What is a Virtual Sensor?

A virtual sensor is a derived measurement. Instead of reading a physical probe, you compute the value from the readings of one or more other sensors. Supply-air enthalpy from temperature and humidity. Occupancy from CO₂ trend. Equipment runtime from power draw. The virtual sensor is the answer to "we don't have a probe for that — but we have enough to compute it."

Virtual sensors solve two problems. First, they fill data gaps without procurement, installation, and BMS re-commissioning. Second, they act as cross-checks against the physical probes: if the virtual occupancy and the physical occupancy disagree, one of them is wrong, and you can use the historical accuracy of each to decide which.

In Explore, virtual sensors are a first-class object. They're versioned, watched for drift like physical sensors, and used by the Frostdynamics engine to validate inputs before they affect a forecast or fire an alert.