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]

Interesting observation that the post-530 windows fall away if charging is completed. One of the downsides to using the Off Peak setting in the Tesla app, I guess.

Not really, IO should still stop any car-initiated charges so this is more a case of the charge completing quicker than IO anticipated.

IO can sometimes blip and not stop a charge, but the 5:30 off-peak setting at least means if it happens it’s not going to ding you for the peak rate from when you plug in until 11:30pm.

Does make me wonder if @Cardo might have their charger type incorrect in the IO settings. If you tell it you’re using a granny charger and instead have a wall connector (or something similar) it would behave like this.

 

[spooksman]

If you set a charge start time in the car at say 23:30, then when you plug in it won't charge. But it'll start at 23:30, and IO can and will step in and stop it.

I had an unusual one for me tonight - IO wants to start charging at 11pm - would that mean I'd lose 30 minutes charge time, or would it 'catch up' later in the night to get to my required percentage?

I did wonder what happens when IO has set a schedule, but then I unplug and drive (as I had to today) and plug back in later but with less charge - from today's experience I get another schedule with more slots - is that right?

 

[SteveJol]

I had an unusual one for me tonight - IO wants to start charging at 11pm - would that mean I'd lose 30 minutes charge time, or would it 'catch up' later in the night to get to my required percentage?

I did wonder what happens when IO has set a schedule, but then I unplug and drive (as I had to today) and plug back in later but with less charge - from today's experience I get another schedule with more slots - is that right?

If IO wants to start it will, doesn't matter what you have set in the car.

And yes, IO will set a schedule again if you need to unplug and replug.

 

[Danny_F]

I know this may be a daft question but if IO sets a schedule out of the 2330-0530 cheap rate does that mean the whole time is cheap rate, such as 2300-0800 if thats what IO sets to charge the car??

 

[Astrape]

I know this may be a daft question but if IO sets a schedule out of the 2330-0530 cheap rate does that mean the whole time is cheap rate, such as 2300-0800 if thats what IO sets to charge the car??

Yes all slots IO schedules are charged at the cheap rate for all usage car and house or other car chargers.

 

[Cardo]

Does make me wonder if @Cardo might have their charger type incorrect in the IO settings. If you tell it you’re using a granny charger and instead have a wall connector (or something similar) it would behave like this.

I’ve got it all correctly set up in the IO settings.

So far my experience is it seems quite random as to whether the charge follows the IO mapped charge or simply starts charging at 2330 when the Zappi changes to Fast and carries on until fully charged. I’ve been keeping an eye on things and some nights it has stopped and started (and stopped again) perfectly in line with the mapped charge, and other nights like a couple of nights ago the map was 0230-0500 however the charge started at 2330 when Zappi kicked over to Fast and then it just continued charging until around 0200 when it reached the charge limit.

Whilst it appears the car will start charging when told by IO, IO very frequently doesn’t tell the car to stop charging after it starts charging unexpectedly (in my case when the Zappi switches from Eco+ to Fast at 2330).

I know my setup isn’t the “recommended” setup on this thread (set Zappi to Fast and car to charge by 0530), however it‘s my way of making it easy to switch over to surplus PV charging during the day without making lots of settings changes and with little risk of charging at full whack during peak periods. Drawback is I sometimes miss out on cheaper periods if IO doesn’t stop the charge at the start of the night.

I’m hoping MyEnergi will come out with their own IO implementation soon, which should remove the need to faff around like this. However, I’m not holding my breath too much, as I gather they’ve been dedicating a lot of resources to ensure their gear complies with all the new requirements imposed by the government (some good, others pointless, from what I can tell).

 

[browellm]

I know this may be a daft question but if IO sets a schedule out of the 2330-0530 cheap rate does that mean the whole time is cheap rate, such as 2300-0800 if thats what IO sets to charge the car??

Please refer back to the original post of the thread

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...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[rowedav]

I'm on Octopus Go currently and have a Wallbox Pulsar Max. So far, this has worked flawlessly for charging my M3P since collecting it on 9th Dec - schedule set in the Wallbox app to match the Go off-peak rate (00:30 - 04:30) and away it goes. It's not failed to charge once and has become pretty much a case of "plug-in and forget all about it"

Thing is, in the 4hr charging period I'm adding around 31-33kw of power into the car, which equate to around 120miles. This is generally fine for my usage as that is a decent "top-up" each charge, and so I probably charge around 3-4 times a week.

However, I'm intrigued by IO as the additional 2hrs charging would be nice to really top up the battery by another 15kw or so, and could probably therefore only charge a couple of times per week as a result. However, it does sound like a bit of hassle waiting for schedules, checking them etc.

Plus the additional time for appliances running over night would be good.

Is it possible to 'try' IO and switch back to Go if you don't get on with IO running the charging? Anyone done that?

(Apologies - I'm aware there have been a lot of questions asked about IO and I may be repeating - umm'd and ahhh'd about even posting this!)

 

[Js1977]

Is it possible to 'try' IO and switch back to Go if you don't get on with IO running the charging? Anyone done that?

I would say you can as you're not tied up. However, if like me you are on the 7.5p cheap rate, dont expect you would go back to that and instead whatever rates are available now hence that could be something to consider.

 

[Durzel]

I'm coming up to the end of my Octopus Go Faster period, and am being recommended Intelligent Octopus. I have a separate electrical connection with its own smart meter dedicated to charging my car.

I don't need to charge my car regularly, so I'm quite happy to just use the fixed 23:30 - 05:30 window, it's easily more than I need. I might only need to charge once or twice a week. I don't care about any additional 30 minute 10p/kWh blocks that might be available.

IO is coming out as the cheapest for me, like others, at 10p/kWh. Octopus Go is 12p/kWh.

Is there anything stopping me going through the motions of getting set up on IO - downloading and using the app, using my compatible Tesla, and then setting the schedule in the car to start at 23:30 with a fixed charge limit like I've always done, or does IO completely take over (disable?) scheduling and wake the car up to charge whenever it feels like it?

Basically what I'm asking is whether I can use IO like Octopus Go.

 

[Cardo]

I'm coming up to the end of my Octopus Go Faster period, and am being recommended Intelligent Octopus. I have a separate electrical connection with its own smart meter dedicated to charging my car.

I don't need to charge my car regularly, so I'm quite happy to just use the fixed 23:30 - 05:30 window, it's easily more than I need. I might only need to charge once or twice a week. I don't care about any additional 30 minute 10p/kWh blocks that might be available.

IO is coming out as the cheapest for me, like others, at 10p/kWh. Octopus Go is 12p/kWh.

Is there anything stopping me going through the motions of getting set up on IO - downloading and using the app, using my compatible Tesla, and then setting the schedule in the car to start at 23:30 with a fixed charge limit like I've always done, or does IO completely take over (disable?) scheduling and wake the car up to charge whenever it feels like it?

Basically what I'm asking is whether I can use IO like Octopus Go.

Switch to IO and set a “charge by” time in the car of 0530. Job done.

 

[Durzel]

"Charge by" as in a departure time?

 

[browellm]

This "I want IO to be 6 hours of Go" attitude really sucks, tbqh.

The rationale for the tariff is that by giving Octopus control of your charge times they are able to manage regional and national loads to maximise low carbon and low cost times. They are passing on the benefits to you by offering a lower tariff for a longer period of the day but the last few pages have been, "how do I frig this", "I want to do that", "It's too much hassle". Stay on Go.

 

[Durzel]

But IO offers a fixed period of 23:30 - 05:30 regardless of any other factors like national or regional load? That obviously works for them otherwise they wouldn't offer it, surely?

To be clear - if they decided throughout a 24 hour period which 30 minute blocks they wanted to charge my car up, at the off-peak price, I'd be totally fine with that. That's not what they're doing though. They're doing that in addition to offering a fixed, unchanging 6 hour off-peak period, every day. 6 hours is far more than I actually need on a daily (often weekly) basis, so why would I bother to consider charging any time outside that?

Also Go is 2p/kWh more expensive so not sure why I'd choose that when you get a minimum of 2 hours extra for less money with IO?

 

[browellm]

But IO offers a fixed period of 23:30 - 05:30 regardless of any other factors like national or regional load? That obviously works for them otherwise they wouldn't offer it, surely?

For the household, yes. It's all covered in the OP mate.

 

[browellm]

To be clear - if they decided throughout a 24 hour period which 30 minute blocks they wanted to charge my car up, at the off-peak price, I'd be totally fine with that.

That's exactly what happens.

That's not what they're doing though.

Er, yes it is.

They're doing that in addition to offering a 6 hour off-peak period, every day.

No. Read the OP.

so why would I bother to consider charging any time outside that?

You let Octopus control the charge to the % you need, by the time you need it. What is contentious about that or conveniences you in any way at all?

 

[Durzel]

I can see that you're getting worked up about an energy company suffering no losses whatsoever from someone potentially deviating from the intended use of a tariff, but might I suggest perhaps having a nice drink to calm down instead?

@Cardo already explained what I needed to do.

 

[RedMod3]

The way I see it is that Octopus wants to determine when they charge your car during the day if you would need day peak-charging. As compensation for letting them set the day charging times, they give you 6 hours of off-peak charging (when demand is low) at a cheap price.

This is no different to them giving us the recent energy saving challenge when I earned £10 - totally out of proportion to my real savings.

 

[Drew57]

This is a Beta tariff that I'm extremely happy with but I would not be surprised to see it change to only giving the lower rate on a variable hour-by-hour basis.

 

[browellm]

I can see that you're getting worked up about an energy company suffering no losses whatsoever from someone potentially deviating from the intended use of a tariff, but might I suggest perhaps having a nice drink to calm down instead?

@Cardo already explained what I needed to do.

Why resort to ad hominem? Attack the substance of the argument.