After a year on the market we have finally managed to sell our house! This means we can move on with the next stage of our plans to build/renovate our next home.

Due to the length of time it took to sell, it has meant we have missed out on a couple of plots we quite fancied due to not being able to commit to buy. So to make sure we are in a good position to move quickly we have decided to rent until we find the right place to buy.

Through a mum's school gates conversation we have been fortunate to be offered an old farmhouse to rent on a short term basis just a mile from where we currently live. It is an old house at a very reasonable rent. However I have been told that the current tenants pay £500 a quarter for electricity! That must be on a par with Blackpool illuminations!

Granted it is a big house – 6 beds, 3 receptions, 5 bathrooms but the central heating and cooking is mains gas. The only electricity consumption should be lights and appliances.

Is this a reasonable consumption for the family of 6 that currently live there? Or would you suspect that there must be a dodgy appliance using a ridiculous amount of power?

Our current 4 bed home also uses gas for heating and cooking and we only pay £55 per month for electricity. We have energy efficient appliances and lights and don't leave anything on stand by.

UK average electric consumptions around 5000 Kw/h/year
I have customers with electric bills of £150 a month for similar size houses , but they have little interest in energy efficiency or energy saving
Perhaps the previous tenants were the human versions of tumble dryers
maybe there's electic underfloor heating in the kitchen or bathrooms , another big consumer of leccy
or they used plug-in electric heater ?
One good thing about electric is you can turn it off, I'm sure with a bit of common sense you'll have no trouble
keeping your bills similar to your previous property
you could change all the bulbs to cfl then take them with you when you go

Why not drive by one evening and see how many lights are on? I don't think it is unlikely that a family of six could easily light it up like Crystal Palace!

Maria

It's surprising how much power computers burn if you leave those on 24/7. Each one can be the equivalent of four to six 50W light bulbs.

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: StuartB</cite>
Maybe - the guy is a software developer and works from home. Thinking about it now this may explain the consumption.</blockquote>

Nah! A software developer wouldn't need over 36 kWh day or 1.5kW continous. (£500 / £0.15 per unit = 3,333 kWh /qtr) About the average annual consumption which last time I looked was 3,300.

It would be easy to get to this figure though with say 4 PCs left on screensavers (400W) , 2 sky boxes (50W) + TVs (150W) + Games consoles ( 50W) , 10x50w halogen/tungsten lights (500W), etc.

That or they have auxillary electric heating in some rooms and electric showers.

Well finally moved in and I think I may have got to the bottom of the problem. The other night I replace 14 100 w bulbs with some 60w cfl's that use 11w each. Thats a reduction in consumption of 89% if my maths is correct just on the lighting alone.

We have also moved our A rated appliances in and leave nothing on standy by so will be interesting to see what the bill will be. We don't pay a standing charge either as this is picked up by the main part of the farm so should be cheap as chips!

No EPC - we are renting from friends and doing each other a favour in terms of keeping the place occupied and a very favourable rent until we find our next place to buy.