By Eric Willden · RoomRentalsHQ

Utilities in a Room Rental: Electric Caps, Overages and Budgeting

Utilities are where a room rental quietly makes or loses money, especially in a Texas summer.

Include them, with a cap

Rent includes WiFi and utilities, so tenants get one simple price. Electric is included up to a cap per house. That keeps people from running the AC at 65° all August.

Splitting overages

If the bill goes over the cap, I split the overage evenly and round it. It's usually about $10–20 each. I email everyone a snippet of the bill and the math, and it's added to next month's rent. Small overages often aren't worth chasing.

Budgeting

• I used to plan about $50 per tenant per month for electric. Now it's about $75.
• Budget for the yearly average. Cheap winter months offset the summer spikes.
• Revisit your cap as rates go up. I'm raising mine.

The fine print

My lease says "no 24/7 PC usage." That means no servers and no crypto mining. One tenant running a mining rig can wreck your electric bill.