The Emporia Energy app helps you monitor both your energy usage (in kWh) and associated costs (in currency). To ensure accurate cost tracking that aligns with your actual utility bills, it's important to configure your utility rate settings correctly and understand how the app performs calculations.
Understanding Your Rate Options
Emporia Energy offers two methods for setting utility rates:
1. Utility Rate Plan: Select from Emporia's rate plan database, which includes utility-specific rates with various pricing structures and fees.
2. Fixed Rate: Manually enter a single cost per kWh for simple, flat-rate billing scenarios.
The app uses a default rate of 13.2 cents per kWh (US National Average) until you configure your specific rate.
Accessing Your Utility Rate Settings
To adjust your utility rate settings:
Select Menu (☰) within the app
Select Manage Devices and pick your device
Select Location & Utility Info
Select Utility Rate
Once you save a rate plan to one device, the app will prompt you with options to apply this plan to all devices, choose specific devices, or save it to just the current device.
Choosing the Right Rate Option
Utility Rate Plans
Emporia is building a comprehensive utility rate database to provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date rate information. Emporia Verified Plans are utility rates that have been entered and maintained directly by our team.
Benefits of Emporia Verified Plans:
Direct control: Rates can be updated quickly by Emporia without relying on third-party databases or utility company submissions
Improved accuracy: Our team ensures rate information is current and correctly configured
Expanding coverage: We're continuously adding new utility providers to our database
Note: While we transition to our proprietary database, some utility rate plans may still use data provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). We're actively working to expand our Emporia Verified Plans coverage to include more utilities and regions. If your utility rate is not available or appears incorrect, please contact our customer support team at [email protected] so we can add or update it.
Fixed Rate Configuration
For simple, flat-rate billing scenarios, you can enter your rate manually:
Enter the cost per kWh in cents (e.g., 12.5 for 12.5 cents per kWh or $0.125/kWh)
The app will calculate costs by multiplying this rate by your energy usage (measured in kWh)
This option works best for utilities with straightforward pricing structures
Tip: If your utility bill is in a different currency (from USD), you can still enter the rate per kWh as charged by your provider. The app will perform a simple multiplication calculation without accounting for currency conversions. You can update your currency label via these instructions.
How Cost Calculations Work
Once you've configured your utility rate, the app calculates your energy costs by combining several factors:
Rate Application: Your configured kWh rate is multiplied by your actual energy usage to determine costs.
Utility Fees: When using Utility Rate Plans, the app includes additional fees from your utility provider, ensuring the displayed cost reflects all associated expenses beyond just the base kWh rate.
Real-time Updates: Costs are calculated continuously as you use energy, giving you up-to-date visibility into your expenses.
Feedback and Suggestions
We're continually working to improve our knowledge base to better support your energy management needs. If you have suggestions or find that this article needs clarification, please contact our Customer Support team. Your feedback helps us ensure these guides are helpful and accurate.