Reading Your Meter
The dials on a residential gas meter that record the amount of gas used are the four grouped together that are marked one thousand and over. Larger meters will have five dials. Notice that each dial is numbered in the opposite direction from the dial next to it.
Although your meter dials may not look quite like the ones here, these instructions can be used to read most residential meters. Each dial represents a single number in the reading.
CAUTION: The meter can be read easily without touching it or any of the parts. Tampering with the meter can be dangerous and it is illegal.
Read the meter dials right to left, writing down the numbers in the same order-right to left. If the hand points between two numbers, always use the lower number. When the hand points between nine and zero, always read it as nine.
When the hand appears to be on a number, look at the dial to the right. If the hand on that dial is on or just past zero, write down the number the hand is pointing toward on the dial you are reading.
If the hand on the dial to the right hasn't reached zero, write down the smaller number on the dial you are reading. When reading the far right hand dial, write down the number the hand appears to be pointing toward, because there is no dial to the right to check.
The correct reading for this meter is 0122. This means that 122 hundred cubic feet of gas has passed through the meter since all dials were on zero.
To compute your gas bill, multiply the number of CCFs* used during the current billing period multiplied by the current BTU factor to determine the number of therms used.
(*CCF is a measure of the volume of gas used, while the BTU factor tells how much heat each CCF of gas contains. The BTU factor is a characteristic of the gas and may vary a little from month to month. Multiplying the CCF used by the BTU factor converts the units to an energy measurement (therm). One therm is equal to 100,000 BTUs).
