Homes let you group your Emporia devices by the physical location they belong to. Devices in the same Home share one location, time zone, utility rate, billing day, and set of members, so you can manage the whole property in one place instead of configuring each device separately.

This article explains what a Home is, which settings it controls, how sharing works, and how Homes interact with energy management features. In a few places in the app you may temporarily see a Home referred to as a Site. They are the same thing.

A Home is a group of devices that share the same location and settings. A few rules to know:

When a device joins a Home, it inherits that Home's settings:

Solar buyback: if your utility pays you for exported solar, set the Home's Solar Buyback Rate in its settings. Choose Same rate I pay (your utility pays full retail credit, also called 1:1 net metering) or A set rate for each kWh. The rate applies to every eligible device in the Home.

Editing the Home updates every device in it. Change the Home's utility plan, location, or time zone and the change applies to all of its devices at once.

Device-level settings move to the Home. Once a device is in a Home, its individual Location and Utility Info settings are hidden. To change them, edit the Home itself. Devices that are Unassigned keep their individual location and utility settings.

After changing a Home's utility rate or time zone, take a moment to review any Smart Saver schedules and energy management settings on that Home's devices. These features follow the Home's rate plan and time zone, so their operating windows can shift when those settings change.

Sharing a Home is the most powerful sharing option in the app, so it is worth understanding exactly what it does before you invite someone.

Sharing a Home shares everything in it. Every member of a Home can see and control every device in that Home, view all of its energy data, and change any of its settings. There are no separate owner or guest roles: any member can invite others, edit settings, or delete the Home. If you invite someone who does not have an Emporia account yet, they appear as pending on the Home until they create one.

This rule applies no matter how a device gets there. Any time a device that is shared with someone joins a Home, that person becomes a member of the Home and gets access to every device in it. For example, if you have shared your EV charger with a tenant and you later add that charger to your Home, the tenant gains access to all the other devices in that Home too.

To share just one device, keep that device Unassigned and share it from the device's own Shared With setting. Device-level sharing is only available while the device is Unassigned.

To remove someone's access, open the Home's settings, go to Shared With, and tap the trash icon next to their email address. This is the only reliable way to revoke access. Removing a device from the Home is not enough: people it was shared with keep their access to that device until they are removed from Shared With.

Quick reference:

Energy management features connect an energy monitor to the devices it controls, so all of the devices in one setup need to be in the same Home, or all Unassigned. The app handles this differently depending on the feature:

If Peak Demand or Excess Solar seems to have stopped controlling a device after you reorganized your Homes, this is the most likely reason. Check that the monitor and all of its managed devices are in the same Home, then re-enable each device in the feature's settings.

Managing your Homes:

The Home tab and the Devices tab:

Adding and moving devices:

A few areas of the app are tied to your account rather than to any Home:

Where did my devices go?

They are almost certainly still on your account. First check which Home is selected on the Home tab: if you have more than one Home, you may be looking at the wrong one. Also note that once you have a Home, Unassigned devices never appear on the Home tab. Open the Devices tab and switch the filter to All Devices or Unassigned to see everything on your account.

I shared one charger with someone. Why can they see my whole home?

The charger was added to a Home. When a device that is shared with someone joins a Home, that person becomes a member of the Home and gains access to all of its devices. To fix it, open the Home's settings, go to Shared With, and remove them. If you want them to have access to just the charger, keep the charger Unassigned and share it from the device's own Shared With setting.

I removed a device from my Home, but the person I shared with still has access. Why?

Removing a device from a Home does not revoke anyone's access to it. To remove a person's access, take them off the Shared With list.

I deleted my Home. Are my devices gone?

No. Deleting a Home never deletes devices. They become Unassigned and stay on your account. Set the Devices tab filter to Unassigned or All Devices to find them. Note that anyone the Home was shared with keeps access to those devices until you remove them from the devices' Shared With lists.

A device did not get added to my Home during setup. Where is it?

It is most likely Unassigned. It will not appear on the Home tab, so open the Devices tab with the Unassigned filter to find it, then assign it from the device's settings using Assigned Home, or add it from the Home's settings using Choose Devices.

Why can't I move my device to a different Home?

The device is part of a PowerSmart or Load Sharing setup, and moving it would split the monitor and its controlled devices across different Homes. Disable the feature or remove the device from it first, or move the whole setup to the same Home together.

Peak Demand or Excess Solar stopped working after I changed my Homes. What happened?

Some of the devices in the setup ended up in a different Home than the energy monitor, so the feature stopped managing them. Bring the monitor and its devices back into the same Home, then re-add the devices in the feature's settings.

Why can't I edit my device's location or utility rate anymore?

The device is in a Home, so those settings are now managed at the Home level. Open the Home's settings to change them. The change will apply to every device in that Home.

Why don't I see a Leave option on my Home?

Leave only appears when a Home has two or more members. If you are the only member, you can delete the Home instead, and its devices will become Unassigned. Keep in mind that leaving a Home removes your access to all of the devices in it.

This knowledge base is continuously updated to provide the most helpful guidance for Emporia customers. If you found this article unclear or have suggestions for improvement, please contact our Customer Support team.