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

 

[Drew57]

Great newbie review

I’m switching at the end of the month and what I’m keen to understand/experience is when you get those smart charge intervals (in addition to the guaranteed 6h) the extra one you got at 7-7:30 knowing this also applies to ‘whole house’ rates I could put the washing machine on which would do its heating stage within the 30 minute window and the rest is just a motor turning. This latter will be taking from the battery so all good.

Additionally I could schedule more battery charging windows in winter in these extra slots, basically anything to max cheap rate to avoid peak rate.

Is this correct?

Not necessarily

Scheduled slots can and do sometimes change overnight and as @Durzel mentions it is also quite common for the car not to need all or part of the later slots if it reaches the SOC target before that. I’m not convinced that anything after 05.30 will bill at the lower rate if the car didn’t use it.

As a consequence I never schedule house batteries or other appliances to run past 05.30 regardless of what the schedule suggests. Others may be prepared to take a risk with occasional peak rate billing though.

 

[Durzel]

Not necessarily

Scheduled slots can and do sometimes change overnight and as @Durzel mentions it is also quite common for the car not to need all or part of the later slots if it reaches the SOC target before that. I’m not convinced that anything after 05.30 will bill at the lower rate if the car didn’t use it.

As a consequence I never schedule house batteries or other appliances to run past 05.30 regardless of what the schedule suggests. Others may be prepared to take a risk with occasional peak rate billing though.

That's an interesting one.

Are you saying you think that if Octopus are unable to wake the car up and charge that the smart charge period becomes peak rate? I hadn't thought of that, but it is possible.

 

[HenryT]

As a consequence I never schedule house batteries or other appliances to run past 05.30 regardless of what the schedule suggests. Others may be prepared to take a risk with occasional peak rate billing though.

The house battery aspects raised a bit of an issue for me when I first started using IO a couple of weeks ago.

Like many, I was delighted to see my car (and the rest of the house) getting the benefit of off peak charging at times outside of the core 11.30 to 05.30. What I didn't appreciate however, was that charging the car between 06.00 - 06.30 and 07.00 - 07.30 would pretty much empty the house battery, rather than draw all the power needed from the mains. The upshot being that for the rest of the day the house battery was more or less spent so everything else ran from mains at peak rate. Bugger.

My solution is to set my house battery charging period to 00.00 - 05.30 (it never needs that long, but setting it to 'charge' to 05.30 stops it supplying power to the house until 05.30) and setting a 'leaving' time on the Octopus app of 05.30. This means I miss out on the out of hours charging, but it makes sure each day starts with the house battery at around 100%.

Unfortunately my set up doesn't allow me to do anything more sophisticated and I will need to re-think how I do this in the spring when the solar panels start contributing a bit more, but this set up seems ok so far.

 

[Cardo]

That's an interesting one.

Are you saying you think that if Octopus are unable to wake the car up and charge that the smart charge period becomes peak rate? I hadn't thought of that, but it is possible.

If the car reaches the target SoC earlier in the night and doesn’t require the later charging blocks, these will be removed by IO. So if you set a timer for an appliance to use one of the post 0530 blocks but the car finishes charging before 0530, then the later block will be removed as IO will see it isn’t required. I’ve had this happen where the car started charging at 2330 and didn’t stop, so was done early. IO regularly reviews the charging maps and can change them as the night goes on.

Edit: just to add, this works both ways. I’ve also had it where the last charge block ended at 0530 however the car fell short on the SoC. IO added another block at 0600-0630 to ensure the car reached the target SoC.

 

[Durzel]

If the car reaches the target SoC earlier in the night and doesn’t require the later charging blocks, these will be removed by IO. So if you set a timer for an appliance to use one of the post 0530 blocks but the car finishes charging before 0530, then the later block will be removed as IO will see it isn’t required. I’ve had this happen where the car started charging at 2330 and didn’t stop, so was done early. IO regularly reviews the charging maps and can change them as the night goes on.

Edit: just to add, this works both ways. I’ve also had it where the last charge block ended at 0530 however the car fell short on the SoC. IO added another block at 0600-0630 to ensure the car reached the target SoC.

Interesting.

As it happened I set my Octopus app charge limit to 65% but the car one was 60%. I couldn’t be bothered to wake it up to change it so just left it like that.

By chance I woke up early and noticed that the car was charged up to 59%, having woken up at 01:30 to charge. At this point I noticed that my 07:00 - 07:30 slot was showing in the app and was about to begin, so I changed the in car charge limit to 65% and manually started a charge in the Tesla app.

Will be interested to see if that 07:00 - 07:30 slot that I actually used will be charged at peak rate.

If not, a possible workaround to preserve the 3 smart charge slots might be to set the charge limit to 100% or something in the Octopus app, but keep the Tesla charge limit lower, so it never actually reaches the SoC the Octopus app is trying to get to.

 

[browellm]

Eventually I think Octopus will just pull the tariff if people just keep f**king around with it.

 

[Durzel]

Eventually I think Octopus will just pull the tariff if people just keep f**king around with it.

Fair point. I’m actually quite content with it, it seems to work well, for the most part. I just hope it doesn’t wake my car up too much. I don’t often drive it so it sleeps for days usually.

 

[Drew57]

That's an interesting one.

Are you saying you think that if Octopus are unable to wake the car up and charge that the smart charge period becomes peak rate? I hadn't thought of that, but it is possible.

Earlier in 2022 with IO I saw a schedule that ran past 6am but it wasn't needed by the car. However the small amount of power that the house used 06.00-07.00 was billed at the peak rate, as it would be if no schedule had been set - it's this that made me suspicious. It's not that IO didn't awaken the car rather that the car had already reached the required SOC so the slot wasn't needed and must have been discarded.

If not, a possible workaround to preserve the 3 smart charge slots might be to set the charge limit to 100% or something in the Octopus app, but keep the Tesla charge limit lower, so it never actually reaches the SoC the Octopus app is trying to get to.

I actually think that is the cause of the instance I describe above because I always leave the Octopus charge limit at 95 or 100% regardless of the level I actually require via the Tesla app (incidentally, whatever target SOC is set the car always seems to finish at 1% lower)

In my case, there is no need for anything later than the end of the six hour low rate period so the Octopus finish time is left at 05.30 (house batteries always satisfy the rest of the day through to at least 23.30 that evening although sometimes the IO schedule starts earlier than this (earliest I have been given is 21.00).

 

[Cardo]

Interesting.

As it happened I set my Octopus app charge limit to 65% but the car one was 60%. I couldn’t be bothered to wake it up to change it so just left it like that.

By chance I woke up early and noticed that the car was charged up to 59%, having woken up at 01:30 to charge. At this point I noticed that my 07:00 - 07:30 slot was showing in the app and was about to begin, so I changed the in car charge limit to 65% and manually started a charge in the Tesla app.

Will be interested to see if that 07:00 - 07:30 slot that I actually used will be charged at peak rate.

If not, a possible workaround to preserve the 3 smart charge slots might be to set the charge limit to 100% or something in the Octopus app, but keep the Tesla charge limit lower, so it never actually reaches the SoC the Octopus app is trying to get to.

The situation I have yet to have a chance to test out is a charge slot being mapped outside the 2330-0530 period where the car needs to charge, but isn’t able to, such as the Zappi being set to Eco+ (and no solar available). Would such a period be billed at the off-peak rate as it will remain in the map with IO expecting the car to charge, or will it be discarded if the car doesn’t report it is charging?

 

[Drew57]

If the car isn't charging either side of the guaranteed 6 hours because of schedule slots not being used then I expect Octopus to charge at peak rate.

That should seem perfectly fair to anyone who appreciates of the real purpose of the tariff rather than as a means for us to seek & exploit loopholes.

 

[ElectricPolice]

Eventually I think Octopus will just pull the tariff if people just keep f**king around with it.

It’s been quite apparent all along your view on the use of IO…

My question in no way involves f**king around with the tariff.

IO’s FAQ’s make this clear. I was simply asking if any had this experience. And to their credit @spooksman concurred.

 

[spooksman]

And to their credit @spooksman concurred.

Obviously, I don't know what I paid for the 30 minutes outside the 6 hours yet - I'll confirm when the bill comes...

 

[Cardo]

If the car isn't charging either side of the guaranteed 6 hours because of schedule slots not being used then I expect Octopus to charge at peak rate.

That should seem perfectly fair to anyone who appreciates of the real purpose of the tariff rather than as a means for us to seek & exploit loopholes.

I don’t disagree with the sentiment, I’m just curious to see what happens in practice. My Zappi switches to Eco+ during the day to stop the house battery being discharged into the car during some random charge slot during the day. I’m just curious how that slot is billed if the car is blocked from charging.

 

[Kashp]

To date, I haven't seen a slot outside of the normal off peak rate removed or charged at the higher rate, even if the car is has already reached the expected charge. Although I have only been on IO since Sept 22.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Same here but I'm not an ideal candidate as I charge about once every 2 weeks..

 

[Ben_]

I use IO and echo the issue around charge periods outside the core 6 hours and house batteries. If my car is offered ‘extra’ slots my current solution is to add those as extra grid charge slots on the inverter. It’s manual and annoying (I’ve occasionally forgotten to undo the config and end up charging the house battery at peak rate, 24h later!) but at least avoids the issue of an empty house battery.

 

[Cardo]

To date, I haven't seen a slot outside of the normal off peak rate removed or charged at the higher rate, even if the car is has already reached the expected charge. Although I have only been on IO since Sept 22.

I have been monitoring and keeping logs of the maps and then comparing against my bill. I’ve definitely had slots removed due to the charge ending earlier.

 

[Drew57]

Both my home inverters are set to block discharge 23.30-05.30 via their apps so I never run the risk of car charging draining the house batteries (one reason I have permanently set the Octopus ready-by time to 05.30).

Athe moment (winter) I’m using IO with the Zappi on Fast mode for charging at night & occasional Eco+ top ups (ie today as it’s sunny) & then from March it’s almost exclusively Eco+ with maybe one IO charge per month to ensure Octopus see I’m still using it.

House batteries charge mostly via the IO lower rate in winter & via Solar the rest of the year.

 

[s7gpt]

can anyone help, I have car set to start charging at 11:30pm but allow Octopus intelligent to override - just looked at car through Tesla app at 11:10am and noticed battery was warming and charging. Octopus schedule was set to charge at 11:30pm and so was Tesla app - So how come it started earlier and will I be charged peak rate. if it helps battery was at 78 /79% charge limit was 80% on Tesla app and 90% on octopus and outside temp minus 4 ?

 

[phil4]

can anyone help, I have car set to start charging at 11:30pm but allow Octopus intelligent to override - just looked at car through Tesla app at 11:10am and noticed battery was warming and charging. Octopus schedule was set to charge at 11:30pm and so was Tesla app - So how come it started earlier and will I be charged peak rate. if it helps battery was at 78 /79% charge limit was 80% on Tesla app and 90% on octopus and outside temp minus 4 ?

You'll almost certainly be charged at full rate.

Possiblities for why it started:
1) Slip of the finger in the app.
2) You set an end time rather than start time in the app?
3) IO originally was going to start at 11am, started, did it's bit (I've seen it literally charge for 9 mins in a given 30 mins slot), and then stopped. As it'd done it removed that from the list of slots.

If it's 3, then you'll get a cheap rate charge... but anything else, IO won't be aware and it's likely full rate.