The launch of Tap by Tap Oliver started on May 1, Town of Oliver residents are encouraged to pick-up free energy and water savings kits, 200 of which are available on a first-come first-served basis at Oliver Town Office, 6150 Main Street.

The Energy and Water Savings Kit (Kit) includes one water-saving showerhead, and aerators for the 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.

“The shower timers are an added bonus in the kits,” says Cathy Cowan, Oliver’s Corporate Officer, whose department distributes the Kits for Oliver. “Setting behavioural goals like keeping showers to under five minutes gets the whole family working together to lower home energy costs and protect the environment, too.”

One third of all energy use in a typical home goes to heating water. Only space heating uses more energy in a home. Water-saving 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.

“FortisBC is committed to helping families save energy and we’re happy to support this program that has such a direct benefit,” says Doug Stout, vice president of energy solutions and external relations for FortisBC. “We encourage customers to pick up their kit and put these energy saving products to good use as soon as possible.”

“Oliver has 200 Kits to give out to their residents this summer,” says Chris Birchall, Tap by Tap Program Coordinator, “and already 142 have been picked up”. Anyone else interested in collecting a Kit for their home should head to the town office quickly, before the rest disappear, too.”