How to Split Electricity Bills Between Tenants (With Formula)
Many rental properties in India — especially shops, floors of a house, or units sharing a single connection — don't have individual electricity meters per tenant. Instead, a sub-meter tracks each tenant's usage against one main bill. Splitting that fairly is simple once you know the formula.
The formula
For each tenant's sub-meter:
Amount owed = Units consumed × Rate per unit
Worked example
Say a tenant's sub-meter read 1240 last month and 1358 this month, and your rate is ₹8 per unit (based on your last electricity board bill divided by total units consumed across all meters):
- Units consumed: 1358 − 1240 = 118 units
- Amount owed: 118 × ₹8 = ₹944
Working out the rate per unit
If you're billed once for the whole building, divide that bill by the total units consumed across all sub-meters for the period to get a fair per-unit rate. Apply that same rate to every tenant's individual consumption.
Doing this every month by hand
This is easy once, painful every month — especially across multiple tenants and properties. Most landlords end up with the same spreadsheet column copy-pasted for years, with the rate manually updated whenever the electricity board's slab changes.