As a hot water tap drips, water which was previously heated in a geyser leaves the geyser and is lost down the drain. But what is also lost is the heat energy held by that hot water. As the hot water drips away, leaving the geyser, new water will have to be continually added to the geyser and heated, thereby requiring an input of extra energy, usually electrical energy.

In this essay, I calculate the cost of the leaking hot water tap. I link hot water loss to heat energy loss to extra electricity consumption to resultant monetary cost.

Download PDF fix-that-leaking-tap.pdf (170 KB)