All meters calculate usage in ‘units’

Electricity and gas meters allow us to accurately tell how much energy you’ve used. They measure energy in units:

• On your electricity meter, one unit equals one kilowatt hour (kWh).
• On your gas meter, one unit equals one cubic metre (m3)

Smart meters

These are used in most homes today for recording electricity usage. If you have one, it will look like this:

• Smart meters use network coverage to update your energy usage. This means you’ll rarely receive an estimated bill or need a meter reader to visit your property
• It also means you can easily check your usage by the hour, day or month – simply head to My Account and take a look at your usage graph.
• On the odd occasion, you might still get an estimated bill, or we may call by to read your meter.
• How smart meters work
• Benefits of smart meters
• More about smart meters: Electricity Authority

Standard meters

These are less common as most have been replaced by smart meters over recent years. However, there are still some about and there are two types: digital display or dial meter. 

• A digital meter has an electronic or digital display
• A dial meter has multiple dial gauges to show usage
• Both are used for gas and electricity metering
• Standard meters are read manually by our meter reader. We use MRSL (Meter Reading Services Ltd, a division of Arthur D Riley). The meter readers will carry photo ID and their logo will be on their vehicles and uniforms

• Our meter readers typically visit every 2-3 months. In between visits, we’ll estimate your usage.