day we had used 131 kwh. I took this number and multiplied it by the 15.5 cents that we were suppose to pay per kwh. If you did the math you know that will equal 20.305. That’s $20 a day.
My reaction.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”, I said to my computer. “Turn off all the lights. Turn up the temperature. Put something, anything over those huge beautiful windows.” In about 10 minutes every window was covered. Some had blankets, some sheets and some actual curtains that I found too thin. It was now dark. My son wanted to turn on a few lights and I was not going to allow that. We can’t afford $600 a month just for electrify. He just wanted one light. It was dark.
After a few minutes I looked on the internet from my disconnected laptop and found sites on how to read your electric meter. I checked the meter again, but still didn’t get it. The next morning however when I went out to read it again I found the ultra high number to be higher than the meter read today. “What, oh!”, That was when I saw my mistake. Looking back at the meter showed me that my 5 should have been a 4. That took my number down 100 kwh. It’s not always the number that the arrow is closest to. Look at the dial before the one you are writing. If that dial is near 0 then use the highest number. If the previous dial is a higher number then choose the lower number.
Think of it as a clock. When it is 11:45 the hour hand is nearly to the 12, but it is still in the 11th hour.
Although my little experience freaked me out a bit, I learned a great lesson. Putting curtains up does help keep the heat out. The 2nd and 3rd days electric reading was 10 kwhs lower than the 1st day.
The next idea I had was to only use part of the house. My mom put in a door to our 2 story house one time so that we could heat and cool only 1 part of the house at a time. She always said that saved a lot of energy, if we would stop opening and shutting the door. This was a rent house though. I could not just put in a door at whim. So instead I put up a beautiful cloth in the hall.
I used a shower curtain rod that twists to the size you need.
Make sure that the temperature gauge is on the side that you are keeping cool or hot.
At night you can move it to cover the bedrooms and use it for the living area during the day.
Did it work?
You can check your meter to see if the curtain is worth it or not. Matter of fact you can make any change that you want and watch your meter change, or not.
Keep track on a spread sheet when you want to see the change. But, don’t go overboard. You don’t have to check the meter everyday. When you want to make a comparison just add you new numbers to your spreadsheet. Then you will always know if your brilliant ideas are saving you money and changing your footprint.
Other Ideas to save energy!
Make sure your windows are sealed. Lightly push on the window to see if it moves. If it does then you are loosing air.
Tent your windows. You can tent a window with window tenting or with tented screens.
Give your windows some shade. Shade is great. If you can add a small awning or a porch then do it. It will help lower the temperature of the walls and the windows.
Focus on the west side of the house. If you can only one side of the house then choose the west side. It will get the most of the heat and sun.
Shade your central air conditioning unit. If the unit is shaded then it will use less energy to cool.
Keep the central air conditioning unit free from debris. Allow it to breathe. Fighting for air to use will make it work harder.
Turn your thermostat up a bit. If you are wearing a sweater to walk around inside your house in the summer then your thermostat is too low.
