Monday 28 September is the useful day for this job, not midnight on Thursday. The change that matters is the energy price cap for England, Scotland and Wales, which starts on 1 October 2026. Households whose meters do not report themselves can have the days either side estimated. An estimate that pushes September use onto October rates bills the cheaper days at the dearer cap. A photograph and a submitted reading draws that line. This page is the cupboard check. It is not a tariff switch, not the first fire of the heating, and not a grant decision.
Ofgem’s press release of 26 August 2026 sets a 4% rise for 1 October to 31 December 2026. For a typical household paying by Direct Debit for gas and electricity, the published annualised figure moves from £1,663 to £1,723. That is £60 a year, about £5 a month, only if that level lasted a full year and only if you use the amount Ofgem calls typical. Your bill is still your units plus standing charges. Around 35% of households, about 11 million, are on a fixed tariff and are not moved by the rise. Most of the increase is gas. An electricity-only household sees a much smaller move, under 1%, because the Government has removed VAT from domestic electricity in Great Britain from 1 October. Northern Ireland is outside this cap. If you are in Belfast, Thursday is not this Ofgem change, and this page will not invent a Northern Ireland tariff.
Why Thursday is the day
The cap limits the unit rates and standing charges a supplier can put on a default tariff. It is not a bill this site can honour, and it does not move a fixed deal you already signed. What Thursday does change, for a traditional meter on a default tariff, is the rate that applies to units after the change. Without a reading close to the date, the supplier estimates how much you used before and after. If that guess is high on the September side, some of the cheaper units are billed as October units. If the guess is low, you can be undercharged now and catch up later. Neither result is a fine. Both are avoidable with digits you can see.
You do not have to stand at the meter at 00:01. A reading taken today, or on Wednesday 30 September, is close enough for the purpose, and it keeps you off a supplier website at the moment everyone else remembers. Keep the photograph. If the form is busy on Thursday morning, the picture is your record of what the meter showed and when. Citizens Advice tells you to give readings on your supplier’s phone line, website or app, because a missing reading is how an estimate gets onto the bill. This site does not take the reading and does not pass it on.
Do the photograph in daylight or with a torch you already switched on outside the cupboard. Do not use a match, a candle, or a lighter to see a gas meter.
Who should send a reading
Match the meter in front of you to the serial number on a recent bill before you copy any digits. Flats often have a row of meters in one cupboard. The wrong serial is the neighbour’s usage. If the numbers do not match, stop and find the right box. Do not “correct” a serial so the form will accept it.
| What you have | Before Thursday | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional gas or electricity meter, default tariff, Great Britain | Photograph and send both fuels if you have both | This is the estimate the cap change can mis-time |
| Smart meter, bills marked actual or smart | Nothing, if it is still sending | The supplier already has the index across the change |
| Smart meter, bills marked estimated, or a display that says it is not connected | Read the meter itself, not the handheld screen | A meter that has stopped communicating is a traditional meter for this week |
| Fixed tariff | Send one only if your bills are still estimated | The cap rise does not reset your unit rates |
| Prepayment | A pound balance is not the reading | You pay as you go. Send an index only if the supplier’s screen asks for one |
| Northern Ireland | This Thursday cap does not apply | Ofgem’s cap is Great Britain. Use your own supplier’s date |
A working smart meter normally sends readings on its own. Citizens Advice makes that distinction on its how to read your meter page: you read a standard meter because the supplier will otherwise estimate; a smart meter usually does the sending. Check the latest bill. “Actual”, “smart” or “customer reading” means the loop is working. “Estimated” means it is not, even if a smart meter is on the wall. The small screen in the kitchen shows spend and recent use. That figure is not the cumulative index a supplier wants when the meter has gone quiet. Go to the meter.
Prepayment is a different machine. The first screen is often credit in pounds, or a debt figure. That is not the number of units the meter has ever counted. If your supplier has asked prepayment customers for an index, use their button guide until the index appears. Do not type the pound balance into a reading box. Ofgem’s 26 August note says prepayment cap rates are the lowest of the payment methods, about £45 a year under Direct Debit for a typical household. That is a rate fact. It is not an instruction to change how you pay this week.
How to read the electricity meter
Stay on the customer side of the cupboard. You are copying a display. You are not opening the meter, breaking a seal, or pulling the main fuse. The way the digits are chosen below is the Citizens Advice method for England. Suppliers in Scotland and Wales ask for the same kind of index. If your meter does not match any row here, use the diagram on your supplier’s site rather than guessing an extra digit.
| Electricity display | What you write down | What you leave out |
|---|---|---|
| Single-rate digital | The first five numbers, left to right | Anything after them, including red digits or a decimal |
| Two rows, marked low/night and normal/day | Both rows, left to right | Red digits. One row on its own is an incomplete reading |
| One screen that cycles, or a button that cycles it | Both rates, once you know which is which | Extra screens after the two rates. An “N” mark means normal, not night |
| Clock dials | The first five dials, left to right | Red dials and any dial marked 1/10 |
On a two-rate meter the cheap register is the one labelled low or night. The other is normal or day. If a single screen cycles and you cannot tell which rate moved, write both numbers in the morning and look again later the same day. The register that has increased is the daytime one. Send both. A supplier that receives only the night figure can still estimate the day.
Dials need more care than a digital row. Each dial turns the opposite way to the one beside it, so read the arrow direction printed on that dial before you choose a number. If the pointer sits between two numbers, write the lower one. If it sits between 9 and 0, write 9. If it sits exactly on a number, write that number and check the next dial to the right. When that next pointer is between 9 and 0, reduce the number you just wrote by one. Ignore red dials. A telephone photo of five dials is easier to re-check than a number you held in your head on the stairs.
- Turn the light on before you open the door. Find the electricity meter, not the consumer unit full of switches beside it.
- Read the serial number on the meter and the serial on the bill. Stop if they differ.
- Copy the index using the table. For two rates, label which number is night and which is day before you leave the cupboard.
- Photograph the display and the serial in one frame if they fit. If they do not, take two pictures.
- Close the door. You are finished with the electricity meter when the digits are in your notes.
How to read the gas meter
The gas meter is often outside in a box, under the stairs, or in a cupboard with the boiler. The number you want is the index, not the dial that spins when a hob is on. Metric meters are marked m³ and show five numbers, then a decimal point or a red tail. Imperial meters are marked ft³ and show four black or white numbers, then red numbers. Write down the numbers before the decimal, or the four black numbers. Ignore the red tail. Tell the supplier which unit is printed on the metal if the form asks. Do not convert cubic feet into cubic metres yourself. The supplier does that. A homemade conversion is a wrong reading.
A gas dial meter uses the first four dials. Ignore large or red dials. The same between-number rule applies: write the lower number, and write 9 if the pointer is between 9 and 0. Read the direction of each dial. A spinning test dial is not part of the index.
If you have both fuels, send both readings. A gas reading does not update the electricity account, and the other way round. Economy 7 does not remove the need for a gas reading. The boiler’s own display, if it has one, is not the gas meter either. People mix those up on the first cold morning, then wonder why the supplier rejected the number.
If you smell gas when you open the box, stop the reading. Do not lean in to “just get the number”. Leave, and do not use electrical switches on the way out.
How to send it, and what to keep
Use the account you already have: the supplier’s app, the website form, or the meter-reading line printed on the bill. Have the photograph, the serial, and the date in front of you. Type only the digits from the table above. If the form rejects the number because it is lower than the last bill, do not add a digit and do not round up to match an estimate. A lower index can mean you included a decimal, read the wrong register, or the last bill was estimated too high. Send the photograph and ask them to look. Inventing a higher number creates the next dispute.
Submit electricity and gas as the fuels they are. On a two-rate electricity meter, put the night figure in the night box. Swapping them does not average out. If you miss Thursday, send the reading as soon as the form will take it and say the date on the photograph. Suppliers differ on how many days either side they will still split. This page will not invent one window for every brand. The account page is the authority.
A reading does not, by itself, cut the Direct Debit on Friday. The supplier may reassess the monthly amount later, when it has real use. Keep the picture until a bill shows your figures as an actual or customer reading rather than an estimate. If the next bill still says estimated, send the picture again. You are allowed to ask why a reading you submitted was not used.
Citizens Advice also says that if you cannot reach the meter, the supplier may be able to help you read it or move it. That is the route for a high box, a dark communal riser, or a disability that makes the cupboard unreasonable. It is not a ladder in a stairwell you do not own. If the intake door belongs to the landlord or the managing agent, ask them for access. Do not force a lock, and do not drill a meter box to get a photograph.
When to leave the cupboard and call
Stop the homeowner sequence if any of these apply. They are not “try a clearer photo” problems.
- You smell gas, hear a hiss you cannot place, or the carbon monoxide alarm sounds. Leave. In England, Scotland and Wales call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. In Northern Ireland call the Gas Emergency Service on 0800 002 001. Do not use electrical switches on the way out. Do not go back for the reading.
- You see smoke or flames. Leave and call 999. A directory card is not the fire service.
- The electricity meter, the cables into it, or the consumer unit is scorched, cracked, buzzing, or warm. Do not open the cover and do not pull the fuse. The meter belongs to the supplier. The consumer unit is house wiring. Tell the supplier about the meter. For the house side, use an electrician, and read the Part P notes before anyone replaces a consumer unit. Photographing digits is not notifiable work. Replacing the unit can be.
- Water is in the cupboard or on the floor around the meter. Do not stand in it and do not touch the metalwork. Kill the supply only from a dry place if you already know that switch and can reach it without crossing the water. Otherwise leave and call.
- The display is blank and the rest of the house is dark. That can be a power cut, not a failed meter. In Great Britain the power-cut line is 105. Read the meter when the supply is back. A blank screen is not a zero reading.
- You are a tenant and the only meter you can find is in a locked room you are not meant to enter. Tell the landlord what you need. Do not book a locksmith to force their door, and do not book an electrician to “get the number”.
Anyone doing gas work as a business must be on the Gas Safe Register. Reading a meter is not gas work. Breaking a seal, moving the meter, or opening a gas pipe is. Anyone doing notifiable electrical work must follow Part P. Ask to see the card that matches the job you actually described. A listing on this site that shows NICEIC, NAPIT or Gas Safe is only showing a field that is present. It is not a badge this site sells.
If you do need an electrician, say what you saw, that you did not open the meter, whether you are a tenant, and whether water or heat was involved. This site does not email the business. Open the directory — for example electrical in London or electrical in Manchester — and use the number on the card. The contact-details page only takes you to the same kind of list.
A reading is not a new tariff
Sending digits does not put you on a cheaper deal, and it does not apply the Warm Home Discount. Ofgem’s 26 August release says fixed tariffs were available at £100 or more below the October cap, and that struggling customers should talk to their supplier first. That is their statement. This page does not compare those deals, does not name a winner, and does not move your account. Newspaper figures for a January cap are forecasts. Ofgem has not published that quarter yet, so this page will not repeat them.
The electricity VAT change is also not something you apply for. Suppliers take it off qualifying domestic electricity in Great Britain from 1 October, including on many fixed deals. Gas stays taxed. None of that is altered by the photograph in your camera roll.
Turning the heating on is a different evening. The programmer, the pressure gauge and a cold room are covered in the first-fire check. A lower radiator setting on a condensing combi is the flow-temperature piece. The alarm on the wall is the carbon monoxide test. Do those if the boiler is about to run. Do not treat a meter reading as proof the heating is safe.
If the reason you are in the cupboard is a bill that still looks wrong after an actual reading, the next conversation is with the supplier, with the photograph. For pounds on a repair, use the cost notes. For a scheme that pays toward a heat pump, use the grant notes. Neither one submits a meter reading.
Questions before you open the cupboard
These answers stay inside what Ofgem and Citizens Advice have already published. They are not a quote and not an eligibility decision.
Do I need a reading if I have a smart meter? Not if it is working and your bills show actual readings. If the bill says estimated, or the meter has stopped sending, treat it as a traditional meter and submit the index on the meter itself. The handheld display’s “spent today” figure is not that index.
I am on a fixed tariff. Do I still read the meter before Thursday? The 1 October rise does not reset a fixed tariff’s unit rates. Send a reading if your bills are still estimated, so the supplier stops guessing. You are not racing Thursday to beat the cap. The electricity VAT cut is separate and should appear without a form.
What if I miss 1 October? Send the reading as soon as you can and keep the photograph, including the date. How late a supplier will still split September from October is on their form, not on this page. Do not invent digits so the number matches an old estimate.
Is this the same job as turning the heating on? No. This page ends when the supplier has your digits. The first-fire guide starts at the programmer. A reading does not light the boiler, bleed a radiator, or test an alarm.
Will this site send the reading or call a tradesperson? No. You send the reading on your supplier’s own form. If the cupboard is scorched or standing in water, you open an electrical list and place the call yourself. If you smell gas, use 0800 111 999 in Great Britain or 0800 002 001 in Northern Ireland.
Need a number because the cupboard is unsafe?
Open electrical, pick the city, and contact the business yourself. For a gas smell, use the emergency number instead of a directory card.