We're always telling you that leaks waste water, and you shouldn't ignore them. But if a faucet only has a slow drip, is it really worth worrying about? In this post, we're gonna get into the numbers to find out exactly how much that slow drip adds up to.
To figure this out, we first need to time out how often the faucet drips. Let's say you have one faucet in your home that drips once every second. That's 60 drips per minute, 3,600 drips per hour, which adds up to 86,400 drips per day and a whopping 31,536,000 drips per year.
Then, we must figure out the volume that all those drips add up to. There is no precise definite volume of a faucet drip (the exact volume of each drip can vary), so we are going to estimate that each drip's volume is 1/4 milliliter (ml). One gallon contains roughly 3,785 ml, so that's 15,140 drips per gallon, which means our 1-second-dripping faucet wastes over 5 gallons of water per day and just under 2,083 gallons per year. The numbers only get higher if your faucet drips more quickly, or if you have more than one drippy faucet in your home.
It goes without saying: all that wasted water makes quite an impact on your water bill. Wouldn't you rather use those 5 gallons that you're paying for every day? Imagine all the coffee you could make with that! (That was a joke, please don't actually drink 5 gallons of coffee.)
So, you may think this isn't much and may still be tempted to leave your leaky faucet alone. But wasted water aside, a leak will almost always get worse over time if you leave it alone and can even cause the faucet to corrode or leak under the sink, leading to water damage and mold growth. Don't wait! Call us at 586-459-0040 and we'll quickly fix it up.