EXO 1745–248 is a transient neutron-star low-mass X-ray binary that resides in the globular cluster Terzan 5 . We studied the transient during its quiescent state using 18 Chandra observations of the cluster acquired between 2003 and 2016 . We found an extremely variable source , with a luminosity variation in the 0.5–10 keV energy range of \sim 3 orders of magnitude ( between 3 \times 10 ^ { 31 } erg s ^ { -1 } and 2 \times 10 ^ { 34 } erg s ^ { -1 } ) on timescales from years down to only a few days . Using an absorbed power-law model to fit its quiescent spectra , we obtained a typical photon index of \sim 1.4 , indicating that the source is even harder than during outburst and much harder than typical quiescent neutron stars if their quiescent X-ray spectra are also described by a single power-law model . This indicates that EXO 1745–248 is very hard throughout the entire observed X-ray luminosity range . At the highest luminosity , the spectrum fits better when an additional ( soft ) component is added to the model . All these quiescent properties are likely related to strong variability in the low-level accretion rate in the system . However , its extreme variable behavior is strikingly different from the one observed for other neutron star transients that are thought to still accrete in quiescence . We compare our results to these systems . We also discuss similarities and differences between our target and the transitional millisecond pulsar IGR J18245–2452 , which also has hard spectra and strong variability during quiescence .