Questions?
Email our energy experts or call 541-685-7088 for more information.
You can read the meter on your house if you want to know how much electricity you use to keep your home comfortable. Once you know how to read the meter, you can track your conservation efforts.
How to read an electric meter
You can read the electric meter on your house and keep track of your electric consumption by recording your meter readings. This can be done hourly, daily, and monthly by subtracting previous readings from your most recent reading.
Most electric meters in Eugene have a digital display. The meter will cycle through a display of 88888. The numbers that are displayed in between this cycle is your reading, read from left to right. For example, this meter shows a reading of 58,747 kilowatt hours (kWh).
Some homes have meters with a series of dials that are most easily read from right to left. When the pointer is between numbers, read the lower number.
In example A, the reading would be 35,721.
In example B, the reading would be 38,190.
Once you figure out how to read a meter, you can then determine your consumption or usage.
Simply take two readings, and then subtract the first reading from the second. Alternatively, you can look at the reading shown on your last EWEB bill and subtract that number from the current read.
For example, if the previous reading was 35,721 kWh and the new reading is 38,190 kWh, your usage between readings was 2,469 kWh (38,190 - 35,721).
For reference, the average single-family residence in EWEB service territory uses 1,600 kWh of electricity per month.
Meter reading worksheet
You can use the printable meter reading worksheet to compare daily or weekly readings.
