Other than for possible buyers, is there a good reason to leave the AC and three ceiling fans on in a vacant home in Baltimore?
I'm working at home now and could go over and turn the AC on an hour before buyer shows up (if they know in advance).
Or if the AC runs, shouldn't they turn off the fans so the hot air from the ceiling isn't breought down to the thermostat and doesn't make the AC run even more?
My friend is selling the home and it make take weeks or months, and that's a lot of electicity and money wasted afaict.
Since it's going to be closed up (the house) won't it get smelly or musty and turn off buyers? You could leave the AC on or have a timed thermostat. Then set the temp higher. When you know a buyer will show up, go over and lower the temp.
If it were me, I'd run the AC in hopes of not turning off buyers. And you'll impress them with the coolness in the summertime.
If possible, I would suggest disabling all utilites.
We just had vandals/squatters do about $30k worth of damage to one of our homes. Most of it was from water damage, but the electric bill proved that they were making use of that as well.
Baltimore can be hot and humid. I'd set the AC to about 80 so it never gets overly hot and turn it down to 75 when the agent calls.
The ceiling fans help by keeping air moving so people feel a little cooler and the rooms are evenly heated and cooled. Not such a big deal for people walking through so I'd leave them off.
Ever heard of this contraption called an electronic security system? You don't even have to have a POTS line for them to call for help these days. Never leave a house unattended and not have a security system. I'm sure a security system would have cost a lot less than $30k.
I have a similar situation in more or less the same area. I leave my AC on at about 80. As others have pointed out, that helps with the humidity. And trust me, you don't want people wondering if that a humid musty smell equals mold. I've known people to keep the house as cool as if they were living there, but I'd like to think that potential buyers would realize that there is a reason it's not that temp. (Plus they'll be coming in from outdoors, so it'll feel a little cool to them).
That said, I've heard horror stories of potential buyers cranking up the AC to see if it works and then leaving it run, and the owner didn't realize it was set to frigid for a week! So there may be something to be said for a programmable thermostat. BGE has a program where they install their own thermostat that lets them turn it off periodically, but that apparently also allows you to access the thermostat online, so the owner could just (it sounds like) dial in and cool it off for a house showing, or reset it to a known number if you know someone was there. For now, I've just stuck a post-it note on the way out to the effect of "if you tested the AC, please remember to reset it" and made a small mark on the thermostat so they know where it was set. FWIW, I don't run the ceiling fans, but have gone to check on the house and found them running.
Here in Birmingham, the Southeast US one, you leave a house vacant and the AC unit will be gone or shredded within a few days. Later, all the wiring, copper pipes and fixtures will be carted off by the metal termites.
lol That wouldn't be of much help in this particular situation. This house was way up in the mountains, and the only cops that can get there are the ones with 4-wheel-drive vehicles, and there are only 2 of those units at the local police department.
Also, the unmarked maze of roads around that area makes it hard for most people to find the place. When we arrived and saw the damage for the first time, we called the cops, and they couldn't even find the place, even though we gave them the specific address. Considering that we had to go down to the nearest intersection and personally lead the cop up the where the property was, I don't think any alarm system is going to intimidate local vandals and theives.
The only security system that would do any good up there is one that used some sort of autogun to shoot trespassers. But then we'd risk killing our prospective buyers. :(
For some reason, he even took parts of his new house's alarm out. He said that metal tape on windows was obsolete, but he didn't replace it with anything. I'm seeing a whole new side of the guy.
I don't know if they thought of that. I didn't think of it. I guess I will have to remind them.
That would be bad. It's a very nice n'hood and so far the house looks like it did when they left.
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