by The Affordable Oracle

While out on inspection I picked up an interesting bit of real estate trivia from a property manager. Apparently Starbucks coffee prep operation requires a constantly running faucet for cleansing latte-macchiato-double-express-utensils. The cost of this faucet has caught many landlords off guard, so I figured…how bad can it be?. I did some back-of-the-envelope number crunching and here are my results:

Gallons/min

4
Gallons/hour

240
Gallons/day (6am - 11pm)

4,080
Gallons/year

1,489,200
W&S rate/gallon (NYC)

$0.01021
Annual water and sewer bill

$15,205
$/SF (1,000 SF store)

$15.20

The running faucet generates a $15,205 water bill.