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Wiki Everything you wanted to know about Intelligent Octopus But Were Afraid To Ask

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Why write this post?
A lot of people are starting to get interested in IO. I don't think Octopus do a very good job of spelling out the benefits in their website. They have some FAQs, but the same questions keep coming up over and over on the forums.

What is it?
In a nutshell, IO is a split tariff that gives you a cheap off-peak rate for charging your EV and other electrical items in the household, including home batteries.

Isn’t that the same as Octopus Go or Go Faster?
The principle is the same, but in exchange for some benefits which we’ll explain, you allow Octopus to control the timing of your EV charge, so they can choose low carbon intensity and/or cheap wholesale priced time slots.

So I’m not in control of my charge? I don’t like the sound of that!
Well yes…and no. You’re in control of how much to charge and when you want the car to be ready, just like you would be normally. Within those parameters, you’re allowing Octopus to control which half-hour slots the car chooses to get to that target % charge. And you can always override IO if you want to “bump charge” through the day.

OK, but what are the benefits you mentioned for this trade off?
First of all, you get a larger guaranteed off-peak window for using household appliances and charging home batteries, etc. It’s six hours between 23:30-05:30. Go, for example, is a fixed 4 hour window.
In addition, when IO schedules your EV charging slots it sometimes creates schedules that fall outside of the fixed, six hour window. If that happens your EV charging and all your household use in these extra-slots is also charged at off-peak rates.
I have frequently had schedules give me seven or more hours of off-peak rates. On one occasion, I had a total of ten hours of off-peak rates.

Am I eligible?
You need a smart meter and a compatible car and/or charger. Since you’re reading this here, I assume you’ve got or are thinking of getting a Tesla. IO works with the Tesla API to create the charging schedules. The advantage of this is that IO will work with any* home charger. If you have a charger with smart features, you need to disable them so that the charger acts as a dumb switch. IO will control everything via Tesla’s API to start and stop your charging.
*Even your granny charger - but you need to tell IO what the max throughput is when you go through setup so that it can work out your schedules properly.

Some of this sounds too good to be true.
Phantom drain caused by having smart charging enabled in the Octopus app has been fixed as of 30th August 2022. One small side effect appears to be that schedules sometimes take longer to appear in the app after plugging in.

Further questions (to be updated in the main thread body once the edit timer on this post expires)

I have two EVs, can I charge the other while on IO?

Not with IO scheduling the charging, but you can charge any other car in the fixed 23:30-05:30 off peak window or at any other time at peak prices.

What are the rates etc?
Octopus do a decent job of explaining the peak and off-peak rates along with contracts etc. Head over to their pages to discover that.

I asked for a target % of x, but I got less than x.
There are two or three reasons for this.

The first, most common reason, is that Tesla reports battery % differently depending on where you look. The API (that IO uses) reports the gross battery %. This is generally fixed but can fluctuate very slightly. The Tesla app shows usable %. Apps like Teslamate and Teslafi can display both. Quite often, there is a delta of 2-3% which may be down to battery temp or other factors. This usable % will often be recovered as the battery warms up during a drive.

Some users have reported charging % being way off, perhaps 10% or more. This could be down to an error in the onboarding process. Some of the charger database entries incorrectly assume the charger you are onboarding is the 11kW version, without actually saying so in the charger description. The Andersen A2 was an early example of this. If you suspect this may be the case, the easiest thing to do is go through the on-boarding again and choose "Generic 7.4kW charger". It won't affect your functionality on IO in any way.

Lastly, it has to be mentioned that occasionally IO just craps out. It may be down to a comms error, a server error at Octopus' end, or just reasons. IO is a beta product and it's wise to expect one or two quirks from time to time
 
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The
I’m not sure the FAQ is correct with regards to a second car.
IO expressly stops you from signing up if you state that you have second electric vehicle, so I believe charging a second EV at cheap rate is against their T&Cs.
You may want to double check that, but I think I’m not wrong.
There is nothing in the T&Cs that expressly forbids charging a second EV. They only mention that you cannot have two EVs being controlled by IO, which is the key word.
 
This is well timed and helpful, thanks, I've recently been looking at Intelligent for when my currently favourable Go rates end... One question I have which I can't see an answer to, does anyone know if you can set up an Intelligent tariff at another property/account using a Tesla already registered/linked (whatever the right term is) to another property/account?
 
This is well timed and helpful, thanks, I've recently been looking at Intelligent for when my currently favourable Go rates end... One question I have which I can't see an answer to, does anyone know if you can set up an Intelligent tariff at another property/account using a Tesla already registered/linked (whatever the right term is) to another property/account?
No, you cannot do that. There is an element of geofencing involved in making the tariff work.
 
Some of this sounds too good to be true.
There is one bug which hasn’t been squashed. If you have IO smart charging enabled in the Octopus app and the car is unplugged from your charger, IO queries the Tesla API and keeps the car awake, causing unnecessary battery drain.
It’s annoying, Octopus need to fix it, but the workaround is pretty simple: toggle smart-charging off in the Octopus app when your car is unplugged and you’re not scheduling a charge.

I feel like this point is understated. If an owner isn't actively managing the IO app (enabling and disabling every time they charge), the amount of wasted energy can be on the order of several kWh per car, per day.
 
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I feel like this point is understated. If an owner isn't actively managing the IO app (enabling and disabling every time they charge), the amount of wasted energy can be on the order of several kWh per car, per day.
On this point, another question I pondered, could you not do an Intelligent charge once on sign up just to activate the account and then revert to your old Go ways and simply schedule your charge 'normally' in between the longer off peak hours of 23:30-05:30?
 
On this point, another question I pondered, could you not do an Intelligent charge once on sign up just to activate the account and then revert to your old Go ways and simply schedule your charge 'normally' in between the longer off peak hours of 23:30-05:30?
This question comes up quite a bit. I'll answer it in 3 parts:

1. First and key point to make is the workaround is really very little effort. Why deny yourself the regular extra off-peak slots just for the sake of a few button clicks. (And if the car is plugged in, the bug doesn't occur)

2. If you still wanted to do what's suggested then technically nothing right now would stop you. With the caveat that the product is in beta and I suspect anything goes while Octopus is in data collection mode.

3. It is against the spirit and intention of the tariff - which is to avoid the old fashioned fixed off-peak schedules and promote a healthy grid. Others may disagree, but I've interpreted clauses in the T&Cs that Octopus could boot you off the tariff if you persistently charge in the fixed off-peak without having smart-charging enabled.
 
(And if the car is plugged in, the bug doesn't occur)
I know you’ve said this but just to clarify:
So the car sleeps as normal when plugged in yet wakes up at the appropriate times to receive the charges so doesn’t waste power? But it doesn’t go to sleep if it’s not plugged in so wastes battery percentage.
So when unplugging you need to go into the Octopus app and switch off IO charging and when you plug back in you need to also go into the Octopus app and reactivate IO charging… or do you have to reactivate before you actually plug in or does it work with both those sequences?

It all sounds interesting … but once they’ve fixed the staying awake problem.
 
So the car sleeps as normal when plugged in yet wakes up at the appropriate times to receive the charges so doesn’t waste power?
Yes.
But it doesn’t go to sleep if it’s not plugged in so wastes battery percentage.
If smart-charging is enabled in the app, yes.
So when unplugging you need to go into the Octopus app and switch off IO charging and when you plug back in you need to also go into the Octopus app and reactivate IO charging… or do you have to reactivate before you actually plug in or does it work with both those sequences?
Works with both sequences, with the proviso that if you plug in with smart-charging off in the app the car is just going to go ahead and charge because your charger is set to be be a dumb switch.
What happens when you renable smart-charging is that IO polls the API, creates the schedule and will send a stop code if it detects the charger is on.
This is nearly foolproof, but not 100%.
I generally enable smart-charging before plugging in for total reliability.
 
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Strangely IO has always* started a full 7kWh charge which doesn't stop when I plug in (Zappi Fast mode, no scheduling on the car or the charger, IO already enabled in the app). On any occasion I've tried for up to 5 minutes it still kept charging, however that isn't a real issue for me as I immediately stop the charge via the Tesla app with IO then scheduling & charging correctly every time.

Octopus and Myenergi (Zappi) have looked into it several times, all software/firmware etc up to date but the same will happen regardless of Tesla updates, resets, reboots etc.

Tesla's helpful input was to tell me that I must not give access to my car to any third party under any circumstances. This can invalidate the warranty and although Tesla are aware of various apps that use API tokens, be prepared for them to shut this loophole down at any time in the future (...that response did not surprise me).

*since Jan 7th 2022
 
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The

There is nothing in the T&Cs that expressly forbids charging a second EV. They only mention that you cannot have two EVs being controlled by IO, which is the key word.
I am on IO. My Tesla charges are controlled by Octopus IO using the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period + additional cheap rate slots where needed. My SmartEQ is charged via an Ohme cable only in the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period only.


I’m not sure the FAQ is correct with regards to a second car.
IO expressly stops you from signing up if you state that you have second electric vehicle, so I believe charging a second EV at cheap rate is against their T&Cs.
You may want to double check that, but I think I’m not wrong.

The

There is nothing in the T&Cs that expressly forbids charging a second EV. They only mention that you cannot have two EVs being controlled by IO, which is the key word.
I am on IO. My Tesla charges are controlled by Octopus IO using the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period + additional cheap rate slots where needed. My SmartEQ is charged via an Ohme cable only in the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period only. All within the T&C's.
 
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Not convinced by the benefits over and above Go. Not using much other leccy between 23:30 and 5:30 so not likely to be a huge benefit.

The off chance of a few other hours of off peak is a bit difficult to judge.
We’re the same. We currently shift around 50% of our energy usage to the 4 hour off-peak Go period so the only benefit would be the occasional extra evening off-peak slots. The downside would be having to more actively monitor everything and the WAF would be way down.
 
I am on IO. My Tesla charges are controlled by Octopus IO using the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period + additional cheap rate slots where needed. My SmartEQ is charged via an Ohme cable only in the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period only.





I am on IO. My Tesla charges are controlled by Octopus IO using the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period + additional cheap rate slots where needed. My SmartEQ is charged via an Ohme cable only in the 6 hour guaranteed cheap period only. All within the T&C's.
Interesting.
This screenshot from their FAQs seems to suggest that you can’t have more than 1 EV, hence my earlier interpretation.

Anyway, it’s a very interesting tariff and I’ll definitely consider it if they fix the car-awake bug thing…
 

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Perfect timing @browellm . I'm in the process of switching from Go.
Im struggling to understand how IO contacts my Tesla M3? I haven't given out any Tesla details? I've dumbed down my Ohme charger and signed out of the app and am in the process of trying to get a test charge. But all I get is the "oops there us a problem "
 
Why write this post?
A lot of people are starting to get interested in IO. I don't think Octopus do a very good job of spelling out the benefits in their website. They have some FAQs, but the same questions keep coming up over and over on the forums.

What is it?
In a nutshell, IO is a split tariff that gives you a cheap off-peak rate for charging your EV and other electrical items in the household, including home batteries.

Isn’t that the same as Octopus Go or Go Faster?
The principle is the same, but in exchange for some benefits which we’ll explain, you allow Octopus to control the timing of your EV charge, so they can choose low carbon intensity and/or cheap wholesale priced time slots.

So I’m not in control of my charge? I don’t like the sound of that!
Well yes…and no. You’re in control of how much to charge and when you want the car to be ready, just like you would be normally. Within those parameters, you’re allowing Octopus to control which half-hour slots the car chooses to get to that target % charge. And you can always override IO if you want to “bump charge” through the day.

OK, but what are the benefits you mentioned for this trade off?
First of all, you get a larger guaranteed off-peak window for using household appliances and charging home batteries, etc. It’s six hours between 23:30-05:30. Go, for example, is a fixed 4 hour window.
In addition, when IO schedules your EV charging slots it sometimes creates schedules that fall outside of the fixed, six hour window. If that happens your EV charging and all your household use in these extra-slots is also charged at off-peak rates.
I have frequently had schedules give me seven or more hours of off-peak rates. On one occasion, I had a total of ten hours of off-peak rates.

Am I eligible?
You need a smart meter and a compatible car and/or charger. Since you’re reading this here, I assume you’ve got or are thinking of getting a Tesla. IO works with the Tesla API to create the charging schedules. The advantage of this is that IO will work with any* home charger. If you have a charger with smart features, you need to disable them so that the charger acts as a dumb switch. IO will control everything via Tesla’s API to start and stop your charging.
*Even your granny charger - but you need to tell IO what the max throughput is when you go through setup so that it can work out your schedules properly.

Some of this sounds too good to be true.
There is one bug which hasn’t been squashed. If you have IO smart charging enabled in the Octopus app and the car is unplugged from your charger, IO queries the Tesla API and keeps the car awake, causing unnecessary battery drain.
It’s annoying, Octopus need to fix it, but the workaround is pretty simple: toggle smart-charging off in the Octopus app when your car is unplugged and you’re not scheduling a charge.

Further questions (to be updated in the main thread body once the edit timer on this post expires)

I have two EVs, can I charge the other while on IO?

Not with IO scheduling the charging, but you can charge any other car in the fixed 23:30-05:30 off peak window or at any other time at peak prices.

What are the rates etc?
Octopus do a decent job of explaining the peak and off-peak rates along with contracts etc. Head over to their pages to discover that.
Thanks for taking the time to make this posting and setting the information out very clearly.

The six hours of electricity at 7.5p/KWh is attractive - but I can't be sure that I would be better of overall as the IO standard rate is about 5p/KWh higher than my current Shell Energy rate.
 
We’re the same. We currently shift around 50% of our energy usage to the 4 hour off-peak Go period so the only benefit would be the occasional extra evening off-peak slots. The downside would be having to more actively monitor everything and the WAF would be way down.
How did you manage to shift so much consumption? Timed dishwasher / washing machines, that kind of thing? I worry that'd disturb the household in the middle of the night!