Wells Mayor Ed Coleman says they were the only town in the province that was selected to be part of an energy efficient pilot project.
“They were looking for a smaller community for an energy project, so they approached us and we agreed, District of Wells Council agreed. We were chosen as a pilot project, primarily because we were a smaller community, so it was very measurable for them to do a project like this.”
Coleman says how it works is that BC Hydro will come into your home and do an assessment.
“They will assess the house, they’ll check the insulation in the roof, they’ll check the fridge, they’ll check light bulbs, they’ll check faucets, they’ll check air flow, including weather stripping, and anything that needs rectifying, they will rectify at no cost.”
Coleman says they may replace your fridge, put in better insulation, or replace all of your light bulbs with LED lighting as examples.
He says the town could also benefit.
“If we get to 90 people participating, and 30 of them go to electronic billing versus paper billing, they’ll donate 15 thousand dollars of LED lighting to our community, cultural and recreation centre.”
Coleman says homeowners that have participated say it’s a very professional process.
“The assessor comes in and in half an hour they’ve left you with things you can do to be more efficient with your energy.  And if your fridge qualifies they will approve that. If insulation has to be done they will come with that later. But all the other things they leave with you right away. If your weather stripping needs work, they’ll do it right there, right on the spot.”
Coleman says the project started in mid July and the deadline is August 15th.
He says there are roughly 158 residential dwellings in Wells.