Expat Forum For People Moving Overseas And Living Abroad banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

DEWA Water Heater

18K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  ziokendo 
#1 ·
Hi All,

So given that I am new here, I've been hearing different things about this water heater which I never had to worry about in Canada.

Some people tell me that they keep it on all the time no problems. Some people tell me that I would be crazy to keep it on all the time because my electricity bill will double and triple.

It is kind of annoying to have to turn it on, wait, shower, then turn it off. I live in a one bedroom apartment.

Can anyone shed some light on how much this affects my bill? Whether it's on or off? What do you guys do?
 
#2 ·
I live in a 1 bed apt. in JLT and I leave my water heater on 24-7 except when I go back to the USA on vacation.. My DEWA has never been over AED 200/month in over 2 years...

Lave it on so you have hot water now when you need it ....Not 30 minutes from now..
just my .02 cents
 
#3 ·
Hi All,So given that I am new here, I've been hearing different things about this water heater which I never had to worry about in Canada.
It's not like a water heater is different in any part of the world.

The natural gas ones (cng/lpg, the kind that probably you had in Canada) provides heat "on the fly", because they can develop more power. So they will consume fuel only when you actually use hot water.

The electrical ones are just a tank with an eletrical heater inside, they heat water exactly like your washing machine does. You have a tank full of hot water, as soon as you use hot water cold water enters in the tank to keep the water level even and lowers the average temperature of the tank.

People tend to believe that leaving a water heater on all the time will consume more energy: truth is that even turning it off, leaving a semi-hot water tank cooling down is a waste of energy.
The power needed to bring a full cold water tank to the desired temperature every day will be almost the same that is needed to keep an already hot tank of water still hot.

So I believe that the elec. consumption for an average regular use will be very similar either turning it on and off, or leaving it on; the latter option being more confortable.
 
#7 ·
Hi All,

Thank you for the responses. I am sure that the water heater I was using in Canada is similar to the one here. When I say I didn't have to worry about the water heater I meant that we never switched it on or off because there was no button. It was just constantly on.

Laws of thermodynamics are the same everywhere I am sure, but I highly doubt that the rate they charge per KWh is the same! I always heard that utilities are expensive here, and when I saw the on/off switch, it kind of made me think the off option was there for a reason; to save on energy and to save on the bill.

Anyway, thanks again. So you guys are 100% certain that it's better to keep it on for a) the environment and b) my bill?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top