EMICOOL

i own a 3 beds apt 2200 sqft,and paying ridiculously fees for emicool, i agree with people saying *DAYLIGHT ROBBERY* i think we all owners or tenant should meet together,and talk about it..and bring this up to UP. me n my husband went to UP already and they told us all of owners are complain about this..but no action taken..

aimee wrote:

i own a 3 beds apt 2200 sqft,and paying ridiculously fees for emicool, i agree with people saying *DAYLIGHT ROBBERY* i think we all owners or tenant should meet together,and talk about it..and bring this up to UP. me n my husband went to UP already and they told us all of owners are complain about this..but no action taken..

I agree, count us in. We are tired of this AC, which is not working properly, since we have been living here once a week we have problem with the ac.
We love living in this community, but the ac making so much trouble we are thinking of selling or giving for rent.
I agree with Aimee, the owners should meet and think of best way to deal with this problem.

I know you won't like my sentiment, but our Emicool bills are no more than our DEWA bills used to be in the last place I rented.

Sadly, I don't think anything will ever change because we have all agreed to Emicool being the sole provider of cooling to our area. Although if Emicool can become more cost efficient, I'd be all for it. Simply billing and collecting payment more regularly and efficiently would save it a fortune simply due to improved cashflow.

Hi, I will be moving to Sherlock House 1 next week, most of the posts are a year old.

Is there still issues with EMICOOL or anything in Motor City if any one is kind enough to let me know please.

Thank you,

flocyd wrote:

Hi, I will be moving to Sherlock House 1 next week, most of the posts are a year old.

Is there still issues with EMICOOL or anything in Motor City if any one is kind enough to let me know please.

Thank you,

Hi,

Yes EMICOOL is full of issues, mostly people are not renting apartments in MOTOR CITY just because of EXTRA burden of emicool services. I really don't know how they do billing. I am living alone in 1 bedroom apartment and my average monthly bill used to be around 320 AED, but last month(Aug 2010) they bill 881 AED for no reason.

I was really kind of shocked after seeing my monthly bill, Remember I live all alone and Aug was same busy month for me like all other months. Its like they charge whatever they feel like because we don't have any other option.

My uncle was planning to buy 2 bedroom in Foxhill 9, but just because of EMICOOL service charges he changed his plan:)

wishmaster - your wish has been granted. checking your billing accuracy is a very simple matter.

please call Emicool and they will send their resident technician to show you how to read your meter.

you can do as I do. check the meter reading on last day of every month. this should be the reading that apppears on your bill.

I have checked my reading for the last 11 months and have found no problems with the reading.

Of course I have a problem with emicool's pricing and continue to raise this at every opportunity.

I view Emicool and DEWA as a tax on us. I console myself by looking at this tax as a percentage of my income. It compares very favourably to the tax %age I would pay in my home country with poor infrastructure.

one cannot have one's cake and eat it too. if people want to enjoy the other benefits of living in motor city they should be prepared (for the time being at least) too pay this extra utility "tax". for a 2 b/r i estimate the cooling tax as AED 3000+. this is the difference between split a/c on DEWA versus Emicool a/c.

ralphrau wrote:

wishmaster - your wish has been granted. checking your billing accuracy is a very simple matter.

please call Emicool and they will send their resident technician to show you how to read your meter.

you can do as I do. check the meter reading on last day of every month. this should be the reading that apppears on your bill.

I have checked my reading for the last 11 months and have found no problems with the reading.

Of course I have a problem with emicool's pricing and continue to raise this at every opportunity.

I view Emicool and DEWA as a tax on us. I console myself by looking at this tax as a percentage of my income. It compares very favourably to the tax %age I would pay in my home country with poor infrastructure.

one cannot have one's cake and eat it too. if people want to enjoy the other benefits of living in motor city they should be prepared (for the time being at least) too pay this extra utility "tax". for a 2 b/r i estimate the cooling tax as AED 3000+. this is the difference between split a/c on DEWA versus Emicool a/c.

Thanks for your advice, but do you really think for one bedroom 900 AED is fair? and I also live alone, so most of the time I m not home and when I am home i just one side AC, like in hall or bedroom. Its like I am making some icebergs at home, thats why I need to pay 900 AED for a month.

Dewa is much much cheaper than emicool, i pay around 200 AED for Dewa every month.

In UK you pay tax to your govt and in return you get facilities from your govt, if we are paying this amount to Dubai Govt then i can say ok lets take it as tax, but i think emicool is not Govt organization.

Since morning I am calling Emicool: 04-8852452
But no reply at all, by the look of it, they just want us to deal with their answer machine:)

We should just be thankful that we don't have Palm Utilities for our services.

I also feel that we are being ripped off by Emicool. When I asked them if they will still charge their fixed fee during the winter months and was told yes, then I cancelled the service. I live in Dickens Circus 3 and have bought two mobile ac units for about AED1,600 which are fine. It is inconvenient, but I refuse on principle to pay for something I do not use. My average usage charges for cooling have been only AED60 per month, but I am still charged over AED400. This is not acceptable!!

If everyone fitted their own ac units then perhaps Emicool would realise what crooks they are!! Dream on ....

Apart from Emicool, I love the place Tony

Tony

I suggest you get an electrical engineer to check that the wiring in your apartment is capable of taking the load of 2 a/cs. My understanding is it is not.

If you end up starting a fire you could get into very serious trouble.

Hi All

My average monthly bill of 2 BR apartment is in the range of AED 60 - 80 plus fixed charges starting Jan till July 2010. For the month of Aug EMICOOL has charged me AED 280 plus fixed charge. I wrote an email and within same day i got a response from EMICOOL. Technicians came and checked my EMICOOL meter. Reason for average bill in Aug was faulty meter which they changed during early Aug. I have complained again to charge me as per historical billing i.e. AED 80 max which they have agreed and to be adjusted in coming months.

As far as those who are worried on high maintainence cost, i look at it in a different way. My service charges are somewhere AED 10.5 - 11.5 per sqft (i dont remember the exact amount). If i add up yearly AED 5000 on 1356 sqft area of my apartment then it equates to almost AED 4 per sqft i.e. total charges are 11.5 + 4 = AED 15.5 per sq ft. If you compare this with other communities like JLT / Discovery / Greens / Marina then we are better off.

I was living in Bur Dubai before moving to MC and my total DEWA bill (Electricity water and AC) has never exceeded AED 350 per month, i am also paying higher than what i was paying earlier ...

Regards
Omer

In Norton Court

11.50 x 1471 (total including balcony)+ 4 x 1230 (covered area) = 14.76 psf of total area

My guesstimate is that of this 14.76 the bulk or AED 10.00 is eaten up by DEWA and Emicool. Another AED 1.00 is a mysterious RTA fee (only for Motor City?). That leaves AED 2.76 for gardening, cleaning and security and hopefully AED 1 psf for the sinking fund. Overall its a lot of money considering we have 5 million square feet of built up area in Uptown Motor City.

As regards comparison with Emaar apartments (The Greens) I think the rate there is charged on the closed area and excludes the balcony. This may explain why our charges appear to be lower?

Owners are waiting for the budget and accounts which must be disclosed by the OA Manager (UP) according to new JOP Law announced 13-April-2010 and last date for implementation is 13-Oct-2010.

Owners need to contact UP after 13-Oct-2010 and remind them of their disclosure duty under JOP Law.

We really have to stop complaining about this. We all knew the score when we bought these properties. DEWA does not have the resources and capacity to supply enough electricity for individual air conditioning to all new developements in Dubai. DEWA is already government subsidised (and its not like you pay taxes), so they really don't need to be subsiudising these developments as well. Also, district cooling is much more environmentally friendly.

Therefore district cooling plants need to be built and maintained. Someone has to pay for this. These are financed by banks. Banks cannot finance these without a minimum guaranteed income for the District Cooling company to service the loan - hence the capacity charge. Think about it, if everyone decided not to pay the capacity charge, then the district cooling plant has to shut down and then the whole development becomes an abandoned wasteland - which is not in any of our interests.

The capacity charge is nothing to do with your usage. It is a charge we have to pay to have the luxury of an apartment with airconditioning available to it. This is essential in this country and needs to be thought about when buying a property. Compared to some district cooling prvoders, ours is not bad value.

By the way, Tony, I have a feeling that if you ever want to sell your apartment, you'll need to pay capacity charge to Emicool for the back months you were disconnected. I suspect that you cannot sell the property without Emicool clearance (even if you say you have cancelled your contract with them - whereas in fact you've probably cancelled the supply not the contract). You may want to check this, since you might end up paying both Emicool and DEWA bills.

Townie,

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you. I have studied this matter at some length. We are paying far more than we should.

Please understand how it is supposed to work.

DC enables the utility provider to significantly reduce peak demand. Without DC DEWA may have to double its investment in power plant infrastructure. The DC providers have appealed to DEWA to provide them concessional tariffs keeping in mind this benefit they provide. DEWA ignores the fact that one DC plant serves 35,000 residences so the slab should be adjusted accordingly. DEWA charges the highest slab rate for the very first unit drawn. Further the DC providers have offered to draw power during off peak periods (night) at concessional rates, chill the water at night and pump it during the day. I understand this appeal has gone unheeded.

DEWA should be compelling non freehold areas to move to DC. Then further capacity investment could be avoided for many years to come. This saving could be passed on to all.

To conclude my case that DC customers are penalised here is a hard fact - the comparable service charges are as follows

Uptown Mirdiff (including unlimited cooling) is AED 10.50 psf (fixed)
Uptown Motor City - AED 14.00 psf with Emicool fixed load plus min 0.75 psf as metered Emicool consumption) - total min AED 14.75 psf (not fixed)

As things stand there can be no doubt that freehold areas as responsible users of DC are being penalised.

NB: Notwithstanding my grievances I continue to pay my monthly Emicool bills promptly as I would any state tax in my home country.

Definition of a customer: General: (1) Entity that receives or consumes products (goods or services) and has the ability to choose between different products and suppliers

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/

Based on the above, we are definitely not customers. We are being held to ransom by the DC system. I have no authority nor technical knowledge to understand the billing system and as Townie has pointed out, the charges may be fair. However, I feel the charges are unfair as I am paying almost AED 300/- each month for not using a single minute of AC supply to my apartment. Service providers need to operate in a level playing competitive environment and customer's should be in a position to either reward or penalise the service provider based on his performance and efficiency.

Unfortunately we have no other choice and hence cannot be referred to as customers in the true sense. And Emicool sadly cannot be referred to a çustomer friendly''service provider.

One of my customers who lives in JLT informed that their DC provider 'Palm Utilities' [owned by Nakheel] has very reasonable charges for the cooling. Its fair to assume Dewa is not charging Emicool & Palm utilities differently.

Can you kindly post the invoice copy for us to verify this. Please delete the Unit number and name for privacy

We need to get the full picture at JLT. Fixed load and variable meter. Maybe the first part (fixed load) is being paid directly by the landlord so the tenant only pays the AED 50-100 per month on the meter

I am currently a tenant in Motor City, and I was considering to maybe buy an apartment as I love living in such a community. However, the fact remains that EMICOOL is just driving me nuts, and even me pushing me leave MC. My question is, why am I being monopolized? What if i decided to use fans, and live without A/C? Do i still need to sign a contract with EMICOOL and pay their activation fees?

The amounts we are paying EMICOOL are just ridiculous. Let us help each other to have a better living in this community.

Since you are a tenant you need to sit down with your landlord and explain the mathematics to him.

Example - you are renting a 2b/r in Uptown Motor City

2 bedroom with chiller "free" in Bur Dubai = 70,000
premium for motor city environment = 6,000
Total you pay your landlord for your 2 b/r = 76,000

If you are paying your landlord AED 76,000 then the landlord should pay Emicool the fixed load fee of AED 4,000. That still leaves him with AED 72,000 (from which the service charges AED 17,000 need to be paid). Its really that simple.

If you feel Motor City is not worth the premium maybe you should leave and go to someplace without the Motor City environment.

As a tenant you have a choice that owner residents do not have

By the way how do you propose we "help each other". Can you please be more specific ?

Just has a very interesting few weeks with Emicool. When I signed up for the "service"or ripoff, I did it in the Green Community branch not Motorcity. A few weeks went by and I called Emicool looking for my bill for August. The girl told me she has no record of my name nor the apartment I was living in. About 2 hours later I got a call back telling me my bill for August would be AED485 and September would be AED1,650. I told her I wanted the original invoice and asked how come an hour ago they had no record of me and if they had no record how did they get a meter reading, she didn't know! Poor girl didn't know a lot!

2 weeks ago I called Emicool asking for the original bills, again, and my copy of the contract. Again I was told they had no record of my name, mobile nor the apartment. Then after a lot more phone calls, from me, I finally received my contract, still no original bills. I email Emicool telling them I can't pay these bills until I get the originals.

This is where I find its gets interesting. My contract has been altered. Someone used Tippex to replace The Declared Load figure in the Annex 1. The Declared Load was changed from 5.1 TR to 7 TR. When I called them to find out why, or course no one knew what I was talking about! I think they use stupidity in the hope that people will just give up. I also told them it must be illegal, even in Dubai, to alter a contract after it's been signed. Still no reply and I'm not expecting one.

I wonder if the Declared Load in the other Green Community is 5.1, if so then why is Motorcity higher?

Joske

Hi Joske,

At least now if this turns ugly and they "cut" your cooling until you resolve this ... the weather is better so it wont hurt that much

Green monster

Well I was thinking if everyone cancelled their accounts for winter the Emicool might start to take a bit more notice of tenants issues. It only costs AED 200 to disconnect and another AED 200 to reconnect again next April or so....

Disconnection means no metered consumption charge? Can you please let us know if disconnection also means no fixed load.

I doubt it.

I understand the annual load is payable whether or not there is consumption.

You're right, regardless of connection the load still has to be paid. If that in itself doesn't scream scam I don't know what does.......

Emicool emailed me back telling me the 5.1 TR was a typo as this is based on a 2-bed apartment, which I didn't know existed in the Terraced Apartments. Emicool have you by the per verbals regardless and I still can't understand how they get away with it. Has anyone raised this in the media or would that make any difference? I wrote to RERA asking for their take, they never replied.