How to read your meter

Reading your meter is an easy way to verify and keep record of your monthly electricity usage. It can also serve as a way to monitor energy saving efforts. Our goal at Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative is to give our members greater control over their home energy and to provide them with the tools and information needed to keep electric bills down.

Here’s how you do it:

  • Your meter will have either four or five dials. Some dial
    hands turn clockwise, some counterclockwise. Dial one must
    make a full revolution before dial two can move one space.
  • Read the dials from right to left. Write down your readings
    right to left as well.
  • Starting with dial one, record the number that the hand has
    just passed—not the number it is approaching.
  • Move to dial two, and so on, until you have recorded all the
    dial readings.
  • On the dials above, the reading is 83475.
  • If you read the meter a month later and the new reading is
    84675, subtract the old reading from the new reading—the
    difference is 1200. This is the number of kilowatt-hours
    (kWh) you used between the two readings.

Reporting Outages

Is your power off unexpectedly? Time to triple-check:

1. Is it a planned outage?
2. Is it your breakers or circuits?
3. Is your neighbor’s power off?

To report unplanned power outages 24/7, call 1.800.949.4414.