Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.

On Jul 2, 3:42�pm, mm wrote:
Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.

I would leave the AC on set at say 80 degrees, to dehumidify. i weould
leave cieling fans off they just add heat load to a empty building

mm wrote:

Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.

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.

"mm" wrote in message
...
Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.



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.

ShadowTek wrote:
mm wrote:

Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.

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.

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.

TDD

On Jul 2, 11:10�pm, The Daring Dufas
wrote:
ShadowTek wrote:
mm wrote:

Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.

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.

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.

TDD- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

or a observant neighbor.........

if the home has a working phone line its probably possible to rig up a
remote temperature controller to drop temp when realtors are coming

mm wrote:
Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home

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.


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.

bob haller wrote:
On Jul 2, 11:10�pm, The Daring Dufas
wrote:
ShadowTek wrote:
mm wrote:
Leaving AC/Fans on in vacant home
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.
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.
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.

TDD- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

or a observant neighbor.........

if the home has a working phone line its probably possible to rig up a
remote temperature controller to drop temp when realtors are coming

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.

TDD

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.



yeah that happened to family in phoenix, stole all the copper ripped
the wiring right out of the walls, even took the nain breaker panel

vacant homes are a bad idea, better to let someone live there rent
free till its sold.

has the OP notified their insurance company? rates will go up by 5
times or more, but if you dont tell them they can disown all claims.

kid torches home no coverage...

The Daring Dufas wrote:

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.

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.

bob haller wrote:

I'm sure a security system would
have cost a lot less than $30k.

TDD- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

or a observant neighbor.........

There aren't any other homes within sight range of the property. It's an
isolated area.

The Daring Dufas wrote:

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.

The haven't touched the copper or AC units (yet). Fortunately, the price
of copper went back down, so those kinds of thefts have dropped as well.

The *did* take the wood stove though.

On Fri, 3 Jul 2009 05:10:04 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:



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.



yeah that happened to family in phoenix, stole all the copper ripped
the wiring right out of the walls, even took the nain breaker panel

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.

vacant homes are a bad idea, better to let someone live there rent
free till its sold.

has the OP notified their insurance company? rates will go up by 5
times or more, but if you dont tell them they can disown all claims.

I don't know if they thought of that. I didn't think of it. I guess
I will have to remind them.

kid torches home no coverage...

That would be bad. It's a very nice n'hood and so far the house looks
like it did when they left.

Thanks to all of you for all your advice.