How to Read Your Natural Gas Meter

3/29/2023
close up of a meter outside of home

Reading a gas meter isn’t what you’d call easy, so we’ve broken it down into basic steps to help you make sense of it all.

There are two types of meters—a rolling digit meter and a dial meter.

Reading a digital gas meter is a no-brainer because you read it from left to right just like you’d read the odometer on a car.

Reading a dial gas meter, on the other hand, can be more challenging since there are typically four or five dials running both clockwise and counterclockwise.

To Read a Gas Meter with Dials, Follow These Steps:

  1. Read only the dials with numbers. Read them from left to right. Record the number each hand points to. When the hand is between numbers, use the smaller number.
  2. Keep this reading and read your meter one month later. The difference between the two readings is the amount of energy you used during the month.
  3. Remember, your numbers may differ slightly from the numbers on your bill unless you read your meter at the exact same time as your meter reader.

How to Tell if Your Gas Meter is Accurate

Locate your gas meter at your home or business and compare the reading to the one found on your gas meter bill under "How We Calculated Your Gas Charges: Ending Read". The reading on your meter should be equal to or higher than the one recorded on your bill. 

Keep in mind, Atlanta Gas Light is responsible for reading your meter each month—they own and maintain gas pipelines and your meter. They’ve gotten reading meters down to a science, but that doesn’t mean mistakes can’t happen. If you find your meter is reading lower or incorrect, please call us at 877-472-4932.

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