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

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

 

[Skie]

The point of IO is that off-peak can be variable. It can offer off-peak slots before and after the "standard" times of 23:30 to 05:30. That's the whole point of it to allow Octopus to move off-peak to whenever electricity is the cheapest.

I'm not saying that what you are doing won't work, but it's not the point of IO.

No part of toggling “prefer off peak charge” stops IO from starting a charge outside of off-peak. It has zero bearing on the concept of IO, it just stops the car charging for a few minutes each time you plug in. IO still knows you’ve plugged in and generates a schedule.

 

[NSS89]

Been having some issues recently with IO not generating a schedule. Tried unplugging, disconnecting device, re-enabling smart charging etc and sometimes that works but sometimes it doesn't.

Any one experienced anything similar? The only thing I'm unsure of that I only thought of last night was if it coincides with what time I plug in. So for example, last night I didn't plug in until 01:30 so I'm not sure if because I plugged in so late it wasn't willing to give me a schedule.

I haven't reached out to Octopus yet as I imagine they will just get me to forget my car and then re-enrol it which I don't mind doing and that was my next planned step.

 

[browellm]

So for example, last night I didn't plug in until 01:30 so I'm not sure if because I plugged in so late it wasn't willing to give me a schedule.

Shouldn't be an issue, I've plugged in later than that and got a schedule.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record when troubleshooting these things, do you ever have issues with your Tesla app showing a different address than where your car is.

I mention it because if Octopus think your car is not at "home" it won't create a schedule. Further to that, is IO stopping the charge after you first plug in? If it is then the geofence is unlikely to be the issue.

 

[NSS89]

Shouldn't be an issue, I've plugged in later than that and got a schedule.

Without wanting to sound like a broken record when troubleshooting these things, do you ever have issues with your Tesla app showing a different address than where your car is.

I mention it because if Octopus think your car is not at "home" it won't create a schedule. Further to that, is IO stopping the charge after you first plug in? If it is then the geofence is unlikely to be the issue.

Location is always accurate but good point raised.

When it doesn't schedule then no it doesn't stop the charge. That's usually the giveaway for me to know it won't work. Last night after going through my disconnect/reconnect process it did stop the charge at one point but nothing appeared in the schedule.

I think I'll try to re-enrol my car and see if that makes any difference.

 

[browellm]

Location is always accurate but good point raised.

When it doesn't schedule then no it doesn't stop the charge. That's usually the giveaway for me to know it won't work. Last night after going through my disconnect/reconnect process it did stop the charge at one point but nothing appeared in the schedule.

I think I'll try to re-enrol my car and see if that makes any difference.

Could be, but with the caveat that I am some rando on the internet and don't go mad at me if you can't get enrolled again for some bizarre reason

 

[Mrklaw]

I believe the phantom drain only happens when you're at home and not plugged in.

I leave IO active all the time, and nearly always plug in at home. I've only ever experienced it on the odd occasion I've not plugged in at home.

My opinion is that this issue is exaggerated out of proportion.

However, I accept that not everybody's use case is the same, as there are those who prefer not to plug in every day at home. If you wait until your battery is low to charge once every few days, then you may have many hours at home unplugged and phantom drain will become significant.

If you don't charge daily, its quite likely you'll be at home and not plugged in. That seems a fairly common scenario. And it drains a surprising amount from the car if you forget for a few days each time.

 

[Drew57]

Been having some issues recently with IO not generating a schedule. Tried unplugging, disconnecting device, re-enabling smart charging etc and sometimes that works but sometimes it doesn't.

When it doesn't schedule then no it doesn't stop the charge. That's usually the giveaway for me to know it won't work. Last night after going through my disconnect/reconnect process it did stop the charge at one point but nothing appeared in the schedule.

On occasions where my car doesn't offer a schedule I unplug, change the max SOC in the Octopus app to = or ≥ target SOC in the Tesla app & then when I plug in/stop charge the schedule usually appears very quickly.

eg
Tesla app target SOC 90%
IO was set at 100%, reduce to 95% or 90% (if already 90% then increase to 95% or 100%)

 

[NSS89]

On occasions where my car doesn't offer a schedule I unplug, change the max SOC in the Octopus app to = or ≥ target SOC in the Tesla app & then when I plug in/stop charge the schedule usually appears very quickly.

eg
Tesla app target SOC 90%
IO was set at 100%, reduce to 95% or 90% (if already 90% then increase to 95% or 100%)

I did try that last night but unfortunately didn't make a difference. I'm not sure if there are check intervals so me disabling/re-enabling more or less straight away isn't being detected. It used to happen every now and then a while back but recently it's become quite regular. It's not a major issue as the IO window is more than enough for me to reach the desired charge level most days however some days when I need to charge more its not enough. Another annoying issue is that it doesn't know what 100% is. I can tell straight away because the schedule is always about 30 mins shorter than the actual time needed. Usually ends on 98%. I don't charge to 100% that often so didn't bother troubleshooting it.

I just reached out to Octopus on Twitter and they've just pointed me to the FAQ page lol

 

[Zakalwe]

No part of toggling “prefer off peak charge” stops IO from starting a charge outside of off-peak. It has zero bearing on the concept of IO, it just stops the car charging for a few minutes each time you plug in. IO still knows you’ve plugged in and generates a schedule.

I didn't know that. Very useful, thank you!

 

[Undecided_2]

Just to show that iO charges out of hours. I didn’t plug it in last night. I just plugged it in 07:05am.

 

[m3gt2]

Well, strange one last night. Plugged in last night and had the charging schedule confirmed but it only got to 78% rather than 100% in the allotted times. I have 3 phase but makes me wonder if IO makes allowances for the charge being slower at initial ramp up and as SOC gets higher? I may try setting it in IO as single phase to see if that allows it to have long enough for the slow periods?

 

[Undecided_2]

Well, strange one last night. Plugged in last night and had the charging schedule confirmed but it only got to 78% rather than 100% in the allotted times. I have 3 phase but makes me wonder if IO makes allowances for the charge being slower at initial ramp up and as SOC gets higher? I may try setting it in IO as single phase to see if that allows it to have long enough for the slow periods?

What was your SOC setting in the Tesla app/car?

 

[NSS89]

Just to show that iO charges out of hours. I didn’t plug it in last night. I just plugged it in 07:05am.

Great to know! Always just assumed that if you plug in before 5pm it does nothing in regards to scheduling etc

 

[m3gt2]

What was your SOC setting in the Tesla app/car?

Was set to 100

 

[Undecided_2]

Was set to 100

Ok. I spotted that if they’re different than iO can’t charge past the setting.

It looks like iO has failed you!

 

[Undecided_2]

Great to know! Always just assumed that if you plug in before 5pm it does nothing in regards to scheduling etc

It doesn’t always show a schedule. I suppose that’s the Beta part of the app. I don’t bother stopping the charge now. I just let Octopus adjust the price/charge as the Smart meter updates as well.

 

[NSS89]

It doesn’t always show a schedule. I suppose that’s the Beta part of the app. I don’t bother stopping the charge now. I just let Octopus adjust the price/charge as the Smart meter updates as well.

So the "issue" I reported a day or so ago may not have been an actual issue? I wasn't seeing charging schedules and assumed that meant if I charged outside the standard window I would be charged the full rate and not the cheaper rate.

Has yours done it often and you definitely have only been charged the cheaper rate?

 

[Undecided_2]

So the "issue" I reported a day or so ago may not have been an actual issue? I wasn't seeing charging schedules and assumed that meant if I charged outside the standard window I would be charged the full rate and not the cheaper rate.

Has yours done it often and you definitely have only been charged the cheaper rate?

It has happened regularly. I ignore it and when I check the next morning iO had charged to the % I set. I’ve had over 6kW go into the car during the high peak but it’s at 7.5p per kW.

When I review the usage - it updates in the afternoon sometimes I don’t see the charge when I plugged it in. When I check the smart meter and calculate the kW used - remove General house use - it’s always at the 7.5p per kW. They obviously adjust it after the fact.

 

[Skie]

Just to confirm that with off peak charging set to stop the car grabbing 5 minutes of charge at peak prices, IO can still successfully trigger a car charge outside of whatever the car considers off peak. In my case IO gave me a charging schedule for 2:30-5:30 then 6:30-7:30 (and charging completed at 7:28 )

I didn’t screenshot the IO schedule. Shame there doesn’t seem to be a way to see historical schedules.

 

[Zakalwe]

I plugged mine in this morning and asked for a 65% charge for 10:30 (currently at 37%). It straightaway gave me from 08:05 to 10:30.

So that's this morning all at off-peak rates for the whole house!