After you've studied your last electric bill, go outside and find your electric meter. If it's like the one in Figure 1, it's called a "digital" meter. This type of meter is as easy to read as the mileage odometer in your car. Just write down numbers as they appear on the meter.

If your meter is like the one in Figure 2, it is called "dial" meter. Notice that all the faces on the dials are numbered 1 through 9, with 0 at the top. Now look closely and you will see that the numbers go around the face clockwise on some of the dials. But on every other dial, the numbers go around counterclockwise. The hands on the dials move in the same direction as the counting order of the numbers on the dials.

If your meter is like the one in Figure 2, you'll need to write down the number that each hand has just passed. Remember --- some hands move clockwise while some move counterclockwise. To obtain your reading, start with the left-hand dial and proceed right.

There is one more thing to reading your meter. If a hand is directly on a number and you don't know if the hand has passed or not, then do this. Look at the dial to the immediate right. Has the hand passed "0"?

If the dial on the immediate right has passed "0", write down the number the hand on the left is pointing to. in this case "7". The reading of these two dials would then be "70".

If the dial on the immediate right has not passed "0", write down the number the dial on the left has just passed. In this case "6". The reading of these two dials would then be "69".