# Saving money on DEWA Bills



## Ross G (Feb 9, 2016)

Hi all,

Apart from the obvious stuff on the DEWA website of switching lights and a/c off etc when not needed, can anyone provide any real practical guidance on making savings on the electricity and water bills? 

As Tesco says 'every little helps'.

thanks.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Ross G said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Apart from the obvious stuff on the DEWA website of switching lights and a/c off etc when not needed, can anyone provide any real practical guidance on making savings on the electricity and water bills?
> 
> ...


Hi,
A/C is by far the biggest expense - so in the summer months - send the wife out to work and don't let her stay in all day with the A/C on!
Get acclimatized to the heat as soon as you can - so that you can turn up the thermostat a few degrees each week, rather than leaving it on 21/22 degrees (which most Europeans consider to be a comfortable temperature). Here, you should be looking at 24/25 degrees as the setting, if you want to save money.
Convert all lamps to LED (warm white 2700K) - especially 50W halogen spotlights.
Cheers
Steve


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

Rent the cheapest apartment you can find - as mentioned before on the other thread, for a good part of the year your housing tax will be the largest element of your bill.

Sorry, a little harsh - but in the scheme of things your utilities won't be able to be massively effected whilst continuing to live in an tolerable environment.

Don't forget about the potential for separate cooling bills, some locations have these - others don't.


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Live in an apartment instead of a villa.

Most apartments in Dubai are "chiller free," meaning you don't pay a penny for air conditioning. 

One of the big consumers of electricity is having multiple TVs and computer screens on. Apparently a large screen TV consumes much more electricity than a smaller TV. So don't just leave the TV on for the sake of having it on the way some people do.

And, as Steve said, let yourself acclimitise to the heat. I know people who have the a/c running in their cars all year round and they are the ones who always suffer in the summer.


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

TallyHo said:


> I know people who have the a/c running in their cars all year round and they are the ones who always suffer in the summer.


I keep my car A/C on all year - if only to reduce the water content of the cabin - it helps.

But saying that, I don't suffer in the summer and the apartment's set at 25c at its lowest.


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## Edino (Sep 22, 2013)

Converting normal lamps to energy saving and LED in this country does not show on your bill when living in a villa. The AC is the single big elec spender here. However, its still good practice to avoid using normal lights and halogen.

95% of the consumption in our 4 bedroom Villa is AC related. Ensuring to keep doors closed, and gaps sealed during summer is the first step. 2nd, instead of 23c, put the AC on25c. It shaved nearly 1000aed of our high-summer bill of over 5000aed. Also keeping off all exhaust fans off as much as possible, will save you good bucks (several hundreds of aed's)


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## Chocoholic (Oct 29, 2012)

You can do the old, stick a brick in the cistern of your toilets to reduce the amount of water used there.


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## Roxtec Blue (Jan 14, 2013)

Chocoholic said:


> You can do the old, stick a brick in the cistern of your toilets to reduce the amount of water used there.


Ditch the Elizabethan lawn and go with the plastic grass and hard landscaping.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Edino said:


> Converting normal lamps to energy saving and LED in this country does not show on your bill when living in a villa. The AC is the single big elec spender here. However, its still good practice to avoid using normal lights and halogen.
> 
> 95% of the consumption in our 4 bedroom Villa is AC related. Ensuring to keep doors closed, and gaps sealed during summer is the first step. 2nd, instead of 23c, put the AC on25c. It shaved nearly 1000aed of our high-summer bill of over 5000aed. Also keeping off all exhaust fans off as much as possible, will save you good bucks (several hundreds of aed's)


Hi,
It does actually make quite a difference if your ceiling has 20 of the 50w halogen lamps and you convert them to 4w LED lamps.
This is because you are not only reducing the lamp consumption from 1000w to 80w - you are also reducing the heat in the room caused by those inefficient, hot halogen lamps - which reduces the load on the A/C by a further 900w approx.
Cheers
Steve


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## ttdubai (Dec 28, 2015)

Check for leakages _*regularly*_!!!

My irrigation system in the garden had a leakage and was pumping around 100,000 (one hundred thousand) liters of water into the ground before I noticed.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

I'm in a "chiller" apartment, my DEWA bill runs about 830 a month, 500 of which is tax. I can be gone for weeks at a time with AC and everything else off (except the fridge, the AC fan should cost SOMETHING?) or here full time with AC on 20C 24/7 and see little to no difference in my bill.


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Are you in a district cooling scheme or a chiller-free apartment?

If you're paying for AC you'd be paying via a separate bill, not DEWA. The bill would be from your district cooling company. 

If you're not paying separately for air conditioning then you're in a "chiller-free" building and the a/c is paid for by the landlord via his maintenance fees and a/c usage is not metered separately from the rest of the building. 



XDoodle****** said:


> I'm in a "chiller" apartment, my DEWA bill runs about 830 a month, 500 of which is tax. I can be gone for weeks at a time with AC and everything else off (except the fridge, the AC fan should cost SOMETHING?) or here full time with AC on 20C 24/7 and see little to no difference in my bill.


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## Dave-o (Aug 23, 2015)

I'm in a district cooling apartment and usage doesn't seem to make that much difference - 

July/ August:
DEWA: 800 AED/month
Cooling: 470 - 480 AED/month, set to 21C in summer

January/ February:
DEWA: 760 - 770 AED/month
Cooling: 390 AED/month, haven't turned the aircon on at all in the winter.

The vast majority of the bills are made up of housing charge and it's not worth having a crappy nights sleep sweating my 'taters of all night for the sake of saving 30 AED/ month in the peak of summer. 

OP, if money is that tight, you're better off moving to a an apartment than a villa to save thousands a month rather than sweating the small stuff and worrying about saving tens of dirhams here and there.


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## arpitrao6 (May 30, 2015)

Stevesolar - Does DEWA have any Demand Response programs or Home Area Network programs to monitor and control usage, thereby monies?


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## TallyHo (Aug 21, 2011)

Let's say you average 425 a month across the year. That's 5100 AED. Not much money by my standards, but a lot to others.

And some might ask why pay this 5100 when you could pay zero (like I do) for air conditioning usage by being slightly more pragmatic about where I live. After all, 5100 AED goes a long way towards a nice holiday.

If I had to live in district cooling, I wouldn't worry about the bills, but if I had to be tight with money, I'd avoid district cooling.



Dave-o said:


> I'm in a district cooling apartment and usage doesn't seem to make that much difference -
> 
> July/ August:
> DEWA: 800 AED/month
> ...


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

arpitrao6 said:


> Stevesolar - Does DEWA have any Demand Response programs or Home Area Network programs to monitor and control usage, thereby monies?


Not that I know of.


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## XDoodlebugger (Jan 24, 2012)

TallyHo said:


> Are you in a district cooling scheme or a chiller-free apartment?
> 
> If you're paying for AC you'd be paying via a separate bill, not DEWA. The bill would be from your district cooling company.
> 
> If you're not paying separately for air conditioning then you're in a "chiller-free" building and the a/c is paid for by the landlord via his maintenance fees and a/c usage is not metered separately from the rest of the building.


Chiller free.


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## dogmeat (Dec 10, 2015)

25 degrees WHATTT

My apartment is at 19, i can't sleep if its any higher


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

dogmeat said:


> 25 degrees WHATTT
> 
> My apartment is at 19, i can't sleep if its any higher


Then you are a wuss!


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## INFAMOUS (Apr 19, 2011)

Rent direct from the owner and agree to pay DEWA but they keep it in their name and avoid residents tax.


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## ttdubai (Dec 28, 2015)

INFAMOUS said:


> Rent direct from the owner and agree to pay DEWA but they keep it in their name and avoid residents tax.


Then you cannot sponsor anybody's visa, for instance a maid's visa, because you need a DEWA bill in your name for it.


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## nidserz (Sep 23, 2013)

I chose to stay in a chiller-free building, and have my AC on 24/7 in the summer ofc. 
The strange thing is my living room vs. my bedroom (considerably smaller than my living room). Living room gets very cold so I turn off the AC - even if I put it up to 28C it is at 21C and chilly. However my bedroom I keep it on 18C and in the summer try to make it colder, but it just doesn't go below 18.5C and it sure as heck doesn't feel 18.5C because I would normally feel very cold in 18C. I have tried to get it looked at but they have no answers, so I just keep it running as "cold" as I can.

I think I am getting lucky on DEWA though, as I believe it should be 5% of rent per month... mine has been 0.5% since I got my place over a year ago. Won't complain though! Just found that interesting.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

nidserz said:


> I chose to stay in a chiller-free building, and have my AC on 24/7 in the summer ofc.
> The strange thing is my living room vs. my bedroom (considerably smaller than my living room). Living room gets very cold so I turn off the AC - even if I put it up to 28C it is at 21C and chilly. However my bedroom I keep it on 18C and in the summer try to make it colder, but it just doesn't go below 18.5C and it sure as heck doesn't feel 18.5C because I would normally feel very cold in 18C. I have tried to get it looked at but they have no answers, so I just keep it running as "cold" as I can.
> 
> I think I am getting lucky on DEWA though, as I believe it should be 5% of rent per month... mine has been 0.5% since I got my place over a year ago. Won't complain though! Just found that interesting.


Hi,
Have you ever had the filters cleaned in your A/C fan units?
This makes a huge difference to the system efficiency and minimum temperatures that you can achieve.
Cheers
Steve


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

nidserz said:


> I think I am getting lucky on DEWA though, as I believe it should be *5% of rent per month*... mine has been 0.5% since I got my place over a year ago. Won't complain though! Just found that interesting.


If, what you're referring to here is the Housing Tax, then the bill is calculated at 5% of your annual rental spread over 12 months. 

So, no it should not be 5% of rent per month - but it should work out to 0.41% per calendar month.


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

LesFroggitts said:


> If, what you're referring to here is the Housing Tax, then the bill is calculated at 5% of your annual rental spread over 12 months.
> 
> So, no it should not be 5% of rent per month - but it should work out to 0.41% per calendar month.


So not 5% of the monthly rent?  

I was lucky when I was in Dubai. Somehow never got the housing fee charged (I left end 2012)


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## nidserz (Sep 23, 2013)

LesFroggitts said:


> If, what you're referring to here is the Housing Tax, then the bill is calculated at 5% of your annual rental spread over 12 months.
> 
> So, no it should not be 5% of rent per month - but it should work out to 0.41% per calendar month.


Yeah, I am talking about the housing fee on the DEWA bill. 
Says 5% of the yearly rent. 
So for example, if rent was AED 95k -- AED 4,750 housing fee for the year over 12 months is about AED 396 a month, or no? ...


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

nidserz said:


> Yeah, I am talking about the housing fee on the DEWA bill.
> Says 5% of the yearly rent.
> So for example, if rent was AED 95k -- AED 4,750 housing fee for the year over 12 months is about AED 396 a month, or no? ...


Yes, that's the right calculation - what I was trying to get across was that your being "lucky" was not right, as you're actually being charged correctly.


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## INFAMOUS (Apr 19, 2011)

ttdubai said:


> Then you cannot sponsor anybody's visa, for instance a maid's visa, because you need a DEWA bill in your name for it.


Good thing I don't have anyone to sponsor. No ties :fingerscrossed:


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## nidserz (Sep 23, 2013)

LesFroggitts said:


> Yes, that's the right calculation - what I was trying to get across was that your being "lucky" was not right, as you're actually being charged correctly.


Lol, but I am getting charged AED 39.5 not AED 395 a month...


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## SgtRoswell (Apr 7, 2014)

nidserz said:


> Lol, but I am getting charged AED 39.5 not AED 395 a month...


That happened with somebody I know...wait till you move out, it was all adjusted for him in the final bill! Sorry for the spoilers


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## nidserz (Sep 23, 2013)

SgtRoswell said:


> That happened with somebody I know...wait till you move out, it was all adjusted for him in the final bill! Sorry for the spoilers


Welp! haha thanks for the warning. :yield:


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## ttdubai (Dec 28, 2015)

INFAMOUS said:


> Good thing I don't have anyone to sponsor. No ties :fingerscrossed:


You also need a DEWA bill or DEWA activation of supply confirmation for Ejari registration.

Rental without Ejari = very bad idea.


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