By clicking on any of topics below, you'll find lots of ways to help you make better energy decisions. Home Energy Choices How Do We Start? About The Electrical Meter How Much Does It Cost To Run? High Bill Concerns How To Read Your Bill

Your monthly electric bill is really the total of all the energy choices you make during the month. For example, you may have used the dishwasher 14 times, taken 37 showers, done 16 loads of laundry and watched 55 hours of television. All these choices contribute to your monthly electric bill. Often we're not even aware that we're making energy choices.

Take home heating for instance. We all have to heat our homes, right? So where's the choice? Well, actually there are lots of choices we make every day. How high do we have the thermostat set? Do we open curtains to take advantage of the sun's natural heating? Do we close curtains at night to help insulate against cold? Do we leave the front door open while we chat with a neighbor?

And there are also choices to be made about the proper heating system and insulation levels for your home. All of these choices affect the amount of energy it takes to heat our home. And this just covers your home's heating. There are also choices to be made about water heating, lighting, and everything else we use electricity for.

How Do We Start?

The purpose of this web page is to help you make better energy choices. We'll do that by going through all the basics of electrical usage. Among the things this page covers are About The Electrical Meter, How Much Does It Cost To Run?, High Bill Concerns, and How To Read Your Bill. Some of this information may already be familiar to you, but some of it may surprise you, too. All of it is knowledge you can put to use right away to make better energy choices.

First Things First

When you operate an electrical appliance, you use a certain amount of electricity for a certain amount of time. To keep track of electrical usage, you need a measuring system that uses both an amount of electricity and a period of time used. The industry standard for this purpose is the "Kilowatt Hour," often written as KWH or kwh. It's a term we use throughout this web site, and it refers to the use of one kilowatt of electricity (1,000 watts) for one hour. If you have an appliance that uses 1,000 watts of power, and you use it for one hour, you've consumed one kilowatt hour (1 kwh) of electricity. If you have an appliance that uses 100 watts of power, such as a typical light bulb, you must run it for ten hours to consume one kwh of electricity.

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We get lots of questions about meters, and we'll try to answer the most commonly-asked ones here.

Who Owns It?

The meter itself is the property of Central Lincoln. The box it attaches to, called the meter base, is the property and responsibility of the homeowner. The metal pipe that rises up from the meter base, called the service mast, is also the property of the homeowner. (Homes with underground service won't have a service mast.)

Please don't ever attempt to remove or tamper with the electric meter. It can be very dangerous, and it's also illegal. If you need the meter removed to repair or replace the meter base, call your local Central Lincoln office.

How Does It Work?

If you think of electricity like water in a faucet, it's easier to understand. When the water is not turned on, it just kind of sits there, waiting to be used. When you turn it on, it flows through the main water inlet to your home, through the plumbing, and out the faucet. Electricity is much the same, and is measured at the main electrical inlet to your home. (Unlike water, though, electricity can't "leak" out of the pipes. If it's being measured through the meter, it's definitely being used by some electric appliance.)

The meter measures usage in kilowatt hours, the standard measuring unit for electricity. (A kilowatt hour is 1,000 watts of electricity used for one hour.) If the only electrical item in your home that was turned on was a 100-watt lightbulb, it would take ten hours for your meter to measure one additional kilowatt hour. Obviously, the more electrical items you have turned on, the faster the dial moves.

Most homes have many items turned on at the same time, even if they're not actually being used. Things like refrigerators and freezers that run periodically throughout the day and night to maintain temperatures, even when they're not being used. And water heaters that work to maintain the water temperature, even when you're not using water. And clocks in appliances like VCRs, stoves, microwave ovens and coffee makers. All of these appliances, and many more, use electricity even when we're not aware of it. The average home uses a total of about 30 kilowatt hours a day during the summer, and about 50 kilowatt hours a day during the winter.

How Do You Read It?

Reading an electrical meter is really pretty simple, although there are a few basic things to remember. On most meters, the dials alternate their direction of rotation. That is, the first dial will rotate clockwise, the next one counter-clockwise, and so forth. You always want to read the number that the dial has completely passed, which is always the lower number. In the example shown here, the first dial on the left (the "ten thousands" dial) has the needle between 1 and 2. Since it has not yet passed the 2, it should be read as 1. The position of the needle gives you an indication of what the next number will be, too.

On the second dial (the "thousands' dial) the needle is just over halfway between 7 and 8. That means that you read it as 7, and it tells you that the next number should be just over halfway between 0 and 10. The needle on the third dial (the "hundreds" dial) is pointing just about straight at the 6, which is just over halfway betweeen 0 and 10. But this is where it gets a little confusing. Should the third dial be read as a 6 or as a 5? To find out, you need to look at the next dial to the right. If the needle has passed the 0 on its way to 1, the previous number will be a 6. If the needle is still between 9 and 0. the meter has not quite reached 6 on the hundreds dial and should be read as 5. (Some people prefer to read meters from right to left. If you're reading this way, when you see that the "hundreds" needle hasn't passed the 0 yet, you'll know that the "thousands" dial will be the lower number. It's all just a matter of what's easier for you.)

The fourth dial shows the needle between 9 and 0, so again you read it as the lower number. (9 is actually the lower number in this case, since the 0 is really indicating a 10.) The fifth dial is between 8 and 9, so it would be read as 8. The current reading for this meter is 17,598. Since the meter doesn't get reset to zero every month, you need to know the previous reading to determine how much electricity has been used. Simply deduct the previous reading from the current reading to find the number of kilowatt hours used.

Is It Correct?

Electric meters are precision instruments, and they're all tested for accuracy before being installed. In the rare event that a meter malfunctions, it usually stops entirely or runs slow, registering less than actual electrical usage.

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The following chart gives you average costs to run typical household appliances.
(Hours of usage are based on a family of three people.)

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We sometimes get calls from customers who feel that their monthly electric bill is unusually high. When we check the situation with them, we almost always find that the reason for the high usage is one of the following:

Winter Weather
Colder winter weather results in higher electricity use all around the home. There is less daylight, so lights are on more often. Air and water both need to be heated from lower temperatures. Showers may last longer and more electricity is used throughout the house as we spend more time indoors.

Electric Heaters
Portable electric heaters can run up a large bill. A 1,500-watt portable heater, used about 4 hours daily, can add over $10 to your monthly bill.

House Guests
When unexpected guests drop in, you can have increased use of hot water, and additional cooking and lighting for entertainment purposes. Also, an increase in the number of permanent residents of your home can significantly increase the use of electricity.

New Appliances
Adding a new major appliance can cause your electric bill to go up. (Hot tubs, saunas and water pumps can make a big difference in your bill.) When purchasing a new appliance, make sure it's as energy-efficient as possible.

Water Heater
Check the thermostat on your water heater. It should be set at 120° F. If it's set much higher than that, you're wasting a lot of electricity.

Fireplace Damper
Leaving the fireplace damper open when electric heat is being used is about the same as leaving your front door open. It can double your heating costs.

Heating System Problems
Check for loose or disconnected heating ductwork. You can waste huge amounts of energy if the heat is escaping under your home. Also make sure your ductwork is properly insulated.

Inaccurate Thermostats
Many home thermostats won't actually turn off your heating system. Even when you turn them to the lowest setting (if you're going on vacation, for example), they can still turn the heat on when outside temperatures get low enough.

Variation in Length of Billing Period
We read your meter about every thirty days, but the period can vary by several days either way. For this reason, bills are not always comparable from month to month or year to year. The best way to compare is to calculate your average daily kilowatt hour (kwh) usage. See section on "How To Read Your Bill" for details.

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Using the information on your monthly electric bill can give you an accurate picture of just how much electricity you really use throughout the year.

The "Amount Used" for the billing period is the difference between the "Current" and "Previous" readings. The current billing detail, near the center of your bill, shows what our current rates are for the amount of electricity you used. To determine your average cost per kwh, divide the current billing amount by the kwh used. In the sample bill below, which is a typical wintertime heating bill, that would be:

105.99
1550    = .0683, or about 6.8¢ per kwh

Your average daily use of electricity is shown in the "Comparison Information" section near the bottom of the bill. This is determined by dividing the total kwh used by the number of days in the billing period. To calculate your average cost per day, simply multiply your average kwh cost by the average kwh used per day. In the example below, that would be:

6.8¢ X 48 = $3.26 per day.