From keeping the lights on to heating our homes and cooking our meals, electricity and gas are everyday essentials. But to stay in control of your energy bills, you need to know how to take a meter reading.
Knowing how to take a meter reading ensures you’re tracking your usage accurately and avoiding unexpected costs. However, with different types of meters in homes across the UK, it’s not always clear where to start.
At Stay Energy Safe, we’re here to help. We’re committed to keeping people and communities safe from the risks related to gas and electricity theft and helping households to better understand their energy meters.
Here’s your complete guide on how to read a gas meter and how to read an electric meter – and how to keep yourself, and others around you, energy safe.
Why Do You Need to Take a Meter Reading?
Most homes are connected to the mains gas and electricity supply, which will be routed through a gas or electricity meter as it enters your home, with the meters measuring how much energy you use. Your supplier charges you based on these meter readings of the total quantity of gas and electricity you use over the period they are billing you for.
So, your energy supplier needs regular meter readings to work out your bills accurately. If you don’t know how to take a meter reading, your bills might be based on estimated consumption, which could be influenced by the time of year, your previous year’s consumption, or even your neighbours’ average consumption. This means you could end up paying too much or too little.
To ensure an accurate bill, it’s best to take a reading a few days before the bill is due. Many energy bills are issued monthly, but they can also be raised every two months, quarterly, or even every six months, depending on your tariff.
How to Submit a Meter Reading
Finding Your Gas and Electricity Meters
Knowing how to take a meter reading will help keep your energy bills accurate.
However, it’s also important to know where to find your gas meter because this is where you will turn off the gas supply if you’re advised to do so, such as in a gas emergency.
Your gas and electric meters are often found:
- In a garage
- At the back of your house
- Under the stairs
- In the kitchen
- Outside the front or side of your house
- In a communal area (for flats)
If you’re in a flat in a shared building, and the meters for each of the flats are all together, you can work out which meter is yours by matching the serial number (a mix of letters and numbers) from your bill with the one on the meter (near the barcode).
Domestic homes will typically have one of two main types of gas and electricity meters:
- Credit meters – You pay based on consumption over a set period via direct debit, card payment, bank transfer, or cash.
- Pre-payment meters – You pay in advance, topping up credit as needed on a pay-as-you-go basis.
With these two types of meters, there are four main formats:
- Mechanical meters
- Digital meters
- Dial meters
- Smart meters
They all present the same information but are read in slightly different ways.
Mechanical, Digital and Dial Meters
How to read a mechanical or digital gas or electric meter:
Mechanical and digital meters are very simple to read. Mechanical meters display numbers on a mechanical display, and digital meters display numbers on a small screen.
Digital gas meter displays go blank to preserve the battery, so press the button at the front of the meter to turn on the digital display. To get your gas or electricity meter reading, write down the numbers left to right, ignoring any numbers after the decimal point or in red.
Your mechanical electricity meter may have two meter readings, with one below the other if you are on a time of use tariff like Economy 7. For a digital electricity meter, it may cycle through the different readings automatically or you may need to push a button on the meter to change between the different rates. You will need to take a note of both readings and which reading is rate 1 and which is rate 2.
How to read a dial gas or electric meter:
Dial meters are a little more complex to read. They have a series of dials that rotate based on your energy consumption.
To get your gas or electricity meter reading:
- Read the first five dials from left to right and note the number the needle is pointing towards. Make sure you ignore any red dials, dials without figures or hands, or dials labelled 1/10.
- If the pointer is between two numbers, always record the lower number.
- If the pointer is directly over a number, write that number down and underline it.
- If you’ve underlined a number, check the next dial to the right. If that dial is between 9 and 0, reduce the number you’ve highlighted by 1 (e.g., if it was originally at 5, it is now 4).
Remember that each dial moves in the opposite direction to the one beside it, so always note the direction of your dials before you read them.
Smart Meters & Automatic Readings
Smart meters are digital and display the numbers on the screen reading from left to right. and the in-home display shows your meter readings as well as your real-time energy usage levels and the cost of the energy you have used, which helps to monitor spending. They also automatically send readings to your supplier.
It’s easy to get a smart meter. Contact your supplier to check that you are eligible and request one free of charge, and they will book an installation time.
You can read more about smart meters and how to get one here.
How to Read a Smart Meter Manually
If you have a smart meter, it automatically sends readings to your supplier, and your in-home display shows real-time usage and costs.
Although smart meters send readings automatically in smart mode, you may need to know how to take a manual meter reading if:
- You’ve just switched supplier, as you may need to send the first meter reading yourself.
- You’ve switched supplier and they can’t connect to your meter, which sometimes happens with older smart meters.
- You want to check your meter reading, to assess your recent energy usage.
You might be able to take a reading from the IHD, but it’s best to take one from the meter itself.
How to Read a Gas or Electric Smart Meter
The way you take a reading from a smart meter depends on the type of meter you have. The way you read the electric meter also depends on your tariff. Your meter may have more than one reading to measure the electricity used at different times of the day, for example, if you are on an Economy 7 tariff which has two rates – one during the day and another cheaper rate at night.
Citizens Advice offers helpful guidance on:
- How to read your smart gas meter
- How to read your smart electricity meter
Once you’ve manually taken the smart meter reading, you can find out how to submit it via your supplier’s website, app, or by phone. It’s a quick and easy process, usually just a few clicks.
REPORT ENERGY THEFT
People looking to lower their energy bills may think that energy theft is a victimless crime. It’s not.
Tampering with your meter or incoming supply to reduce energy costs is illegal and extremely dangerous. Gas theft can lead to leaks and explosions. Electricity theft can cause electric shocks, severe burns, and deadly fires.
It not only puts your loved ones at risk, but also endangers your neighbours and your community.
Learn how to spot and prevent energy theft here.
If you suspect energy theft, report it to Stay Energy Safe. For more information, visit our pages on gas theft and electricity theft.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Taking Meter Readings
Once you know how to take a meter reading, it’s important to make sure you’re doing it correctly each time. Make sure you avoid these common errors:
- Misreading dials – With dial meters, always read from left to right and select the lower number if the dial is between two digits.
- Ignoring the decimal point – On digital meters, only record the numbers before the decimal point.
- Overlooking dirt or smudges – Ensure the display is clean for a clear reading.
- Submitting incorrect readings – If you’ve made a mistake, some suppliers will let you submit the correct reading in the same way you did before, before midnight that day. Alternatively, it’s best to get in touch with your supplier to correct it.
Meter faults are rare, but your meter could be inaccurate or faulty if:
- Your bills are consistently higher than usual but you have no new appliances and haven’t changed how often you use them.
- You receive an unexpected bill and the meter readings are correct.
- Your meter shows an error message.
If you suspect a fault:
- Switch off all your appliances, including any pilot lights.
- Check if the numbers on the meter's display are still moving.
- If the meter stops, turn on each appliance one at a time and check the meter.
If the meter starts to move very quickly, it could be the appliance that’s faulty. If the meter is still moving when all your appliances are turned off, it could be a fault with the meter itself.
If it's a gas meter, you could have a gas leak. Report it immediately to the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.
Your supplier is responsible for ensuring your meter is functioning correctly. If you suspect a fault, contact them immediately. If you are renting and your landlord pays the energy bills, tell your landlord you think there might be a problem with the meter, and they should contact the supplier to fix the issue.
You can find further guidance from Citizen’s Advice on how to check if your meter is faulty, and what to do next, here.
Now you know how to take a meter reading, you’ll have a clearer idea of how to keep an eye on your energy usage and ensure your energy bills are correct.
If you’re struggling to cope with energy bills, you can find tips on how to save money here.
If you’re still struggling, support is available. You can find information about support schemes, discounts and advice in 2025 here.
Energy theft is never the solution. It’s illegal and extremely dangerous, and puts you, your family, neighbours and community at risk, and turns your home into a ticking time bomb.
For more information, visit our pages on gas theft and electricity theft.
If you suspect someone is tampering with their meter or their energy supply in order to steal electricity and/or gas, report it immediately.
Use our online form or call the Stay Energy Safe reporting line on 0800 023 2777 to speak directly to one of the Stay Energy Safe team. Both options guarantee your anonymity, 100%.