The Location & Utility Info page brings together all the settings that affect how your devices function based on where you are and what you pay for energy. These settings work together to ensure accurate scheduling, precise cost tracking, and optimal energy management.

Where you edit these settings depends on whether your device is in a Home. Devices in a Home inherit the Home's location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date; edit them on the Home (Menu, then tap your Home's name) and the change applies to every device in it. Unassigned devices keep their own individual settings, edited on the device under Menu > Manage Devices as described below. Learn more in Understanding Homes in the Emporia App.

Setting a location for your Emporia devices is crucial for optimizing their functionality and enabling accurate energy management tailored to your specific area.

Why Location Matters:

Automatic Location During Setup:

When onboarding a new device, enabling location permissions is required to establish Bluetooth communications. During this process, the device's location is often saved automatically. You can adjust this setting if needed.

If your device is in a Home: its location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date are managed on the Home, not on the device. Open Menu, tap your Home's name, and edit the setting there. The change applies to every device in that Home. The steps below apply to devices that are Unassigned (not in any Home).

Setting or Updating Device Location:

Note: Ensure Location Services are enabled for the Emporia Energy app, and be physically near the device when making updates.

Managing multiple properties: create a separate Home for each property and assign each property's devices to its Home. Each Home carries its own location, time zone, utility rate, and billing date. See Understanding Homes in the Emporia App.

Setting the appropriate time zone ensures accurate functionality across the platform.

Why Time Zone is Critical:

If your device is in a Home: its location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date are managed on the Home, not on the device. Open Menu, tap your Home's name, and edit the setting there. The change applies to every device in that Home. The steps below apply to devices that are Unassigned (not in any Home).

Setting Time Zone Per Device:

You can assign individual time zones to each device—useful for managing properties in different time zones or traveling with portable devices.

Setting utility rates allows you to view your energy usage in currency terms instead of just kilowatt-hours (kWh), helping you understand the actual cost of your energy consumption.

Why Utility Rates Matter:

Emporia Verified Plans are utility rates maintained directly by our team, offering improved accuracy and regular updates as utilities change their pricing.

If your device is in a Home: its location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date are managed on the Home, not on the device. Open Menu, tap your Home's name, and edit the setting there. The change applies to every device in that Home. The steps below apply to devices that are Unassigned (not in any Home).

Selecting Your Utility Provider:

If Your Rate Isn't Available:

Contact our customer support team—we'll work to add your utility's rates to our database.

If your utility changes your rate plan, you can submit the updated rate structure to Emporia through the app. This includes providing documentation, such as a utility bill showing the plan name and pricing details, to ensure the new rates are accurately reflected.

For utilities not yet in our database or for custom rate plans, you can manually enter your energy rate.

If your device is in a Home: its location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date are managed on the Home, not on the device. Open Menu, tap your Home's name, and edit the setting there. The change applies to every device in that Home. The steps below apply to devices that are Unassigned (not in any Home).

Entering Your Rate Manually:

The app calculates costs by multiplying this rate by your energy usage. The default rate is 13.2 cents per kWh (US National Average).

Multi-Currency Tip: If your utility bill is in a different currency, enter the rate per kWh as charged by your provider. Update your currency symbol separately via Account Options.

Applying a rate to several devices: devices in the same Home always share the Home's rate plan automatically. For Unassigned devices, the app will prompt you to apply a saved rate to other Unassigned devices on your account.

Historical Data Behavior: When you update the utility rate, the change applies only to future calculations. Historical data and their associated costs remain unchanged to reflect the rates that were in effect at the time of the original measurements.

The Billing Date setting aligns monthly energy usage data with your utility billing cycle rather than the standard calendar month.

How It Works:

Example: Setting the billing date to the 8th means your billing month runs from the 8th of one month to the 7th of the next month.

Billing days after the 15th: if your billing day is after the 15th of the month, the Graphs show usage from those days as part of the next month's billing cycle. For example, with a billing date of April 16th, usage from April 16th through April 30th appears as May usage.

If your device is in a Home: its location, time zone, utility rate plan, and billing date are managed on the Home, not on the device. Open Menu, tap your Home's name, and edit the setting there. The change applies to every device in that Home. The steps below apply to devices that are Unassigned (not in any Home).

Setting Your Billing Date:

Once configured, the Home screen will show your energy costs for the current billing period, making it easy to compare with your utility bill.

This knowledge base is continuously evolving to provide comprehensive support for managing your energy effectively. If you found this article unhelpful or think it could be improved, please contact our Customer Support team.