Cascade
Join us in making every drop count—because smarter water use starts with Cascade.
Introduction
Cascade addresses the growing challenge of water inefficiency and rising costs with a cutting-edge, software-first solution. By leveraging AI and advanced algorithms, Cascade provides real-time, appliance-level insights into water usage—no bulky hardware, no expensive installations. Our platform empowers households to track and optimize their consumption, identifying waste, leaks, and inefficiencies with precision. Traditional solutions fall short, focusing on generic reports and costly setups, while Cascade delivers detailed, actionable data at a fraction of the cost. By making smarter water use simple, accessible, and affordable, Cascade is redefining water conservation for a more sustainable future—ensuring every drop truly counts
Problem
The problem Cascade addresses is the widespread inefficiency and waste in household water usage, which contributes to significant environmental and financial costs. In the United States alone, household leaks waste nearly 900 billion gallons of water annually, equivalent to the yearly water usage of 11 million homes. Outdoor irrigation systems, often poorly maintained, account for up to 25,000 gallons of wasted water per household each year due to evaporation, runoff, and inefficiency. This inefficiency is compounded by the lack of transparency in water bills—leaving homeowners unaware of where their water is going and unable to address waste effectively. With water and sewer bills having risen by 56% over the past decade, many households are struggling with unpredictable costs, averaging $121.78 per month in major U.S. cities. Traditional solutions rely on expensive, hardware-based systems that only provide basic usage reports or leak detection, failing to address the root cause of water inefficiency at the appliance level. The result is a growing need for smarter, more affordable solutions that empower users with actionable insights to reduce waste and optimize water usage.
Opportunity
The developed algorithm presents a comprehensive and innovative solution to the pervasive issue of water management by leveraging advanced time-series analysis and machine learning techniques to accurately classify water usage events. Central to this approach is the transformation of raw water meter readings into meaningful flow rate time series, enabling the identification and segmentation of distinct water usage events based on dynamically determined flow rate thresholds. By meticulously extracting key features—such as total volume, duration, average and maximum flow rates, and temporal patterns—from each segmented event, the algorithm constructs a robust feature set that captures the nuanced characteristics of various household appliances like sinks, showers, hoses, laundries, and dishwashers. Employing a Random Forest classifier, the algorithm is trained on calibrated data to discern patterns and associations between the extracted features and specific water-consuming appliances. This supervised learning model excels in handling the complexity and variability inherent in water usage data, providing high accuracy and resilience against overfitting. Upon deployment, the algorithm processes continuous streams of new meter data in real-time, dynamically segmenting the data into individual events, extracting relevant features, and classifying each event with precision. The subsequent allocation of water usage to the identified appliance categories facilitates granular monitoring and management of water consumption, enabling users to pinpoint inefficiencies, detect anomalies such as leaks, and implement targeted conservation strategies. This technical solution not only enhances the granularity and accuracy of water usage monitoring but also empowers stakeholders with actionable insights, thereby contributing significantly to sustainable water management practices. By automating the detection and classification of water usage events, the algorithm addresses critical challenges in water conservation, resource allocation, and environmental sustainability, positioning itself as a pivotal tool in the endeavor to mitigate water scarcity and promote responsible water usage.