The problem with status updates is that when a command is sent but not received by Vera, Vera does not send the device's status to the app (since nothing will have changed). The result is that the device status remains 'unknown'. It's a tricky condition to work around (and I have seen the same behaviour in other apps); polling the full status after every action would consume too many network and Vera resources. As far as I know, it is not possible to poll Vera for the state of just a single device.
I have considered adding a Refresh button, so that a full state refresh can be pulled from Vera manually at least.
Re. the Energy manager: this looks like it is a fairly easy device to add. I have ordered one and will hopefully get it tomorrow or Monday, so I'll have a go at adding it
