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.
What’s New in Detection?
Beginning in 2024, Sense started showing usage estimates for some devices you tell us about—even before we have fully learned them in real time. Here’s what’s changed:
- We introduced a Device Survey during setup to help you get started. The survey accommodates a long (though not exhaustive) list of devices we invite you to identify in your home to add them to your Devices listing. These are devices for which we can confidently provide cost estimates even before the learning process is complete.
- In 2025, we've added an Add Device button at the bottom of the Devices, which allows you to add devices either because you've added them to your home or because you began to use Sense before we introduced the survey.
- So, all users can now add available devices to their listing to begin tracking these devices during the stages of detection.
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 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).
Using 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.
For more information, please consider:
🔍 How Sense Learns About Your Home's Energy Use
🔍 How To Name Or Rename A Device In Sense