DEWA - Need help figuring this one out please Ladies......

THanks Wikkid for posting that great description of how to check for Dewa problems. I've saved it for future reference.

Youre welcome. Good luck - hope you manage to find the culprit! FYI, not sure what type of villa youre in, but there are various different size AC units installed in those villas. For example, the AC that cools the lounge is much much bigger than the one that cools the kitchen, so if youre going to leave an AC on, rather leave the kitchen one on. Chek the load schedule if you arent sure which ones are the big ones.

Thank you Wikkid. I just remembered I switched off the irrigation system by mistake for 3 days. I went and checked the readings for those days and it's true - the water reduced dramatically but the electricity it's exactly the same as before. So definitively it's not the pump , as you correctly said. We will try doing all the tests this weekend and hopefully we will be able to identify the source. We love this place by the way :) and thank you for creating the community website. It's so helpful!

Hi Eli - we used to live at The Villa. Not sure if it is still the case, but certainly when we were living there, there was this amazing new concept of a multiplication factor that DEWA used... In a nutshell, you had to take the amount of electricity used and enter it into DEWA calculator (on their website), then once you get that figure, multiply by 40 (yes, you read right!!!) and that was your electricity bill (cant remember the exact process for calculating but its on The Villa website I set up for the community - sure you will find it if you look through some of the forum or such. I know though that different people had different situations though as well, just to further confuse the issue!!!). To answer your question though, there is a problem as you shouldnt be going through that amount of power. I know its a bit long winded, but maybe you should also try doing the DB off and check power I wrote about below - you will then know at least what it is thats eating your power... An irrigation pump should not use anywhere near that. For example, this pump (http://www.screwfix.com/p/karcher-gp40-650w-garden-irrigation-pump-240v/66093) pumps out 50 litres a minute and only uses 650W an hour - so even if it ran for 24 hours a day, it would only use a maximum of 15.6kW. I would suggest that you turn off all your AC units (just at the wall controls) then go on the roof and see if any of the AC machines are still running - maybe they arent actually switching off (even though you think they are because the display panel says they are). If I remember correctly, the AC units at The Villa are LG brand, which arent particularly energy efficient anyway (they use nearly double the amount of electricity that Carrier brand do). Only other thing that maybe is worth looking at is the water heaters (try turning the water heaters off in the DB's and see if that makes a difference)? Good luck! My email addy is below if you want to drop me a line if youre still having issues!

There have been cases where there is a leak in the water pipe(s) between the meter and your home - in which case, it's YOUR problem and payment. If necessary, turn off the water at the meter (or get DEWA to do it) and get them to monitor your costs. The longer it runs (and if it is underground and you won't see it leaking dollars out of your pocket) the more $$ DEWA can and will be owed (I've never heard of anyone being able to successfully dispute it if it's on your side of the meter). Good luck, the 2 people I knew had to have the garden dug up and pipes replaced (and yes, they were renting) - however, check your lease too to see who is financially responsible for such an instance (my friends were unlucky :()

Great detailed post Wikkid! Thanks We are in The Villa and had high DEWA bills especially for the past couple of months. Our problem is electricity. We are taking down the meter values every day and our average daily consumption is 150 KW. We were away for 3 weeks, pool empty so the pumps were off, maid on vacation and a/c units were all turned off. We came back to took the readings and still had an average of 65 KW consumed per day and we were not even there! Could the pump for the irrigation system use that much energy? I heard that the A/c units in these villas do not have a thermostat. Could it be that they still use energy even when they are off? We have grass in the front and back garden, lots of trees and plants and the water consumption is minimal!!! It's the electrical part that makes up 80% of the bill and just can't understand why? <em>edited by Eli1979 on 24/08/2011</em>

Ahhhh DEWA, my favorite topic! A running water pump could be a number of things, not necessarily a leak. First thing to do is look at your bill and see if it is the water or the electricity that's high. If it's water, then you need to go find the main shut off valve for the house and turn it off. Now go take a meter reading and then again in a half hour. If it has changed, then the leak is in your garden somewhere. If it hasnt then somewhere in your house there is a rather major leak! You didn't mention where you live - I know that some of the springs / meadows etc had huge problems with the water tanks (they are underneath where the cars park so you wouldn't see a leak/crack or anything. Now, if it's your electricity then once again you need to identify where the drain is - go in the house and you will find the SMDB / MDB (the bigger DB which the smaller ones on each floor of your house feed into - usually it's inside the house (but i have also seen them outside) and will always be on ground floor. Switch off the big main incomer switch and go take a reading at the elec meter outside the front of your house. Repeat after half hour - if the reading has changed then there is either something in your garden chewing an ozone hole worth of juice or your neighbours maybe are living the life of Riley on your account. Time to visit dewa. If the meter doesn't thange though when you switch off the main incomer, then you need to switch main incomer back on and go inside and turn off all the small DBs on each floor - check if the meter is running and half hour later etc. If there's a change, it's a drain off of your power from the main MDB. If the meter doesn't change, switch off every single thing (including plugs, water heaters etc) on just the ground floor and turn on the small DB for just that floor. Do the whole meter reading thing again - if it changes, your leak is on the ground floor somewhere. If it doesn't change, then repeat for other floors - this way you start to isolate which level the problem is. Once you find the level, start by turning the small DB on, but all the switches inside off. At this point you may well have lost the will to live, so I would recommend taking at least one bottle of vino with for company... Each switch will have something like R1 Y1 B1 above the switches and a label that says section 1 below then on the right of them a bigger switch that says ELCB 1 or something like that. Switch back on the small switches and the corresponding section switch. Check meter blah blah, no change, switch off and do next section (2) and so on. Eventually you will get down to a single section (probably). There should be a paper in the DB (called load schedule). Look for the corresponding R G B numbers / section and this sheet will tell you what it is. To use those kinds of power though, 99 percent of the time it's either something with an element (like a water heater that has a broken thermostat so just keeps boiling the water, not clicking on and off to maintain a set temperature) or it's the AC units. Sorry for such a long winded explanation but hopefully it's fairly straightforward. Drop me an email if you are still confused and I'll send you my number (wikkidcakes at gmail dot com) and talk you through it. And as a final parting bit of advice, don't waste your breath trying to call - go there (wafi) and refuse to move until someone deals with you. Once they realize you actually mean it, they deal with the problem! And if you have a small tired child you can take or borrow, that's even better!

Tru Blu - thanks for posting on this subject. We to got our first Dewa bill today for the month of August - like you we have not yet moved in apart from popping in once every week or fortnight for less than an hour for deliveries. Apart from the Ac being used for the One hour we are there, we have nor used anything else....yet our First DEWA bill is a whopping 1559.50 AED!!!!!! We are in Umm Suqeim. I will for sure be doing what is recommend regarding the meters.... I got the bill via a text so I don't even hve a break down of all usage yet...just about manage to create a online DEWA account to check this, but have to wait a day before they process it - sigh... If anyone has any ideas as to why the DEWA bill could be so high even before we have moved in ,then please do shed some light on it. Thanks - SGL

Chant your bill is amazing....and I fought we were good for a 3 bedroom Villa water 100 dhs electricity around 900 now and housing fee 300 and of course fuel surcharge 150

Do you have a garden that's been irrigated automatically? The pump sound could be the water coming on for the irrigation. Also, where do you live? Places like AR the DEWA charges are higher than in, say, Jumeirah. And, is housing fee also included in your bill? For us, that's Dhs 1,300 each month before we even breathe. xox

Tru Blu, if you can hear the pump going on and off when you are not using the water, it's definitely a leak. Check your garden first - that's where the problem is most of the time! Good luck!

Hi Tru Blu, There were some staff in our office with very high DEWA bills and DEWA said to do the following: Find your meter first. Then at the main board switch off your electricity to make sure nothing can be running. Go back to your meter and do a meter reading. Leave the electricity off for an hour or two (so maybe go out for a while) then go back and do another meter reading. If your meter reading has changed you need to get DEWA out because this means someone else is using your electricity and you are paying for it. You will then need to inform DEWA and they will be able to trace who is doing this. It may not be this but give it a go. We live in a 3bed villa and the highest our bill has ever been is Dhs. 850 during the summer (and this includes the housing fee!) <em>edited by chants39 on 23/08/2011</em>