This site helps you understand how you use water and offers customized recommendations for the most effective ways to save water. For example, if you use a lot of water outdoors, you will see watering tips and suggestions about plant choices.

Your water usage data, specifically your meter readings, comes directly from your water utility account. We add in publicly available information, like weather data, to build a better picture about your home's circumstances and water needs. Lastly, you can add in details about your home, by updating your Household Profile, to get better recommendations.

The Household Profile is a set of questions that you can answer to describe your household's unique characteristics and water needs. Answering the questions in the Household Profile allows you to compare your use to other households with similar characteristics. It also helps us more accurately estimate how much water you use in different parts of the house.

If you tell us the number of people living in your home and the age of your showerheads, for example, we can estimate how much water you use in your shower and how much you might save by upgrading to a more efficient model.

To update your Household Profile, click on the "Track" tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. Then click on the "Update profile to improve estimates" button.

GPD stands for Gallons Per Day. Your water use is presented in the number of gallons used per day because it’s typically the easiest unit for people to envision and provides the best metric for comparison. Other common but less easily understood measures of water consumption are Gallons Per Capita Per Day (GPCD), Units or CCF (both equal to 748 gallons).

To put your water use in context, we show you the amount of water used by 'Average Households' and 'Top 20%'. Since a large family living in a house with a large landscaped yard will nearly always use more water than a single person living in small apartment or condominium, we compare you to similar-sized homes in your community with roughly the same number of occupants.

Answering the questions in your Household Profile helps us match you up with other households most like yours.

With the exception of aggregate water usage, which is taken directly from readings of your water meter, most of the charts and savings estimates are simply that – estimates. Without a thorough analysis and site audit, it is nearly impossible to accurately estimate how much water is used in each area of your home—but we get pretty close!

We use the data you have provided in your Household Profile, along with past usage data and industry studies of water use to derive the charts and water-saving recommendations on our site. Use these estimates to identify the top uses of water in your home and the changes you can make that will have the biggest impact on your water use.

Based on the information in your Household Profile and other data sources, we estimate how much water you use today in various areas of your home. For many water-saving actions, we’ve established a savings formula that allows us to then forecast your potential gallons per day and annual dollar savings.

Simply complete your Household Profile and you’ll give the recommendation engine all it needs to produce improved suggestions.

The Take Action tab has two main options. The Recommended Actions page will have a list of recommended actions that you can take to use water more efficiently based on your household profile. My Actions keeps track of the water-saving actions you’d like to implement. With the goal of making it as easy as possible for you to complete water-saving actions, you’ll find lists for your “started” and “saved” actions. We may send you reminders or helpful hints if you need extra help. Your “completed” actions list helps you quickly see the changes you’ve made and how they’ve reduced your water use.

Please use the “Email Us” button on the bottom left of the page to send us your question, or the "Contact Us" tab on the left side of the screen. We look forward to hearing from you!

Please contact Customer Service at the City of Oceanside at (760) 435-4500 or WaterSmart@oceansideca.org.