Reading a utility bill

Compare every bill with your own meter and with the same month last year before you pay.

A couple reviewing bills, using a calculator and smartphone, in a modern kitchen. — Photo: Mikhail Nilov / Pexels

Area: HomeFrom age 18Time to learn: 20 minutes

You will be able to read an electricity, gas or water bill and spot a charge that looks wrong.

Why it matters

Utility bills mix usage, rates, fixed fees and taxes, and mistakes happen: estimated meter reads, the wrong rate plan, or charges for someone else's meter. Checking against your own meter takes about five minutes. For scale, the average US home bought about 899 kWh of electricity a month in 2022.

In 2022, the average US residential customer bought 10,791 kWh of electricity, about 899 kWh a month.

Source: US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 2022.Measured

How to do it

Find the basics: account number, billing period (the dates covered), due date and total.
Find the meter reading. Check whether it says actual or estimated (often shown as E or Est.).
Read your own meter and compare it with the current reading on the bill. Your number should be the same or a little higher.
Find your usage: kilowatt-hours (kWh) for electricity; cubic metres, therms or CCF (hundreds of cubic feet) for gas; gallons, cubic feet or cubic metres for water. Compare it with the same month last year; most bills show a chart.
Read each line: the energy or water charge (usage times the rate), a fixed customer or service charge (the same every month), delivery charges (partly fixed, partly based on use), regulatory charges and taxes.
Look for red flags: a jump much bigger than the weather explains, a rate plan you did not choose, a late fee you did not earn, a past balance you already paid, or a meter number that is not yours.
Sanity-check water: the EPA says a family of four using more than 12,000 gallons (about 45 cubic metres) in a winter month may have a serious leak.
Call the utility with your account number and your own meter reading. Ask them to explain the charge or re-read the meter. Write down the date, the person's name and a reference number.
If it is not fixed, complain to the regulator. In the US that is usually your state public utility commission; a city-owned utility or co-op answers to its city council or board. In Canada it is your provincial regulator, such as the Ontario Energy Board, or your city for a water bill.

Common mistakes

Paying without looking because the bill is on autopay.
Comparing with last month instead of the same month last year.
Missing several estimated bills in a row, then getting a large catch-up bill.

You can do this when …you can point to the usage, the rate, the fixed charges and the meter reading on your own bill, and say whether the reading was actual or estimated.