Millions of households urged to submit energy meter reading before next week

The Ofgem price cap is falling from £1,758 a year to £1,641 – this is how much the typical household who pays by direct debit can expect to pay for gas and electricity

Millions of households are being urged to take an energy meter reading over the next few days before the Ofgem price cap falls.

The Ofgem price cap is falling from £1,758 a year to £1,641 from April 1. This is how much the typical household who pays by direct debit can expect to pay for gas and electricity for the year.

The new price cap will remain in place for three months, when it will then change again on July 1. Energy analysts currently expect bills will rise again due to the Iran war.

You are covered by the price cap if you are on a variable energy tariff, so if you are not fixed into a deal.

It is a good idea to take a meter reading near this price cap update so you are not charged at higher rates for energy used before the price cap changed.

If you have a smart meter, then you should not need to send a meter reading, as this should send regular readings to your supplier for you.

If you do not have a smart meter, then you will need to manually send a meter reading. For most standard electricity meters, you normally take a reading by writing down the first five numbers shown from left to right.

Citizens Advice says you should ignore any red numbers.

If you are on an energy tariff where you get different rates depending on the time of day, you may see two rows of numbers. In this case, you should send both rows of numbers to your supplier.

If you have a dial electricity meter, there will normally be five or more dials. Citizens Advice says you need to read the first five dials from left to right.

It is important you check the direction of each dial before you start your reading, as each one turns in the opposite direction to the one before. You can ignore any red dials.

Citizens Advice says if the pointer is between two numbers, write down the lower number – but if the pointer is between nine and zero, you should write down nine.

If the pointer is directly over a number, write that number down and underline it – then, if you’ve underlined a number, check the dial to the right and if the pointer on that dial is between nine and zero, reduce the number you’ve underlined by one.

If you have a digital metric meter, Citizens Advice says you need to write down the first five numbers from left to right. The charity says you can ignore the numbers after the decimal point.

For a digital imperial meter, you only need to read the four black numbers and you can ignore the two red numbers.

If you have a dial gas meter, the steps are the same as those with a dial electricity meter, but you don’t need to underline any numbers where the pointer has landed directly on it.