I thought lighting, water heater, well pump might still cause a charge. Didn't really think of the temp. Thanks.

When I was done updating (we'd moved), I still wanted heat, air, water, cheerful lights both for the security of the house and the neighbors comfort...the house needed to appear comfortable and welcoming to potential buyers. I did set the heat at a bit lower than I would have had it had we been living there. Called our garbage company and tried to cancel that service and wasn't allowed to...the best they could offer was a vacation package for no pickups of garbage or recycling, temporary. In this community, the city requires garbage service to any house that has water service....one cannot be cancelled without the other.

Salti - FWIW, I had the highest monthly electrical bill in a home I lived in for 20 years when it was vacant and on the market. I would drive by and find all the lights on and the AC system set at it's lowest setting. This happened multiple times.

That said, ellusionz, you don't want people at your circuit box turning power on and off.

"But I was wondering to save on bills during the sale process, would it be bad to request to keep the circuit breaker turned off between potential buyers? "

This is really a dumb idea. How much do you think you will save?

Swap your thermostat out to a wifi-enabled one. Then you can control the temps remotely.

Weedyacres has a good idea, but you do need internet to connect to for that to work.

The OP never said that someone left the lights on or the a/c too low. He was specific about a future event to prevent anyone from turning down the a/c or leaving the lights on. However, I agree with your conclusion SaltiDawg, if the OP decides to put his house on the market and he finds that the lights are left on or the a/c is too low, contact his broker so the Realtor can get it to stop. We do this through a variety of methods: broker notes, showing instructions, signs on site and if none of that is successful, the listing agent will accompany the agent during showings.

We put our house on the market after we moved out. Frequently there would be lights left on after showings. If my realtor had an open usually everything would be turned off. If it was some other realtor doing a showing things were left on. I can't imagine how my realtor would control those people though I could have asked him to go over there after every showing and turn the lights off.

Since the house wasn't that far away I ended up going over there any day there was a showing to make sure the lights were off. I was still going through some stuff and moving small things so it wasn't a total waste of time. Fortunately the place sold in about three weeks so I didn't have to do this for long.

It happens all the time. I see homes for sale that I know are not occupied and the outside lights are left on for days. However I wouldn't turn the breakers off and on. If you can't get a realtor to turn the lights off I can't imagine they'd be able to handle that. I did make sure my water was turned off however and it was left off.

"Since the house wasn't that far away I ended up going over there any day there was a showing to make sure the lights were off."

Oh for crying out loud. If you found the lights on (or other issue such as toilets not flushed) you call your Realtor. He or she needs to address the issue by contacting the Broker for the offending Realtor.

Read the posts above for some of the steps available. To wash your hands of the issue as something your realtor can not control does the industry a disservice, to say the least!

My house is also vacant and has a well. We turned the heat down to 60. We turned the breaker off to the water heater, since no one would be using the hot water. We left the circuit breaker to the well on because if someone flushed or washed their hands you'd want the well pump to fill the pressure tank back up.

My bill has been running about $60 per month with the heat at 60, the fridge still running, and lights on a timer.

salti - it wasn't that big of a deal. Like I said, I had stuff to do there anyway, it was the middle of winter and I also checked to make sure there were no furnace problems - something that wasn't my realtor's responsibility. I think it was a total of three showings before it sold. Had it dragged on I probably would have followed up with my realtor but under the circumstances I didn't get my undies in a bundle over it.