These dials from left to right, measure kilowatt-hours (kWh) by the thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. A kilowatt-hour is the electricity needed to burn ten 100-watt light bulbs for one hour. Some meters have four dials, some have five dials and some may even have six dials on the face of a meter. Each dial has 10 numbers and a pointer. Every other dial is numbered counterclockwise. The hands follow the direction of the numbers and advance only when you are using electricity.