We all want to save money, and most of us care about conserving water, too. There are a few things we can do to tackle both goals. We can buy more efficient appliances. We can wash more clothes or dishes per cycle. We can take shorter showers. We can run our sprinklers at night instead of in the heat of the day. We can water our plants with the gently-used water we used to boil eggs or cook pasta. And last but not least, we can keep our household plumbing in good working order by doing things like fixing a dripping faucet.
We’ve all heard the drip, drip, drip, of a leaky faucet. We try again and again to stop the faucet dripping but it doesn’t do any good. The sound can be really irritating, so we keep the bathroom door closed, or do other things to dampen the sound. But what some people overlook is how much water (and money) we lose when we ignore the need for leaky faucet repair.
The USGS (United States Geological Society) estimates a drip from a faucet or shower head to be about ¼ ml in volume. This may seem tiny but over time it really adds up.
Time for some math:
Let’s say your faucet drips ten times per minute, which is fairly typical. That adds up to 3.6 liters per day, which is nearly a gallon. Over the course of a year, this will waste 347 gallons.
Or let’s say you have a faucet dripping about once per second (or if you have two faucets each dripping once every two seconds.) This will waste .9 liters per hour. Over the course of a day it will waste 21.61 liters. Over the course of a month it will waste around 650 liters, or 171.7 gallons. Over the course of a year this will waste around 7,884 liters, which is over 2,082 gallons!
All this wasted water not only increases our water bill, it also goes needlessly to our municipal water treatment facilities, where it is processed to be reused. This not only costs money to do; the process of treating all this water throughout the country contributes to pollution and atmospheric carbon levels. That should be enough to make us all check our faucets, inside and outside our home.
If you need faucet repair, call Hoover Electric. Established in 1980, Hoover Electric, Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling has been serving customers in Southeast Michigan ever since, offering courteous, professional service. Because we offer all the services you need for residential maintenance under one roof, we’re able to offer extremely competitive pricing while maintaining great customer service and guaranteed satisfaction. When you’re looking for top-quality electrical, plumbing, heating, or cooling services in Clinton Township, contact Hoover through our website or call 586-232-9204 today.
