Electricity Bill Calculator
Calculate your monthly electricity bill with state-wise slab tariffs for Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, and more.
About the Electricity Bill Calculator
Electricity bills in India use a slab-based tariff system where higher consumption is charged at progressively higher rates. Unlike a flat rate, each unit you consume is priced at the rate of whichever slab it falls in - not the highest slab you reach. This means consuming 201 units costs disproportionately more than 200 units because those extra units cross into a higher-rate slab. Understanding your state's tariff structure - and exactly how close you are to the next slab threshold - helps you make smarter decisions about when to run heavy appliances, whether to invest in solar, and where to focus your energy-saving efforts.
BEE star ratings (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) are the single most actionable number on any appliance label. A 5-star air conditioner uses 30-50% less electricity per hour than a 2-star unit of the same capacity. For a household that runs a 1.5-ton AC 8 hours a day in summer, upgrading from 2-star to 5-star can reduce annual units by 600-800 kWh - worth ₹3,000-6,000 in bill savings per year depending on your state's tariff. When appliances account for 80% of your bill, upgrading smartly is the highest-return investment available.
Solar rooftop systems interact with the grid through net metering - excess generation exported to the grid is credited on your bill at the buy-back rate set by your DISCOM (typically 50-75% of retail tariff). A 3 kW rooftop system in a sun-rich state like Rajasthan or Gujarat generates 350-420 units/month, which can keep a typical household in the free or heavily subsidised slab permanently. The slab alert in this calculator shows exactly how many units away you are from the next rate jump - the most actionable number for both conservation decisions and solar sizing.
Electricity Bill Calculation
Energy Charge = Sum of (Units in each slab x slab rate) | Total Bill = Energy Charge + Fixed Charge + Meter Rent + Electricity Duty
Slabs are cumulative ranges - each range is charged at that slab's rate, not all units at the highest slab rate | Electricity Duty = 5-16% depending on state
Worked Example
Karnataka (BESCOM): 250 units consumed
0-30 units: free | 31-100 units: 70 x 4.90 = 343 | 101-200 units: 100 x 6.80 = 680 | 201-250 units: 50 x 7.95 = 397.50 | Fixed charge: 50 | Energy total: ~1,470 | With duty: ~1,560
Tips & Insights
- 1
Air conditioning is typically 50-70% of a household's electricity bill in summer. A 5-star 1.5-ton split AC uses ~900 units in 5 months vs 1,400 units for a 2-star.
- 2
Setting your AC to 24 degrees instead of 20 degrees saves ~24% energy. The BEE recommends 24 degrees as the ideal setting.
- 3
LED bulbs use 75-80% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 25 times longer. Replacing 10 bulbs saves 80-100 units/month.
- 4
Refrigerators run 24x7. An old 5-star fridge from 2005 may use 50% more power than a current 5-star model due to improved compressor technology.
- 5
Solar rooftop panels generate 90-120 units/kW/month. A 3 kW system in Karnataka can offset 270-360 units - enough to stay in the free/subsidized slab.
- 6
Check your DISCOM's net metering policy: exported units (excess solar) are credited at buy-back rate (typically 50-75% of retail rate). Model the payback period using your current bill as the baseline.
- 7
EV owners should track charging impact separately. Charging a 30 kWh battery from empty adds 30 units to your bill - at ₹7/unit in the upper slab, that is ₹210 per charge. Charging at off-peak hours (11 PM - 6 AM) costs the same per unit but keeps your daily peak demand lower, which can reduce demand charges on commercial connections.
Why this matters for you
India has over 300 million electricity connections, and for most middle-class households, electricity is the second-largest monthly utility expense after cooking gas. A household spending ₹3,000/month on electricity that reduces consumption by 20% saves ₹7,200/year - and ₹36,000 over 5 years. The slab system amplifies these savings: cutting 20 units near a slab boundary can reduce your effective rate-per-unit across all units, not just the ones you cut.
The opacity of the Indian electricity bill is a real problem. Most bills show only the total with a breakdown that is hard to parse, leaving consumers unable to identify which appliances are driving their costs. This calculator makes the slab structure transparent: you can see exactly which units fall in which rate band, what your average cost per unit is, and how close you are to the next rate jump. That visibility is the starting point for any meaningful reduction.
Long-term, the two biggest decisions for electricity costs are appliance selection (BEE star ratings) and solar investment. Both decisions benefit from knowing your current consumption pattern and effective cost per unit. A family in the 201-500 unit slab paying ₹8-9/unit has a very different solar payback calculation than one consuming 80 units/month in the subsidised slab. This calculator gives you the cost baseline to evaluate both decisions with real numbers rather than approximations.
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