Electricity and water saving calculator
Pick the small changes you'd make at home and see the kWh, litres and dirhams you save each month, priced on the official slab tariff.
Your bill
Copy both from your bill: savings come off your highest slab first. 1 m³ = 220 imperial gallons.
Type the rates from your bill, including any fuel surcharge and VAT. 30 fils and AED 8 are only examples.
Air conditioning
1.4 kW is an estimate for a 1.5-ton split unit running hard on a hot day. Check the unit's label.
Lights and water heater
Estimate: tested small tanks lose about 0.35 to 1.8 kWh a day. Check your heater's label. In summer, many homes switch it off completely: put 24 hours.
Showers, taps, laundry, car
Examples only: copy the kWh and litres per cycle from your machine's energy label.
Counts a 15-minute hose wash (about 250 litres) against two 10-litre buckets.
Runs on your phone. Nothing you type is uploaded or saved.
Why these numbers
In summer, cooling is the biggest load in most UAE homes. DEWA says each degree warmer on the thermostat can save up to 5% of AC use, and recommends 24°C or higher.
DEWA charges more per unit as use rises (23, 28, 32 then 38 fils per kWh). What you save comes off your most expensive units, so heavy users save more per kWh.
Most UAE tap water is desalinated seawater, which takes electricity to make. Saving water saves energy you never see on your own bill.
Sources (last checked 27 October 2026): DEWA, "Slab tariff": residential electricity 23 fils per kWh up to 2,000 kWh a month, 28 up to 4,000, 32 up to 6,000 and 38 above; residential water AED 7.70, 8.80 and 10.12 per m³ (3.5, 4.0 and 4.6 fils per imperial gallon) for up to 6,000, 6,001 to 12,000 and above 12,000 gallons; fuel surcharge for October 2026 of 6 fils per kWh and AED 1.10 per m³ (0.5 fils per gallon); 5% VAT. Fuel surcharges change, and meter charges, municipality and sewerage fees aren't counted here. DEWA, "Cooling": 24°C or higher, each degree up can save up to 5% of AC use, clean filters at least monthly in summer, and replacing ACs older than ten years with 4- or 5-star rated models (the UAE energy efficiency label, UAE.S 5010) can save up to 25% of cooling use. US Department of Energy, "Maintaining your air conditioner": a clean filter instead of a dirty one lowers AC energy use by 5% to 15% (this page uses 5%). US Department of Energy, "LED lighting": LEDs use at least 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs. US EPA WaterSense: standard showerhead 2.5 gallons (US) a minute, about 9.5 litres; WaterSense showerhead 2.0, about 7.6 litres; standard bathroom tap 2.2, about 8.3 litres; WaterSense tap 1.5, about 5.7 litres. Hong Kong Consumer Council test of storage water heaters: standby use 0.35 to 0.85 kWh a day for single-tank and 0.95 to 1.8 kWh for double-tank models. A running garden hose uses about 1,000 litres an hour (local water authorities, as on our water page). Assumptions: a 1.5-ton split AC uses about 1.4 kW at full power; savings from set-point, filters and new units are multiplied, not added; a month is 30 days. Other emirates' utilities set their own tariffs, so type your own rate from your bill.