With the launch of Tap by Tap Oliver today, Town of Oliver residents can now pick up their FREE Water and Energy Saving Kits (Kits), 150 of which are available on a first-come first-served basis at Oliver Municipal Hall’s Reception Desk, 6150 Main Street.

Tap by Tap provides free, easy-to-install faucet fixtures to help residents across British Columbia save water, energy and money. Fixtures are distributed through local municipal channels, multi-unit residential property managers and utility companies. Tap by Tap Okanagan-Similkameen includes participating communities including Kelowna, Keremeos, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton and Summerland.

“We are excited to take advantage of this water saving program,” says Stephanie Johnson, Oliver’s Climate Action Coordinator, through her capacity as Director of Development Services. “Here in the Okanagan we focus a lot on outdoor water conservation practices but Tap by Tap reminds us of easy steps we can take on minimizing water use indoors as well.”

Each Energy and Water Savings Kit includes one water-saving shower-head, and aerators for kitchen and bathroom taps as well as a FortisBC waterproof shower timer to encourage people to take shorter showers. For larger homes, some doubles are also available.

“Tap by Tap makes it very easy for customers to save hot water, which in turn, saves both water and energy,” says Doug Stout, vice president of energy solutions and external relations for FortisBC. “It has such a direct benefit for customers who are trying to reduce their energy use that it’s an ideal programto support. We encourage customers to take advantage of it.”

One third of all energy use in a typical home goes to heating water. Only space heating uses more energy in a home. Low-flow fixtures can reduce water consumption by 20% to 50% which, for energy bills averaging $50 a month, translates into a savings of between $40-$100 a year. Annual energy savings from installing a single set of fixtures is approximately 2188 kilowatt hours (8 gigajoules) – enough to run a 100 watt laptop for 2.5 years – and the amount of water saved is approximately 38,880 litres, or more than 100 litres per day.