Hi, my electricity bills are a bit on the heavy side, almost £200 per month!!! I do have a biggish salon but its not a hugely busy salon. My last salon was smaller but the electricity bills were nothing like this one. How do your bills compare as another salon owner?

Dont bloody talk to me about electric bills (lol !!), mines just come through and its £700 per month !!! Needless to say as my salon has two rooms in total they are coming to check the meter. We had to track the readings over a seven day period and on the last day it went backwards !! However, the wonderful scottishpower, endlessly helpful (NOT!) are charging us £50 for them to come and check THEIR meter !! The worlds gone mad !! We have a good friend who is an electrician, if you do get them to have a look at your salon ie. how many lights, equipment etc and they will roughly be able to work out what electric each piece would use. You can also get a meter that can check how much you are using (you would need to ask an electrician, thats upto my limit !!). We have a busy hairdressers near us, same size and very busy they pay 200 per quarter. Its prob wrong, keep a reading and ring them up. £200 seems excessive but without seeing the salon I cant really comment !! x

The price of electricity (as with most things) has rocketed up of late. I would check - either on your bill, or by phoning your provider as to how much you are paying per unit (Kilowatt/hr). Then have a look at your bill again for your last meter reading and your current reading. It's vital you make sure it is an acurate reading and not an "estimate". An estimated reading will generally be marked with an "E" next to the figure.

We have a fairly large salon (around 1000sq ft) with various areas,and rooms. We pay around £150/£180 per month based on being open 6 days per week.

Saying that we used to pay 9p per kilowatt hour, and we've just been informed that it will be jumping up to 14p, so I guess we'll be looking for a new supplier. That said they are all much the same price as their rates are dictated by the wholesale price.

If you have electric heaters in the salon I think it's a fair assumption to say that is where your money is going is going I'm afraid.......

Welcome to Rip Off Britain 2008.....

Yes mines 13p, its getting stupid isnt it !! Definitely make sure its an actual not an estimate, unfortunately mine were both actual readings !

Update !!!! Scottish power have said they have read the meter wrong and put a 2 instead of a 1, ONLY 10,000 units different so are re-sending the bill - phew !!! Hope you get yours sorted !! Keep us informed. x

hi all and thanks for the input. I took over my shop in December 2007, the previous owner was with a company called Opus energy. I had never heard of them but it seemed easier to just stay with them!!! Well I didn't realise that I was signing myself up with a lengthy contract over the phone. A verbal contract for 3yrs. The first bill in the January 2008 was for £400, I nearly fainted. I have made lots of changes, ie timer on the dryer and using the washing line when the weather is good etc etc. But what I dont get is the huge difference from my former business. And why do we have to pay a different rate with our electricity than the domestic rate??? Its not like we are using factory sized premises so why are we being penalised for running a small business? I can't understand why we are targeted by everything, even down to having to spend a fortune to have our bins emptied when we pay large business rates etc etc etc. Sorry but just having a right moan.

My husband has just changed from Scottish Energy to E4B (Energy for Business) on the recommendation of a business friend. He hasn't had the first bill yet, but expects to save about a third. If all goes to plan, I'll change my salon to E4B too. I'll keep you posted............

Did the previous owner pay off the final bill in full? It's worth checking through all your statements to make sure that you're not paying over the odds to clear their bill.

This happened to me some time ago when I rented a shop for another non-beauty business. The leccy was in arrears by about £800 & the energy company tried to get me to pay it. Wasn't having any of that!