Two businesses sharing a building. how to split utilities?

I run a martial art school on the top floor and my husband runs a recording studio in the bottom. We each have a business partner and use the building for long periods of time using air conditioning and electricty. What is the best way to price utilities since this is a shared bill? I have thought about hour per usage and have everyone keep track but was curious what other ideas there were out there.

Two businesses sharing a building. how to split utilities?
There are many ways to allocate the cost, none of which is perfect. Hours of usage is probably among the poorest. The air conditioning may be running while the business is not open. The recording studio probably has more power consuming equipment than a martial arts school.





The best approach would be to have the power company install two meters, one for each business, but that may involve a complicated rewiring cost and possibly installation of a separate air conditioning system. The cost may be more than the benefit. You could also take an inventory of the power consuming items in each business: light fixtures, computers, equipment, and appliances. Then allocate the cost in proportion to the kilowatt rating of each business. You could assume the air conditioner benefits each business an equal amount and split its cost, while allocating the rest of the bill based on the proportion of equipment used by each.





An inventory may tell you that the difference in accuracy is too small to worry about and that a 50/50 split of the cost is just as good as a more complicated computation. If AC is the major cost of power, the bill could be split on the basis of cubic feet of space each business occupies.