Where the hell can I find my meter readings?

[fefuoi]

Yes I should know this. New house, on my own and at wits end

Do you mean finding the actual meters or how to work them if they're smart meters?

You mean the meters themselves? Cupboard under sink, cupboard under stairs, basement if you have one, airing cupboard?

They won’t provide smart meters. The company is saying they can’t bill me without my readings but I literally can’t see them. I can only find water that’s it. The boiler is in the garage? I don’t even know what they would look like

Not in one of those recessed boxes on an outside wall are they?

New, new house, or new to you? Most new houses have the meters outside the front in a box with a white door, maybe on the ground?

If it's a gas boiler is there a visible pipe leading from it to the meter box? I can see the pipe from mine down the outside of my block of flats, though not sure if houses would have them hidden or visible.

If it's an old house but new to you, meters may be in the cupboard under the stairs.
Ask a neighbour?

They've been outside the front door or under the stairs in the houses I have lived in.

Google ‘what do electricity meters look like’, have a scan through the images and then go search inside and outside your house - look in places like cupboard under the stairs / under sinks etc. outside, look for plastic box type things attached to wall and/or little mini sheds , perhaps on the perimeter of your property.

Do you have a white plastic box outside the house? Might well be in there. If not Google image search electric and gas meters do you know what you are looking for - or ask the previous owner.

They look like this. Newer ones might have a digital display.

My electric meter is like a box on outside of house and gas meter is a box on ground that you press 2 buttons to get readings. I always end up peering on ground with my glasses taking gas one.
My house is 16 yrs old.
Hope that helps, if not I’m sure someone else can assist you.

In a cupboard somewhere - check them all. It might be a box with a lcd screen on it, or it might have lots of little dials on it.

They're often high up, but if it's an older hose they may not be - mine is at floor leven under a shelf in a cupboard, I have to lie on the floor to see it.

Sometimes they're by the front door.

I also lived somewhere that had had a false ceiling put in, those squares you get in offices, and the meter and consumer unit (fuse board) was above the ceiling.

Chances are your electricity meter will be near your fuse box.

How does someone make it to adulthood and not know what a meter looks like?!

Have you found your electrical fuse board/ consumer unit yet? My meters are located with this high on the wall in the garage. Boiler in garage too.

Assuming you bought the house does it say where they are in the information - the detailed forms the sellers fill out specifying any works done recently, what they are leaving etc. If not can you ask the estate agents or your solicitor to ask theirs?

My electric meter is indoors next to my boiler and very near the fuse box. My gas meter is on the outside wall of the same wall that the boiler is on. There is a white box on the outside wall that needs a rectangular key to open to access the gas meter. You can buy the keys cheaply online

So check your garage for a meter and check your outside walls too for a plastic box with pipes coming out

How old is the house? post 1980s should be in a plastic box on the exterior wall. You may need a triangular key to open the panel. Otherwise often under the stairs or by the fuse box.

I would check the cupboard under the stairs, and if not there walk the perimeter of the house looking for a box. All else fails, ask the neighbours where theirs are if there's someone with a similar era house!!

If your boiler is in the garage then your meter(s) might be close to it too. Either on the outside or the inside of the wall