The time has come and you are ready to take your house to the market. The last thing you want to do, however, is hurt your profits by racking up an exorbitant energy bill while showing your property to potential buyers.

Here are a few tips and tricks on how you can save energy when showing houses on the market.

Fluctuating Prices

Many people don’t know that some electricity providers charge different rates at different hours due to what they call “off-peak periods,” when a smaller amount of people require energy.

Typical off-peak hours range from holidays to weekends, and include weekdays from approximately 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., when prices vary up to 40 percent. Take advantage of those time periods and schedule a majority of your appointments then.   

Air Conditioning

If you are showing your property during the summer, you will most certainly want to use air conditioning to provide a pleasant experience inside the house. However, if you do so, make sure to check the filters and Freon coolant levels in all of your AC units ahead of time.

If filters are old or dirty and if Freon coolant levels are low, they can cause air conditioners to “cycle” and use up more energy. If you happen to have old models installed, you might even want to consider investing into new AC units altogether – especially one labeled ENERGY STAR– because newer models are in most cases much more energy-efficient and could make for a great “added value” selling point for your house.

Light Dimmer Switches

In many cases, lights play an important role during a walk-through with potential buyers. They can add beautiful accents and provide an extra “wow” factor to make the property look nicer than if it was just lit by natural light.

So take advantage of light dimmer switches, which not only help to “set the mood,” but can also save energy because dimming lights reduces wattage and output. This can actually save you up to 28% in energy and extend your light bulb’s life span

Motion-Activated Lights 

Speaking of lights, another way to control the energy output of your indoor lights is to install “occupancy sensors,” which are devices that detect activity – e.g. sound through ultrasonic sensors or heat and motion through infrared sensors – and only turn on the lights as long as there is on-going activity.

After people exit the room and no more movement or sound can be detected, all lights connected to the sensor will be switched off . This type of sensor can be especially convenient for rooms with task lighting applications (e.g. kitchen counters) and rooms you often times enter with your hands full (e.g. laundry room).

In addition to saving energy, the effect of occupancy sensors can be very impressive to people who don’t know about them, which is most, and can help increase the quality of your presentation. Also, who wouldn’t want the convenience of having the lights switched on automatically when you enter the dark basement or laundry room? This could be another great selling point.

LED Light Bulbs

Finally, when it comes to lights and saving energy, you should definitely consider installing LEDs instead of traditional incandescent light bulbs. That’s because, to light up the same room a 45 watt incandescent light bulb would, LEDs use only 2-17 watts in comparison.

They can, in many cases, be even brighter than incandescent bulbs, which comes in handy when you are presenting your property during the day and want to add those extra highlights all around the house.

Pointing out all of the energy saving features from above to your potential buyers could help make that final convincing argument to close the deal, since everyone likes to save money and lower their energy bills. If you have time, you could even prepare a financial chart that shows how much money your buyers will save in the long run.

One final tip: In addition to all the tips and tricks above, check out Homeselfe’s mobile app, which not only creates a nifty digital mock-up of your home, but also guides you through key areas that could help you lower energy bills.