So I have a leaking faucet.  This faucet so happens to be my tub faucet and last night I decided to measure how much water was actually leaking.  I put a 4 cup measuring tool under the faucet and closed the stopper.  Just as a reference, the faucet is dripping just faster than once a second.  In the morning I checked the measuring cup and this is what I found!

Not only was the measuring cup full, there was quite a bit of water held in the tub.  All in all there was 22 cups of water in an 8 hour period.

Some quick mathematics

1.375 gal in 8 hours

4.125 gal in 1 day

28.875 gal in 1 week

121.68 gal in 1 month

1505.625 gal in 1 year

Although it would take 4 months to fill a jacuzi, 9 years to fill an average size pool, and 440 years to fill an Olympic size pool, maybe consider the fact that I have three leaking faucets.  Better yet,  multiply that across any given neighborhood, city, state, nation.

More quick mathematics for those locations. Quantities  for one year from one leaking faucet per household!

9.5 Million Gal (37210 my neighborhood)

357 Million Gal (2000 census for Nashville)

3.5 Billion Gal (2005 Community Report TN)

165.5 Billion Gal (Projected Household USA Census)

My neighborhood could fill an Olympic pool in less than a month, Nashville in less than 16 hours, Tennessee in about an hour and a half, and  the USA in 12 seconds.

All from one leaky faucet per household.

You have a few options for faucet repair :

1. Call a plumber

2. Find out which brand faucet you have and order or pick up the proper rubber seal or rings that are inside your faucet and replace them yourself.

3. Replace the faucet.

4. Buy lunch for a friend that can fix the faucet.

5.  Keep filling Olympic size pools.

I hope you select fixing, perhaps I will go more into depth sometime on fixing the faucet, but for now those that now, should do.  Like me of course.  Those that don’t know, ask someone else.

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