The daily Alaskan., 1917-03-20
HOW ID READ
 YOUR METER

leverage conSumer or elecVrlc sl- ergy pays for when the bill is ren- dered each month, yet there are thousands of householders paying electric bills who have no idea ot what this simple unit of electrical measurement means.
 The kilowatt hour is just as defin- ite quantity to the electrician as the gallon of gasoline is to the mo torist. with the distinction that el- e2tricity cannot be adulterated or stored and that the tendency in pric+ es Of electric service has been re- vision downward instead of upward.
 Measured with the average watt hour meter used by all central sta t!ons it. is as definite a quantity of energy as a gallon of gasoline with the difference that the average house electric meter masures cleo tricity with a precision which varies rarely more than two or three per cent. The error is also usually in the customers favor, although the accuracy of the meter is Qeriodically checked bv a meter tester and kept within as small a fraction of error as is sumanly possible.
 The watthour meter installed in electrically lighted homes is really nothing more than tiny electric motor built like a watch with jew elled bearings and just as carefully protected against dust with a dust DroCf iron cover. Only a small part O the current used passes through the usual house meter, but this is sufficient to rotate a cop per or aluminium disk which IS pi- voted iu a magnetic field. The disk is geared through a train Of tiny gear wheels to the pointers on the calibrated dial. The meter is SD connected in the houselighting circuit that it only operates when current is being used and of course it's speed of rotation is in direct proportion to the amount of electrl- city that is being drawn through it. A Madza lamp consuming but ten watts, for example, will draw such a small quantity of current that the movement of the aluminium disk is hardly perceQtible. A car boL lamp giving the same amount of Iigh: but consuming about 50 watts, three times as much electri- city, will at once accelerate the rate Of speed of the rotating disk in the meter, affording a striking example of the economy of Madza lamps.
 How To Read Your Meter
 Barring homes where the older type of meters are used, most house. lighting circuits receive electricity from the central station through G-E direct reading kilowatt hour meter. These instruments have ''Kilowatt hours" plainly printed OH the dial. Starting at the left the four dials indicate respective ly. tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds, and tens Of kilowatts. h making a reading it is only neces- sary to read each dial in the order named carefully noting the direc- tiCu of rotation on each dial and putting down only the figure last indicated. This should be idoneI once each month, the reading not ed and the reading the subsequent month subtracted from it. For eX- ample, suppose the reading on Jan uary 1 were 5064 and on February l the reading was 5O86. Subtract ing the first reading from the sec oud leaves 22, the number of kilo- watts used during the month inter yeuing. At the usual rate of 10 cents per kilowatt the bill for the month would then be $2.20. Where the bill appears to be excessive 1t is good plan to make readings every week or ten days and see how they compare. In this way it is possible to check leak which otherwise might bo unnoticed. When ever bill appears to be excessive it is well to check up every other possibility before blaming the meter for most electric light meters are more accurately tested than the grocers scales which weigh out your groceries.