The goal is to eliminate 20,000 incandescent light bulbs from FortisBC’s service area in 20 days.

October is PowerSense month and to commemorate 20 years of PowerSense, you can exchange up to 6 incandescent light bulbs for CFLs - FREE! Just bring your light bulbs to the exchange even nearest you.

• Wed, Oct 7 -  12 - 4PM - City Hall - Downtown Kelowna
• Sat, Oct 10 -  8AM - 1PM - Farmer's Market - Dilworth & Springfield
• Sat, Oct 17 -  11AM - 3PM - Mission Park Mall - Mission
• Sat, Oct 24 -  11M - 3PM - Willow Park Mall - Rutland

With lighting alone accounting for up to 16% of your electrical consumption, running 13 incandescent light bulbs (60W) will cost you about $70 per year. Running 13 CFLs (13W) instead will cost you just $15 for an annual savings of $55. Now that make sense!

For more information and event times, visit FortisBC.com or call 1-866-436-7847

 

                    

 

The NeighbourWoods Program is a pilot residential planting initiative developed by Parks Services to encourage citizens and communities to grow and preserve Kelowna’s urban forest. As planting a shade tree helps reduce household energy consumption, FortisBC is partnering on this project.

With a minimum of 20 properties, neighbourhoods can apply to receive trees, one per participating household, at a significantly reduced rate of $30 per tree (valued at $100). For more information on neighbourhood participation visit our Frequently Asked Questions.

Interested neighbourhoods must apply online by Saturday, October 10, 2009.

The City will:

• Provide a tree to be planted (up to 350 trees will be made available in this program)
• Provide tree care information and free training for the residents in registered neighbourhoods.

Registered residents are responsible for:

• Planting the tree.
• Tending the tree, including watering and watching for pests and diseases.
• Contributing $30 per tree.

Up to 350 trees will be delivered to winning neighbourhoods on October 24 to celebrate the  International Day of Climate Action.

 

Join millions of people around the world to celebrate Earth Hour on Saturday March 28th at 8:30 PM. The city of Sydney started the tradition in 2007 and in 2008 it went global with 50 million people participating. It goes to show that small steps taken by each individual can make a big difference.

Ten million Canadians from 150 cities participated in Earth Hour 2008.

The City of Kelowna and FortisBC encourage residents and businesses to participate by turning off their lights at 8:30 PM on March 28th for one hour.

 

According to FortisBC, one of the sure ways to conserve energy is to turn off heat and lights in a room that isn't in use anymore. Here are a few additional tips:

• Use timers and motion sensors for outdoor lighting. Use LED (light emitting diode) lights which use less energy then incandescent lights.
• Keep the thermostats at 20 C in the daytime and 17 C in the night. Install a programmable thermostat that will make it easier to switch between the temperatures
• Only heat the rooms you are using, close doors and lower temperatures of rooms that you are not using.
• Close the fireplace chimney damper between fires to keep the heat in and cold air out.
• Use weather striping around door jambs and windows. Seal windows that don't open with caulking and fill gaps around electrical outlets and openings around water pipes and vents.
• Close your blinds and curtains in the evening to keep the warm air inside.
• Use appliances during off-peak hours if you can. Program the dishwasher to run while you sleep and do laundry after 9 PM.
• Be prepared for power outages in the winter months by keeping flashlights, batteries, battery-operated radio, water, non-perishable food and a first aid kit in a location which can be found easily in the dark. Post emergency and utility phone numbers in a convenient location.
• During an outage, turn off the circuit breakers, lights and larger appliances as well as electric heat (if you have it). By doing this, you prevent an overload outage when power is restored. Kepp one light on so you know when power is restored.

The Interior Health Authority (IHA) received $78,000 from FortisBC recently for their energy efficient lighting upgrades.

They exchanged over 16,000 light fixtures across South and Central Okanagan. The facilities that were upgraded were the Penticton Regional Hospital, Kelowna General Hospital, Cottonwoods Extended Care and Three Links Manor. The lighting upgrades cost $714,000 but will save IHA $100,000 each year. The IHA is commited to reducing energy use and environmental emissions.

The City of Castlegar also received $13,600 in rebates for their upgrades in the Castlegar City Hall project. The energy efficient upgrades will reduce power consumption by 230,000 kWhs each year, enough to power 23 houses. The City Hall also has geothermal heating and cooling, a heat recovery system, energy efficient glazing on the windows and an energy efficient elevator. 

Summer Cooling Tips from FortisBC:

• Close blinds or curtains to block out the sun
• Switch to CFL lights to reduce heat
• Use ceiling and space fans
• Use major appliances early in the morning or after the sun goes down
• Turn off the air conditioner when you go out at night
  

What is the Cool Shops program?

It's a program put together by FortisBC, Terasen Gas, and the City of Kelowna, in partnership with the Clean Air Foundation that helps small businesses conserve energy, save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by identifying and implementing in-store energy management measures.

Through their efforts, they've helped 8,000 retailers become more energy efficient and 5,073 megawatt hours and 1,532 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been saved.

Case Study

Olympia Greek Taverna recently switched to a high efficiency pre-rinse spray valve which will reduce their hot water consumption by 2/3s. That’s a saving of between $400—$800 a year.

Also, the owner's found out that through the Cool Shops program that they have the potential to save approximately $1,400 per year if they upgrade their incandescent and fluorescent lights to more efficient lighting.

If you own a business or work for a business you can set up a free no obligation energy audit.
 
What your business is provided with:

•      a non-intrusive 15 minute palm-pilot based energy audit on the lighting
•      compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) that last 10,000 hours (twisty bulbs)
•      LED exit lamp kits for exit signs that last 2 years and use 2.4Watts
•      Other FREE sample energy efficient lighting products such as flood lights, candleabra lights, dimmable floods, MR16 track lights
•      an energy efficient spray valve (for restaurants)
•      energy saving tips and advice
•      Incentives on items that wish to be purchased through FortisBC and Brite-lite (these savings are 50-75% less than what you would pay in a retail store and the incentives are available until June of next year)

If you are interested, please contact:
 
Fawna More
Cool Shops Program Coordinator
coolshops@fortisbc.com
250-469-8107

 

Cool Shops program provides energy efficiency options for small businesses

FortisBC, Terasen Gas, and the City of Kelowna, in partnership with Clean Air Foundation, are testing a program that helps small businesses conserve energy, save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Small businesses in Rutland and downtown Kelowna can benefit from the free audits provided from the program. The "Cool Shops" program also provides the businesses with energy efficiency options that can help them save money on their utility bills.

Downtown Kelowna and Rutland based businesses can book an audit by contacting the Cool Shops team via email at coolshops@fortisbc.com or by phone at 250-469-8107

Source: Kelowna Capital News article titled "Cools Shops initiative to help choose energy options"

FortisBC PowerSense Rebates for energy efficient updates

FortisBC PowerSense is offering incentives to it's customers on being power smart. They are offering rebates on energy star product installation in new homes, on home improvements, with installation of heat pumps and lighting.

• New Home Program Info & Application Form

If you are building a new home you can receive immediate rebates on ENERGY STAR® windows, insulation and more through the New Home Program

• Home Improvement Program Info & Application Form

If you are thinking about upgrading your windows or insulation you can benefit from the same incentives with rebates on ENERGY STAR® windows, insulation

• Air Source Heat Pump Rebate/Loan Info & Application Form
  

• Ground Source Heat Pump Rebate/Loan Info & Application Form

If you are thinking about replacing your heating and/or cooling systems, you may benefit from the rebates offered for both Air Source and Ground Source Heat Pumps. Not to mention, they can reduce your energy costs by 40% and 65% respectively.

• Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulb Rebate Form

We have talked about the benefits of CFLs in a recent post titled: Save Money and Energy with CFLs

Source: FortisBC PowerSense Incentives 

Replace your light bulbs to help yourself and your environment

We have all heard the buzz about replacing our incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) but often we are turned away by the price tag or don't have enough information to make an informed decision.

I'd like to point out some facts and figures that may sway you now:

• compact fluorescent lights use 75% less energy
• the CFL bulbs last 10 times longer than incandescents
• they save up to $30 in electricity per light over their lifetime.
• a 20 watt CFL bulb gives off the same amount of light as a 100 watt incandescent
• FortisBC PowerSense offers a rebate of 50% of the cost for each bulb purchased (to a maximum of $5.00 per bulb)

If households replaced just a few incandescent bulbs with a compact fluorescent, the emissions savings would be comparable to taking cars off the road for periods of time. We all need cars, but to compensate, we could replace our light bulbs.

On the downside, fluorescent lights contain small amounts of mercury and must be disposed of in a responsible manner. Rona has taken an initiative to recycle your compact flourescent bulbs as a part of their program to promote respect for the environment.