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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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I’ve used octopus go for the past 2 years, set it up and get the car / octopus app working, then I’ve always disabled the octopus app by removing and then reinstalling but not linking to the car. Costs are the same but the Tesla app controls the charge schedule.

It stops the countless bump charge issues that occur when the car starts charging off schedule but then go to the car and for some reason it’s stopped after a minute or 2. Get it all set up then remove the app. Works for me and not had any issues from octopus
 
De-authorise the car (in your app profile settings). Re-run setup and choose generic 2.4kW charger.

You will remain on the tariff, on your current prices.
Thanks Browellm.

I have reconnect device or disconnect device in the app. I assume reconnect will de-authorise the car and re-run?

Edit: had to disconnect.

Thanks again!
 
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I’ve used octopus go for the past 2 years, set it up and get the car / octopus app working, then I’ve always disabled the octopus app by removing and then reinstalling but not linking to the car. Costs are the same but the Tesla app controls the charge schedule.

It stops the countless bump charge issues that occur when the car starts charging off schedule but then go to the car and for some reason it’s stopped after a minute or 2. Get it all set up then remove the app. Works for me and not had any issues from octopus
That is breaking the ToS
 
That is breaking the ToS
Requesting your expertise here. We're a 2 EV household, like others on here I'm sure, and will be coming to the end of our Octopus Go 5p/13.72p rate at the end of January. Time for a BIG price shock😱
At current prices IO is the best option for cheaper and longer off-peak rates. Graphing my time-shifting shows me running 84% off-peak so far this year so I'm well on-board with this approach for both EV's and house use (we have 2 dishwashers, 2 washing machines and 3 tumble dryers). When the kids leave home they'll take one with them😉.
Anyhow, following Darreno's comment above with his broken 7kW wall charger and your comments to reconnect IO with the granny I was wondering about setting up IO with the granny on one car which (presumably) will leave my wall charger free for either car when I need to charge as it is not the linked device?
Of course the wall charger is our primary charger so this needs to be available to both cars and having it on just one isn't faesible.
With IO I can't imagine all users charge their cars for 6h every night unless some serious mileage is being driven? This would be upto 180miles per 6h off peak charge for me! So are they switching the IO functionality off when they need to charge another vehicle? Or just switching it off/not plugging in fullstop? What is the preferred/recommended option?
To add to the mix I have a 4.5kW PV and 13kW of battery storage. My inverter is 3.68kW standard hybrid unit so when the wall charger kicks in it sucks the battery dry plus another 3.5kW from the mains. By linking IO to the granny charger this means any random starting on the IO when connecting won't exceed my inverter capacity so will be absorbed by the battery and not cost me the fraction of 41.6p for any time used. Every penny counts!
I hope this makes sense, happy to clarify my man-logic if necessary.
All options considered.
 
Requesting your expertise here. We're a 2 EV household, like others on here I'm sure, and will be coming to the end of our Octopus Go 5p/13.72p rate at the end of January. Time for a BIG price shock😱
At current prices IO is the best option for cheaper and longer off-peak rates. Graphing my time-shifting shows me running 84% off-peak so far this year so I'm well on-board with this approach for both EV's and house use (we have 2 dishwashers, 2 washing machines and 3 tumble dryers). When the kids leave home they'll take one with them😉.
Anyhow, following Darreno's comment above with his broken 7kW wall charger and your comments to reconnect IO with the granny I was wondering about setting up IO with the granny on one car which (presumably) will leave my wall charger free for either car when I need to charge as it is not the linked device?
Of course the wall charger is our primary charger so this needs to be available to both cars and having it on just one isn't faesible.
With IO I can't imagine all users charge their cars for 6h every night unless some serious mileage is being driven? This would be upto 180miles per 6h off peak charge for me! So are they switching the IO functionality off when they need to charge another vehicle? Or just switching it off/not plugging in fullstop? What is the preferred/recommended option?
To add to the mix I have a 4.5kW PV and 13kW of battery storage. My inverter is 3.68kW standard hybrid unit so when the wall charger kicks in it sucks the battery dry plus another 3.5kW from the mains. By linking IO to the granny charger this means any random starting on the IO when connecting won't exceed my inverter capacity so will be absorbed by the battery and not cost me the fraction of 41.6p for any time used. Every penny counts!
I hope this makes sense, happy to clarify my man-logic if necessary.
All options considered.
I might be wrong, so testing my theory here, as my cheap rate GO just expired last week...

We have two EVs (Tesla & Peugeot), so I'm thinking of going to IO - that would mean linking the Tesla and letting IO manage that, but just plugging the Peugeot in on other nights when it needs it. My understanding is that IO will work it's magic on the Tesla, and the Peugeot will just charge as it does now on GO, but for six hours (as well as all my other electric gubbins). The only change I would have to make it to set the wall box to be 'dumb', and ensure that the missus uses the 'delayed charge' option on the Peugeot (that never needs more than 6 hours change).

However, one other quick question that someone with more experience/knowledge can answer - yesterday, when I got home my Tesla had about 15% battery remaining. On Go, I'd be able to add about 40% in four hours, but if the car was on IO and I requested 90% charge, would it put all 75% in at a cheap rate, or just as much as it could in 6 hours?
 
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I might be wrong, so testing my theory here, as my cheap rate GO just expired last week...

We have two EVs (Tesla & Peugeot), so I'm thinking of going to IO - that would mean linking the Tesla and letting IO manage that, but just plugging the Peugeot in on other nights when it needs it. My understanding is that IO will work it's magic on the Tesla, and the Peugeot will just charge as it does now on GO, but for six hours (as well as all my other electric gubbins). The only change I would have to make it to set the wall box to be 'dumb', and ensure that the missus uses the 'delayed charge' option on the Peugeot (that never needs more than 6 hours change).

However, one other quick question that someone with more experience/knowledge can answer - yesterday, when I got home my Tesla had about 15% battery remaining. On Go, I'd be able to add about 40% in four hours, but if the car was on IO and I requested 90% charge, would it put all 75% in at a cheap rate, or just as much as it could in 6 hours?
It will create as many blocks of cheap electricity on top of the cheap 23:30-05:30 as required to hit your desired charge level.
 
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We have two EVs (Tesla & Peugeot), so I'm thinking of going to IO - that would mean linking the Tesla and letting IO manage that, but just plugging the Peugeot in on other nights when it needs it. My understanding is that IO will work it's magic on the Tesla, and the Peugeot will just charge as it does now on GO, but for six hours (as well as all my other electric gubbins). The only change I would have to make it to set the wall box to be 'dumb', and ensure that the missus uses the 'delayed charge' option on the Peugeot (that never needs more than 6 hours change).
@ElectricPolice, basically this ^^

However, one other quick question that someone with more experience/knowledge can answer - yesterday, when I got home my Tesla had about 15% battery remaining. On Go, I'd be able to add about 40% in four hours, but if the car was on IO and I requested 90% charge, would it put all 75% in at a cheap rate, or just as much as it could in 6 hours?
The chances are it will schedule some extra additional low-rate slots to get you up to your requested charge.

There is a paragraph in the ToS which gives them the get out that they don't have to give you more than 6 hours off peak, but in nearly two years of using it, if you request a very big top up they always have done so far. I guess the wording just gives them the opportunity to enforce fair use in the future should they need to. I have always got to my requested % charge by the time I requested it, unless of course it was physically impossible to get the kW in the time available.
 

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Have just received Octopus email with options when Go (5p/13.8p) runs out Jan 14. Can I sign up with IO now, to start on Jan 15, or should I wait until a few days beforehand? Is the IO T&C document available – I can find the generic Octopus T&C online but not one specific to IO. Thanks.
 
Have just received Octopus email with options when Go (5p/13.8p) runs out Jan 14. Can I sign up with IO now, to start on Jan 15, or should I wait until a few days beforehand? Is the IO T&C document available – I can find the generic Octopus T&C online but not one specific to IO. Thanks.
 
Have just received Octopus email with options when Go (5p/13.8p) runs out Jan 14. Can I sign up with IO now, to start on Jan 15, or should I wait until a few days beforehand? Is the IO T&C document available – I can find the generic Octopus T&C online but not one specific to IO. Thanks.
We've just emailed Octopus asking the same question yesterday as our GO runs out 30/12. Will update as and when we have a reply.
 
I’ve recently signed up to Intelligent Octopus after FINALLY getting the test charge to work!

The first night it worked perfectly - I plugged the car in around 7pm and after a few mins the smart charge plan appeared in the app. Charging then started at the scheduled time.

However, on the 2nd evening, when I plugged the car in at about 8pm, it started charging (for about 20 minutes before I manually stopped it). The smart charge plan took about 30 mins to appear in the app and when the start time rolled around the car did not start charging (I had to manually start it).

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? I understand that if you are plugging in outside peak hours that the car may start to charge but that the app should stop this after a few minutes and there should be no manual intervention needed?
 
I’ve recently signed up to Intelligent Octopus after FINALLY getting the test charge to work!

The first night it worked perfectly - I plugged the car in around 7pm and after a few mins the smart charge plan appeared in the app. Charging then started at the scheduled time.

However, on the 2nd evening, when I plugged the car in at about 8pm, it started charging (for about 20 minutes before I manually stopped it). The smart charge plan took about 30 mins to appear in the app and when the start time rolled around the car did not start charging (I had to manually start it).

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? I understand that if you are plugging in outside peak hours that the car may start to charge but that the app should stop this after a few minutes and there should be no manual intervention needed?
They've slowed down the API polling in order to stop the previous issues with the car being kept awake when not plugged in. Unfortunately this has sent things the other way with the car slow to stop charging when first plugged in and it taking a bit longer for schedules to be calculated. Best bet is carry on doing what you're doing - manually stop the charge just after you plug in. You'll still get a schedule but it can take a few hours to come up.