Why should I fix a dripping faucet?

I received this information from my inspector. Way to look at the big picture. It seems if you have a dripping faucet and cannot fix it on your own, go ahead and call that plumber! You will be saving money in the long run and of course, water, which is a great resource in need of conservation.

Drip Calculator: How much water does a leaking faucet waste?

Check your faucets at home — do any of them drip? Well, maybe it’s just a small drip — how much water can a little drip waste? True, a single drip won’t waste much water, but think about each faucet in your home dripping a little bit all day long. What if every faucet in every home on your block … in your town … in your state also dripped? The drips would add up to a flood of water wasted down the drain.

There is no scientific definition of the volume of a faucet drip, but after measuring a number of kitchen and bathroom sink faucets, the volume seems to be between 1/5th and 1/3rd if a milliliter (mL). Drips from bathroom tubs come in a bit more, though, at about 1/2 mL. So, for our calculations below (numbers are rounded), we are going to use 1.4mL as the volume of a faucet drip. So , by these drip estimates:

One gallon: 15,140 drips

One liter: 4,000 drips

Looking at it this way, it seems like that drop of water down the drain is pretty insignificant. But, as you can see by using the form below, all those drops flowing in “real time” can really add up to a flood.

Approximate Water Wastage

Drips per day: 259,200

Liters per day: 65
Gallons per day: 17

Gallons per year: 6,248

The above information and calculator can be found at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/drought/dripcalculator.html