DEWA and AC costs | ExpatWoman.com
 

DEWA and AC costs

4
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 05:50

Hey Ladies,
My family is planning to move to Dubai in early February from the US. My husbands company does a split pay, where a part of his salary is paid bi-weekly in USD to our normal account and whatever amount we tell them to send to the UAE will be paid out monthly in AED. We're trying to set up a budget so we know how much to send in AED. They are paying our rent and car, but we need to pay utilities and other expenses We're planning to rent a 2 bedroom + maids in JBR/Marina area probably about 1400 square feet. I've heard we should plan roughly 650AED for DEWA, but I'm a little confused about the air conditioning. Here are our Heat and AC costs are included in the electrical/gas usage but from what I understand you pay separately for air conditioning? If anyone can provide some more info on how this works, and a rough estimate on the costs, we'd be really grateful. Thanks!

1
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 08 September 2021 - 16:55
Hi everyone, we are new to Dubai and I just received my first quarterly bill from my residence for A/C and was surprised by a huge monthly A/C maintenance fee: 3000 AED A/C (per quarter) 2000 AED in maintenance fees (per quarter) = total bill 5000 AED per quarter So almost half of the bill is maintenance fees ! The residence said this maintenance cost (calculated at Dh 40 per ton for a 17-ton capacity A/c unit) is normal for Dubai, but I can't find anything about this online. Has anyone else had this experience? Note it's a quite large 3 bedroom "villa" unit in a multi-unit building but we are only 2 people living there and don't use A/C often. Also its in Jumeirah 3 if that's useful. Thanks so much for your help!
518
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 12:40
To clarify the A/C issue: Most apartment buildings in Dubai are what's termed "chiller free," meaning that the air conditioning is paid for by the building owner or apartment owner. If the latter, the owner pays for it via his maintenance fees. The reason for this is because there's one internal A/C system for the entire building and the a/c cannot be metered separately for each apartment. For chiller free buildings you pay a single DEWA bill that includes your 5% housing tax, electricity usage and water usage. But some areas of Dubai, particularly in the freehold areas on the south side of the city, are not "chiller free." They fall under a district cooling scheme where a centralised district cooling plant pumps a/c into the buildings and each apartment is metered separately. District cooling charges are based on a fixed sum annually (usually paid semi-annually or quarterly) plus your actual usage. So it can be quite expensive. Especially as on top of this you still need to pay your DEWA with the 5% housing tax, electricity and water. JBR in the Marina is district cooling, but the rest of the Marina is "chiller free," JLT is all district cooling except for Armada Towers. Anything built by Nakheel is going to be district cooling, and this includes the Palm Jumeira, Discovery Gardens, JVC. Motor City is also in a district cooling scheme. Business Bay is district cooling. The Greens/Views is "chiller free" except possibly for its newest building. TECOM is chiller free. Almost all the Marina (except JBR) is chiller free. Downtown is almost all chiller free except for one or two buildings. Barsha is chiller free. And practically everything north of Downtown is chiller free. It's well worth it to pay attention to the difference between chiller free and district cooling buildings as you will end up paying quite a bit more for a/c and I'm consistently surprised by the number of people who keep failing to realise this. Note: villas still pay for a/c one way or another, whether in district cooling or independent villas via electric consumption. excellent information. just to add.. we live in a Nakheel development and pay for district cooling monthly along with water, electricity and 5% housing tax. everything is in the same bill directly from DEWA.
8965
Posts
EW MASTER
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 12:29
To clarify the A/C issue: Most apartment buildings in Dubai are what's termed "chiller free," meaning that the air conditioning is paid for by the building owner or apartment owner. If the latter, the owner pays for it via his maintenance fees. The reason for this is because there's one internal A/C system for the entire building and the a/c cannot be metered separately for each apartment. For chiller free buildings you pay a single DEWA bill that includes your 5% housing tax, electricity usage and water usage. But some areas of Dubai, particularly in the freehold areas on the south side of the city, are not "chiller free." They fall under a district cooling scheme where a centralised district cooling plant pumps a/c into the buildings and each apartment is metered separately. District cooling charges are based on a fixed sum annually (usually paid semi-annually or quarterly) plus your actual usage. So it can be quite expensive. Especially as on top of this you still need to pay your DEWA with the 5% housing tax, electricity and water. JBR in the Marina is district cooling, but the rest of the Marina is "chiller free," JLT is all district cooling except for Armada Towers. Anything built by Nakheel is going to be district cooling, and this includes the Palm Jumeira, Discovery Gardens, JVC. Motor City is also in a district cooling scheme. Business Bay is district cooling. The Greens/Views is "chiller free" except possibly for its newest building. TECOM is chiller free. Almost all the Marina (except JBR) is chiller free. Downtown is almost all chiller free except for one or two buildings. Barsha is chiller free. And practically everything north of Downtown is chiller free. It's well worth it to pay attention to the difference between chiller free and district cooling buildings as you will end up paying quite a bit more for a/c and I'm consistently surprised by the number of people who keep failing to realise this. Note: villas still pay for a/c one way or another, whether in district cooling or independent villas via electric consumption. Thank you my post wasn't making any sense haha
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 11:00
To clarify the A/C issue: Most apartment buildings in Dubai are what's termed "chiller free," meaning that the air conditioning is paid for by the building owner or apartment owner. If the latter, the owner pays for it via his maintenance fees. The reason for this is because there's one internal A/C system for the entire building and the a/c cannot be metered separately for each apartment. For chiller free buildings you pay a single DEWA bill that includes your 5% housing tax, electricity usage and water usage. But some areas of Dubai, particularly in the freehold areas on the south side of the city, are not "chiller free." They fall under a district cooling scheme where a centralised district cooling plant pumps a/c into the buildings and each apartment is metered separately. District cooling charges are based on a fixed sum annually (usually paid semi-annually or quarterly) plus your actual usage. So it can be quite expensive. Especially as on top of this you still need to pay your DEWA with the 5% housing tax, electricity and water. JBR in the Marina is district cooling, but the rest of the Marina is "chiller free," JLT is all district cooling except for Armada Towers. Anything built by Nakheel is going to be district cooling, and this includes the Palm Jumeira, Discovery Gardens, JVC. Motor City is also in a district cooling scheme. Business Bay is district cooling. The Greens/Views is "chiller free" except possibly for its newest building. TECOM is chiller free. Almost all the Marina (except JBR) is chiller free. Downtown is almost all chiller free except for one or two buildings. Barsha is chiller free. And practically everything north of Downtown is chiller free. It's well worth it to pay attention to the difference between chiller free and district cooling buildings as you will end up paying quite a bit more for a/c and I'm consistently surprised by the number of people who keep failing to realise this. Note: villas still pay for a/c one way or another, whether in district cooling or independent villas via electric consumption.
26
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 10:58
Hi I live in JBR (3BR + maid - we dont use 1BR at all) and below is the break-up of the costs - 1) DEWA - Electricity - You pay 5% of monthly rent as fixed charge (higher the rent - higher this cost and about 200 AED for electricity/ water consumption charges per month. 2) Empower Cooling - Air conditioning in JBR is handled by a private company and is not part of Electricty/ Water bills. We pay about 750 AED every quarter as fixed charge and average 200 AED per month as the bill, so roughly 450 AED per month. FYI - Our next biggest fixed expense per month is TV/Internet. Hope this helps.
8965
Posts
EW MASTER
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 09:39
I have a one bed and live alone and my district cooling is paid. In the Winter my bill is around AED450 and the Summer AED500. I would expect two of you to pay more just make sure that your district cooling is paid for by the LL as that lowers the bill DEWA bill will include your housing fee which is 5% of your annual rent paid monthly so in theory my DEWA bill without this is only AED150 a month :-) Hi sarahlou123. Am I missing something here? I have been paying all my A/C bills to date. As far as I am aware the landlord pays no part of this. Now you have me baffled. Am i totally stupid? I thought district cooling was your bill.:thinking: I have friends who live in JLT and The Gardens. They have to pay the district cooling costs which significantly increase their DEWA bills as their supply will be sourced from a district cooling plant , such as Empower or Palm District Cooling respectively. Whereas we don't have that Hence the reason my bills are lower. Ignore my previous post as I thought ours was paid by the LL
280
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 09:23
I have a one bed and live alone and my district cooling is paid. In the Winter my bill is around AED450 and the Summer AED500. I would expect two of you to pay more just make sure that your district cooling is paid for by the LL as that lowers the bill DEWA bill will include your housing fee which is 5% of your annual rent paid monthly so in theory my DEWA bill without this is only AED150 a month :-) Hi sarahlou123. Am I missing something here? I have been paying all my A/C bills to date. As far as I am aware the landlord pays no part of this. Now you have me baffled. Am i totally stupid? I thought district cooling was your bill.:thinking:
8965
Posts
EW MASTER
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 08:47
I have a one bed and live alone and my district cooling is paid. In the Winter my bill is around AED450 and the Summer AED500. I would expect two of you to pay more just make sure that your district cooling is paid for by the LL as that lowers the bill DEWA bill will include your housing fee which is 5% of your annual rent paid monthly so in theory my DEWA bill without this is only AED150 a month :-)
280
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 07:15
It depends obviously on usage. We have a 2 bed, but no maids. Our costs vary from 750AED per month during the summer months and about 360AED during the winter months. There has been no need for us to use the heating though during the winter months. But some might. We come under the same supplier, 'Palm District Cooling' district in JLT . Whether we use the facility or not you still get a monthly capacity charge, around 250AED. One of the downsides of living in the area I'm afraid. During the summer some people here prefer to sleep or have the a/c on constantly, but we don't. So as with most things, prices will vary. I'm just giving you a rough estimate. But it may help to get more info by looking at 'Palm District Cooling'. For some reason I am unable to access their main site link at the moment, ?? Nevertheless this link has a few pages on the top once opened which might be able to give you more info. https://epay.palmutilities.ae
12
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 16 December 2015 - 06:30
For a 2-bedroom apartment with maid, I would think your bill is approximately 1,000 dhs a month, it would obviously depend if you're sensible with water and electricity use.
 
 

ON EXPATWOMAN TODAY