Reading your energy bill is the first step towards becoming energy efficient. But even for grown ups, those bills can be difficult to understand because they are filled with terms and phrases that we don’t use everyday.

Here is a cheat sheet that Cypher put together to help de-code your energy bill. Read it together with your parent to become aware of how much energy you are using at home every month.

Ampere (AMP) A unit of measurement that tells how much electricity flows through a conductor. Amps = watts divided by volts. On a 120-volt systems, 12 100-watt bulbs draw 10 amps of electric current

Btu (British Thermal Unit) The amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. A kitchen match has about one Btu of energy.

Btu Factor The standard for measuring a quantity of heat energy. This factor may vary slightly from month to month.

CCF A unit of measurement, usually for natural gas. One CCF = 100 cubic feet.

Current Charges A total of the natural gas or electric charges for the account for the current month. If there are multiple service addresses or meters related to this account, this amount is a sum of all of the charges.

Customer Charge A fixed monthly charge to cover part of the expenses incurred to deliver energy to your home.

Gas Pressure Factor This unit adjusts the meter reading to compensate for the delivery pressure of natural gas.

kW A unit of electrical power equal to 1,000 watts.

kWh (Kilowatt Hour) The basic unit for pricing electricity. A kilowatt-hour is equivalent to one kilowatt of power used for one hour. One kWh equals 1,000 watt-hours and is the equivalent of 3,412 Btu’s of energy.

Mcf One thousand cubic feet, generally of natural gas.

Meter Read The reading from your meter for the current month and the reading for the previous month. The difference is used to calculate your energy usage for the month.

MMBtu One million Btu’s. It is equal to approximately 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas — enough energy to bring 800 gallons of water to a boil, or heat up 12,800 cups of coffee.

Supply Cost/ PGA, GCR, ECA, ICA This might appear on your bill if there was an adjustment or rate change due to additional costs for purchasing energy from suppliers. You might see it on your bill as PGA, GCR, ECA or ICA, depending on which state you live in.

Therm A unit of heating value equal to 100,000 Btu’s.

Watt The basic unit for measuring volume of electricity. Technically, it’s the power produced by a current of one ampere across a potential difference of one volt.