Please help read electric dial meter

[platforminc]

Hi All,

I am trying to read my electric dial meter, I have read instructions online and I have found it confusing. I read where it says deduct 1 etc. Can someone kindly help tell me the reading for January and june as pictured.

Thanks.

 

[EFLImpudence]

09804.5
10163.4

Edited again - my mistake.

 

[Crofton Gas]

09804
10163

 

[Diyisfun]

Read the lowest number on the dial, ie if between 2 & 3 then its 2.

 

[JohnW2]

Read the lowest number on the dial, ie if between 2 & 3 then its 2.

Indeed, except when it's between 9 and 0, when its 9.

Kind Regards, John

 

[platforminc]

On the January reading, I have been reading it as 1. This is going to cause a whole load of confusion.

 

[JohnW2]

On the January reading, I have been reading it as 1. This is going to cause a whole load of confusion.

Do you mean on the second dial from the left? If you have read that as 1, when it should be 9, that will make a big difference - making it appear that you used an awful lot more electricity between January and June than you actually did!

The greatest potential difficulties probably relate to ones like the left-most one in your January photo - that should be 0, but it would be very easy to think (by looking just at that one dial) that it should be 1.

Kind Regards, John

 

[platforminc]

No, look at the first dial on the January reading. I always thought that was 1.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Luckily, you have the photos as proof if needed.

 

[JohnW2]

No, look at the first dial on the January reading. I always thought that was 1.

Ah - that's the one which I said could be problematical. If your bill in/around January had been (or was!) based on your mistaken reading, you would have got a very large bill!

However, things become clearer if you look at the rest of the numbers. If that first digit were a 1, then the whole number would be 19804. That's nearly 20000 and if that were the case, the needle on that first dial would be close to 2, rather than very close to 1 as it actually was.

Kind Regards, John

 

[John D v2.0]

Those meters are very confusing, but think of them like a clock. 7.59am on a clock, the hour hand will actually ct on the 8.

I remember having trouble submitting readings in a student house once. Eventually it was sorted out, but when we came to move out the letting agent came and read the meter for the inventory.
She then made that mistake in front of me, so i pointed it out. Unfortunately it didn't go down to well, especially when i tried to explain it in terms of big hands and small hand on a clock! Then it was the first time i heard the old chestnut "I've been doing it for 25 years this way so I know how to do it" at which point she had also explained why we struggled to submit a reading when we moved in.

 

[securespark]

I've never understood these buggers.

How can the first digit on the first meter read be a zero??

Imagine reading that meter in isolation from any other readings.

The third dial from the left is pointing at the 8 and the reading is 8.

The first dial is pointing at the 1 and the reading is 0?

 

[EFLImpudence]

I did make a mistake and get one wrong but -

It's better if you start reading from the right hand side.

Ignore the red one.
Right most - definitely 4.5. so record the lower number, 4
2nd dial should be 4.5 tenths between two numbers, it is, pick the lower - 0.
3nd dial should be 0.45 tenths from the lower number, it's definitely more than that from 7 so it must be 8 even though the needle is not entirely accurate.
4rd dial should be 8.0 tenths from the lower number, it is, 9 - 9 being lower than 0(10) in this case.
5th dial should be 9.8 tenths from the lower number, it's definitely not 9.8 tenths from 1 so must be 0

 

[JohnW2]

I've never understood these buggers. How can the first digit on the first meter read be a zero??

for the reason that I, and JohnD, have both explained. The point is ....

Imagine reading that meter in isolation from any other readings.

... that you CANNOT do that. If the needle in one dial is very close to a number, one MUST look at the other numbers to work out whether it is 'just over' or 'just under' (or, very rarely, 'exactly') the number it appears to be pointing at.

As John said, it's just like a clock. If you look just at the hour hand and it appears to be pointing at '5', you cannot tell whether the 'hour' is 4 or 5 (not 6, because we 'round down'). However, if you then look at the minute hand and see that it is pointing to roughly '58 minutes', it is apparent that the time is 4:58 and not 5:58. Similarly, if the minute hand is pointing roughly at '2 minutes', the time must be 5:02, not 4:02.

The other confusing thing is, of course, that (because of the way the gears are arranged) alternate dials go in opposite directions!

Kind Regards, John

 

[John D v2.0]

How can the first digit on the first meter read be a zero??

The first dial is pointing at the 1 and the reading is 0?

that you CANNOT do that

Great explanation however, Actually you can at a push, if you read it in isolation the read is indeed 1. That's pretty much what you'd do on a clock, if you were reading a sun dial or a clock with no minute hand you'd say it was the hour that you're closest to even if you didn't quite reach that hour yet.