Can a Dripping Faucet Increase the Water Bill?

An American household will use approximately 400 gallons of water per day. Every time you run your faucet for common purposes, you use an estimate of 2 gallons of water. Unfortunately, your faucet may be releasing water even when your handles are in the off position. Each year, millions of gallons of water are wasted due to a leaking faucet; a valuable resource that some communities cannot obtain. A dripping faucet that is left unattended can raise your utility bill by over 10 percent each month. This rounds up to nearly 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year per household. The use of 10,000 gallons of water equates to about 180 showers. 

Calculating a leaking faucet

The United States Geological Survey has developed a drip calculator designed to give you an estimate of how much water you are wasting annually due to plumbing leaks in your home. 

• 15,140 drips of water = 1 gallon of water
• 4,000 drips of water  = 1 liter of water

To put this into perspective, a rate of 10 drops per minute leads to a waste of 3 liters of water per day. Which adds to 90 liters per month, or 347 gallons of water each year. Assuming a household or apartment has a faster drip of 21 liters of water each day. That amount of water  wasted accumulates up to about 2,082 gallons of water each year. These scenarios only take one leaking faucet into consideration. Some homes may have multiple leaking faucets in and around their property, increasing the amount of water wasted and raising the utility bill.       

Water Leak Costs

So, how much money are those wasted gallons of water costing you? The average cost of one  leaking faucet will sum up to $20 per month. Overall this might not seem like a large issue, yet, it can quickly add up. Having more than one leaking faucet can double or even triple the price. Furthermore, a damaged or pinhole-sized leak in your plumbing pipe can raise the utility bill to $600 per month. These types of leaks go unnoticed because they are hidden behind walls or underground. Many homeowners are also frequently unaware of their toilet leaking; thus a leaky toilet can cost $150 per month on average. Water is an expensive resource. By changing the monthly cost into yearly cost; some of these leaks can add hundreds or thousands to your utility bill. Ignoring the issue can be more expensive than contacting your plumber. Professional help will make sure the problem is properly handled and analyze your home for other possible plumbing leaks.

If you are still not convinced that plumbing leaks are an issue, here on some interesting facts.

• 60% of water worldwide is lost due to a leak related issue.
• The United States of America alone wastes 1 trillion gallons of water annually.
• 2 trillion gallons of wasted water equals a loss of  $1.5 billion dollars.

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