How to Read a Smart Meter

British Gas

Gas reading:

The screen will probably be off. Press the red button to wake it up.

Once it says Credit On you can press the red button again.

The screen will say Meter Index. That’s your meter reading.

Electricity reading

If your meter has two barcodes on it, take a meter reading using these steps:

Tap the green A button 3 or 4 times to go through the options.

Keep scrolling through options until the meter reading display screen shows “Rate 01 Act Imp”. This shows your meter reading. If you have a time of use/two rate tariff , press the button again for “Rate 02 Act Imp” for the second rate reading.

If you go too far, keep pressing the button. It’ll loop back around.

If your meter has three barcodes on it, take a meter reading using these steps:

Press green A button twice and then hold down to get to menus.

Keep scrolling through options until the meter reading display screen shows “Total Act Import”. This shows your meter reading. If you have a time of use/two rate tariff, press the button again for “Total Act Import 2” for the second rate reading.

If you go too far, keep pressing the button. It’ll loop back around.

Eon

Gas reading

For gas smart meters, press and hold the red button A for five-to-10 seconds. This will then display ‘Credit ON’. Press and release button A, and the meter will display the reading.

electricity reading

On an electricity single rate smart meter, the display will automatically show the reading.

If you have an electricity multi-rate smart meter, press and release the blue display button and this will show rate two. To find out if you have a multi rate meter, look at your latest bill. You’ll be able to see if there are different charges for the day and night usage.

EDF

Chameleon 3 smart meter in-home display:

Switch your in-home display on, it takes a moment to “find” the meter and start talking to it. It should take less than a minute for the electricity and gas consumption to display. The bill shows vat and standing charges separately, while the in-home includes these in the energy costs displayed.

Enter the menu where you can view your usage history, your current tariff, meter readings, personalise your settings and to set a budget. B Forward and back Use the arrows to navigate around the screen and move between Energy now, Energy today and Prepay balance (if applicable) tabs. C Selection Use this button to make selections and to see your energy in £/hr (default) or energy kW. D Return Press to return to the previous screen.

Geo Trio smart meter in-home display

Your in-home display works by talking to your meter and giving you constant updates on what you’re using. Your electricity info updates about every 30 seconds and your gas about every 30 minutes. When you switch your in-home display on, it takes a moment to “find” the meter and start talking to it. Your in-home display is set to an “average” household, but after a couple of weeks it will learn the average for your home. Your bill shows vat and standing charges separately, while the in-home includes these in the energy costs displayed.

A Home Use this touch control to cancel what you’re doing and go to the home screen. B Now Shows what you’re using right now. C Fuel If you’re tracking electricity and gas, the home screen shows you both combined. If you want to see this individually, tap on the fuel button. One tap for electricity, two for gas, three to show you both together. D Calendar Use this to check what you used today – or so far this week, month or year. Tap once for a view of this week, twice for this month – and three times for this year. If you want to see what you’ve used in previous weeks or months, use the arrow keys as well. E Menu/OK Tap OK, then use arrows to scroll through your account information, meter readings, settings and to set your budget. F Forward and back. Use the arrows to scroll through options or information on the screen. On the home screen, you can use the arrows to move between days to see your usage over the last week.

Accessible Geo Trio smart meter in-home display

The Trio shows energy use for electricity and gas smart meters and will have been configured to work with the meters you have installed, which may be electricity, gas or both. Please read the important safety notice overleaf before using your Display. Setting up Connecting the power supply Connect the power supply to your Trio. Your Display will turn on automatically when plugged into the mains. You should always leave your Display connected to the power supply. You can configure the screen to dim or sleep at certain times of the day. (Menu > Settings > Display) The power supply is made exclusively for the Trio Display and must not be used with other devices. Built-in rechargeable battery Your Display is fitted with a rechargeable battery. It comes fitted with a battery tab which should be removed (your installer may already have done this). To remove the tab, remove the back cover and pull it out. When operating on battery power, the banner bar will display the battery symbol (o). It’s advisable to power the Display with the supplied power supply and to not use batteries for a prolonged period. Smart meter connection Each time the Display is connecting to the smart meter it will give an audible notification, speak and show Connecting to smart meter… this can take up to five minutes. It may take up to one hour after the initial setup for the gas consumption to show on the screen. Speech Your Trio is designed to speak the contents of each screen. You can interrupt the speech at any time by pressing the top button (middle LED). This button also functions as a repeat button if you would like to hear something again. Speech can be turned on and off by long pressing the top button. Speech volume and repeat options can be adjusted in the Talking options screen (Menu > Settings > Talking options)

For more information see this guide: https://www.edfenergy.com/smart-meters/using-a-smart-meter

SSE

Gas meters

To take the reading from your gas meter, you’ll need to press a button to wake up the meter. Depending on your meter, it’ll be either an OK button, a red “A” button or a round button between two arrowed buttons. The reading will appear on the screen. As your gas meter is powered by a battery, the screen will go blank after a short while to save power.

Electricity meters

On most electricity smart meters, the screen will show your meter reading as standard. If you see a row of zeros, wait six to ten seconds for the screen to show your meter reading. On some meters, you may need to press the OK button or button A to show your reading.

Npower

Standard smart meter

Have a look at the display panel on your Smart meter, normally it’ll be blank. Press button ‘A’ or ‘B’ to wake the screen up. Press button ‘A’ again to show the meter reading and make a note of the numbers including any zeros. There’s no need to note down any number(s) after the decimal point.
If you have a single rate meter: Always read the ‘R1’ register and simply write down the numbers from left to right.

Economy 7 smart meter

If you have a two-rate meter: You’ll only need to read the ‘R1’ and ‘R2’ registers. Press button ‘A’ to cycle through the readings and write down each one as it appears.
If it’s peak time when you read the meter, the active register shows your Day/Normal rate reading. If it’s off peak the meter will show your Night/Low rate reading. You’ll notice that one of the registers has “Now” in the top right hand corner of the display. This shows your active register.

Scottish Power

  1. Wireless Signal Strength – the signal strength between your Smart In-Home Display and your Smart Meter
  2. Battery Indicator – battery level and charging status
  3. Time – current time in 24hr format
  4. Energy Usage Dial – see your energy use at a glance: low (green), medium (orange) or high (red)
  5. Fuel Type – shows your fuel type – electricity, gas or both
  6. Budget Indicator – the Budget Line indicates your personally set budget (see more in “Setting a Budget”)
  7. Numeric Display – see your energy usage and costs in numbers
  8. Text Display – displays text feedback, messages and prompts
  9. Electricity Now Lights – see your electricity use right now as low (green), medium (orange) or high (red)
  10. On/Off Button – on the back of the display
  11. Home – Go to the home screen
  12. Now – See the electricity you are using right now
  13. Fuel – Select gas or electricity and see your energy use by fuel type, or the combined total
  14. Calendar – You can choose to see your energy used SO FAR TODAY, THIS WEEK, THIS MONTH or THIS YEAR. Use the left arrow to go back through your usage history
  15. Menu/OK – Press MENU/OK to access the settings such as budget, language, screen brightness. Pressing Menu/OK also selects an option
  16. Arrows – Use the left and right arrows to scroll through the options. Press Menu/OK again to select an option

For more information see this guide: https://web-content.scottishpower.co.uk/files/pdf/smart-meters/energy_efficiency_8ppa6_web_pages_jun20.pdf

Ovo

  1. If you have a Feed-In Tariff, these symbols show whether you’re currently importing or exporting electricity.
  2. This tells you whether your energy is ON, OFF or READY. The plug symbol refers to your electricity, and the flame is gas. In this illustration, the plug is black while the flame is grey, so the information refers to electricity. If your screen shows OFF or READY, your meter is off supply – so you need to wake it up and get it back on supply. To do that, simply press any button.
  3. If you’ve got unread messages from us on your smart meter, this symbol will be lit.
  4. This tells you which unit of energy you’re looking at. M³ (cubic metres) is gas and kWH (kilowatt hours) is electricity.
  5. HAN stands for Home Area Network. This is the network that smart meters use to communicate with each other, and with your IHD. The symbol on the screen shows that the meter has been set up to provide a HAN, although it may not be communicating with other devices if it hasn’t yet been linked to them.
  6. These shapes become letters or numbers on active meters. They either show messages or amounts, such as how much energy you’ve used, or how much credit you’ve got.
  7. To take a reading, press ‘9’ on your smart meter keypad. This will show the meter reading in kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity, and cubic meters for gas.
  8. If your smart electricity meter is on an Economy 7 tariff (where you pay a standard price during the day and a lower rate for 7 hours overnight), press ‘6’, then press three more times until you can see ‘IMP R01’. This shows your off-peak (night-time) reading in kWh. Press ‘6’ again and you’ll see ‘IMP R02’. This gives your daytime reading.
  9. We’re asking anyone who doesn’t have a smart meter to submit their readings through their online account or in the OVO app. This is because we’re now only able to take emergency calls, so we can help those who need us most. It’s really easy to submit readings this way – and we thank you for your support.

Octopus

standard electricity tariff:

  1. Press 9 on the keypad.
  2. You’ll see the letters “IMP R01” appear on the screen.
  3. Wait a moment – then eight digits will appear, followed by “kWh” towards the bottom right of the screen.
  4. Take the first 7 digits – this is your reading.
  5. To take a meter reading on an Economy 7 electricity tariff:
  6. Press 6 on the keypad four times.
  7. Wait a moment – your day/peak and night/ off-peak readings will show up on the screen one after the other, starting with off-peak.
  8. For your off-peak reading, you’ll see “IMP R01” onscreen. A second later, you’ll see your meter reading: eight digits, with “kWh” towards the bottom right of the screen.
  9. For your peak reading you’ll see “IMP R02”. A second later, you’ll see eight digits, with “kWh” towards the bottom right of the screen. You’ll only need to take the first 7 digits when taking each of these readings (i.e. nothing after the decimal place).

gas meter:

  1. Press 9 on the keypad.
  2. The word “VOLUME” will show on the screen.
  3. Your gas reading, in cubic metres (m3) will appear.
  4. Take the first five digits as your reading

For more information see this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFeQ_y5LRrM

Bulb

Smart electricity meter

Your electricity reading will usually show up automatically on your meter’s screen.

If it doesn’t, press the ‘A’ or ‘OK’ button to show your meter’s different readings. You may need to press the button a few times, until you see ‘Total Act Import’.

Your reading will be shown in kWh. We don’t need any numbers after the decimal point.

Two-rate meters

If your smart electricity meter has 2 rates (usually a day rate and a cheaper night rate), here’s how to find your readings.

Press the ‘B’ button for 2 seconds to bring up the meter’s readings. 

Press the ‘A’ button to go through the meter’s screens. There will be 2 readings labelled ‘Rate’, both shown in the unit ‘kWh’ – these are your meter’s current readings. Usually, the higher one will be your meter’s day reading, and the lower one will be the night reading. We don’t need any numbers after the decimal point.
Smart gas meter

If your gas meter’s display is blank, hold the ‘A’ button for a few seconds to wake it up.

Press the ‘A’ button a few times until you see ‘Meter Index’.

The reading will be in the format ‘00123.456m3’. We don’t need any numbers after the decimal point.

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