Device detection in your home happens gradually. Sense learns the unique electrical signatures of your devices over time—so you may see a mix of devices in different stages of detection in your Devices list.
And since every home is different, your input is essential. Once Sense fully learns a new device, the app will ask you to confirm and name it. You’re the expert on your home, so your guidance improves Sense for everyone.
Note: If your device has not yet been added to our Add Device menu, or if you haven't added the device to your listing, device detection proceeds as always, meaning that Sense continue to work to learn about that device even though it does not provide staged estimates.
You may now see a combination of:
- Devices in inventory (you told us they exist, but we haven’t tracked them yet)
- Devices with historical usage estimates
- Devices fully detected in real time, which now also appear as bubbles on your Now screen
⚠️ Tip: If you’ve added more than one of the same kind of device (like two fridges), Sense will initially group them—for example: Fridges: 2 units. Once Sense learns each unit individually, you’ll be notified. Be sure to rename them so you can track each one on its own. This helps you understand how each device contributes to your overall energy use.
Four Stages of Real Time Device Detection
Sense delivers more insights, sooner—even while real-time detection is still in progress. Here’s how:
Stage 1: Inventory
You’ve identified the device, but Sense hasn’t yet gathered enough data to begin estimating its usage. Devices at this stage appear in gray. If a device remains gray for an extended period, it may indicate that the device's electrical signature is hard to isolate—possibly due to infrequent use, overlapping activity from other appliances, or subtle energy patterns. Our data science team is continuously refining detection models to improve this over time.
Stage 2: Identified (Historical)
The device icon turns blue, and you’ll start to see estimated usage and cost information. These estimates come from our data science models based on what we know so far. Sense will keep collecting data to improve accuracy and increase confidence in the device’s signature over time.
Stage 3: Tracking (Historical)
Sense has gathered enough information to estimate daily usage in your home, though not yet in real time.
Note: If you’re looking at the usage chart for the current day, keep in mind that estimated usage for devices isn’t available yet—that energy will still appear under Other. Once the day ends, Sense calculates the device estimate overnight. The next day, that usage will be assigned to the appropriate device and removed from the Other category.
Stage 4: Real Time
Full detection is now complete—this is when the device starts appearing as a bubble on your Now screen, timeline, and across other real-time features in the Sense Home app. This is also when you can actively give a device a name that reflects what's in your home (such as differentiating a fridge in the kitchen from one in the garage).
Other Methods of Device Detection
Smart Plugs or Dedicated Circuit Monitoring
When you use smart plugs or Sense’s Dedicated Circuit Monitoring (DCM) to track a device, that device is excluded from our machine-learning detection process.
If Sense previously detected the device, make sure to:
- Go to the device entry in your Devices list
- Tap What’s Connected to This?
- Select the natively detected devices that apply
This prevents Sense from double-counting the energy and ensures your reports stay accurate.
Update for EVs, Heat Pumps - October 2025
In late October, 2025 Sense introduced a parallel method of device detection to help your Sense Energy Monitor identify more types of energy patterns in your home. The new method runs alongside our existing detection models and is currently available for Sense Home Energy Monitors (it will come to smart meters in a future firmware update).
The updated method uses data-driven models to find energy patterns unique to certain devices, including:
- Solar generation
- Variable speed heat pumps
- Electric vehicles (Levels 1 and 2)
It needs about 24 hours of data to start identifying new device types.
Once detection begins, these devices appear in your Sense app just like any other real-time device—with bubbles, on/off events, and detailed usage data.
What you’ll notice
If you have more than one of these devices, each type will appear as a single device in your Sense app.
- At the Now screen: One device bubble that grows or shrinks as device(s) of that type turn on or off
- A single device entry on your Devices list and in Detailed Usage
- A combined view of total energy used by all devices of that type
For more information, please consider:
🔍 What's New In Device Detection - October 2025
🔍 How Sense Learns About Your Home's Energy Use
🔍 Devices: How Can I Rename A Device?