With the launch of phase II of Tap by Tap Keremeos, Keremeos residents can pick up their free Water and Energy Saving Kits at the Keremeos Village office located at 702 4th Street. Limited quantities are available during office hours on a first-come, first served basis.
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 is a program sponsored by FortisBC. Participating communities include Kelowna, Keremeos, Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton, Princeton and Summerland.
“Many residents took advantage of the kits in phase I of the program and we are excited to be able to offer more kits in phase II,” said Wendy Curr, Legislative and Planning Clerk, whose department will distribute the kits for Keremeos.
Each Water and Energy Savings Kit includes one water-saving showerhead, 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 Tom Loski, vice president of customer service for FortisBC. “It has such a direct benefit for customers who are trying to reduce their energy use that it’s an ideal program for FortisBC to support. We encourage customers to take advantage of it.”
One third of the energy used in a typical home goes to heating water; only space heating uses more.
Low-flow fixtures can reduce water consumption by 20 to 50 per cent which, for energy bills averaging $50 a month, translates into annual savings of between $40-$100. 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.
“Through Tap by Tap, residents can save the cost of new fixtures, save water and energy, save money on future energy bills, and protect an important natural resource,” says Chris Birchall, Tap by Tap Program Coordinator. “It just makes sense so we imagine the Kits will disappear quickly.”