Vernon Electric Cooperative has installed "Turtle" meters on our system. The Turtle meter allows the Cooperative to read your meter automatically and remotely. There is no need for you or a meter reader to read your meter once a month. But, some people like to keep track of their daily meter readings to monitor they’re energy usage. As a convenience to you, we can also download daily meter readings from your meter at your request. Because it takes about a day and a half for meter readings to reach our office (hence the name “Turtle meter”), we may not have data for the same day you call in. But we will have daily readings from two days ago and back.

Your electric meter looks like this:

The reading on this meter is 01074

How to read your meter (single-phase, clock-style):

1. Start with the dial to the far right. This is the “ones” column.

2. Write down the number the arrow has just passed. Do not write down the number that the arrow is approaching, even if it is very close.

3. Go to the next dial to the left (this is the “tens” column) and do the same as in step 2. You should be writing your reading from right to left as well. Be aware that the dials spin in different directions, so some dials may have numbers in reverse direction to others.

4. Continue to the left and do the same for the “one hundreds” column, “one thousands” column and, if your meter has 5 dials, the “ten thousands” column.

You can measure the amount of energy you have used for a day, week or month by subtracting your first reading from your last reading. The dollar amount of your bill is based on the number of kilowatt hours used.