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

 

[DoricJim]

I’ve had enough and submitted a service request to Tesla notifying them of the lack of wake ability in the app. Let’s see what they say…

 

[Jerryjal]

My Go Faster tariff sadly comes to an end on the 12th of April and I had every intention of moving to IO but after reading here I am starting to have second thoughts. I normally do between a 100 and 200 miles a day so need IO to work without having to worry about waking up in the morning with no charge.
I have a MS and a Zappi and need the car to be at around 90% every day, now the dilemma seems to be to stay with a form of Go or bite the bullet and go to IO.

 

[WllXM]

My Go Faster tariff sadly comes to an end on the 12th of April and I had every intention of moving to IO but after reading here I am starting to have second thoughts. I normally do between a 100 and 200 miles a day so need IO to work without having to worry about waking up in the morning with no charge.
I have a MS and a Zappi and need the car to be at around 90% every day, now the dilemma seems to be to stay with a form of Go or bite the bullet and go to IO.

People who are having some trouble are necessarily more vocal on these forums. Might depend on local network coverage, stars alignment, sheer luck? but I can say that IO has been working flawlessly for me for the past 7 months..
3rd party apps like Tessie now have notifications features for whenever charging stop or starts, and you can always build some automation based on this between 23.30- 5.30 if you see IO acting out if needed, but I would definitely give it a try.
Otherwise OVO seems a strong contender too albeit with less of a track record.

 

[Yuff]

My Go Faster tariff sadly comes to an end on the 12th of April and I had every intention of moving to IO but after reading here I am starting to have second thoughts. I normally do between a 100 and 200 miles a day so need IO to work without having to worry about waking up in the morning with no charge.
I have a MS and a Zappi and need the car to be at around 90% every day, now the dilemma seems to be to stay with a form of Go or bite the bullet and go to IO.

I was on GO until September last year and I switched to IO and used it, as I was using GO, without really realising the benefits of IO plus the extra off peak slots I could have been having.
The only issues I have had is with the Tesla app not connecting to the car, but Tesla is so much better than Audi for connectivity.
i use the granny charger for the Audi, when it needs charging, as I couldn’t get it to connect to IO.
From my experience IO has longer guaranteed off peak hours and you also get extra off peak slots when you need to charge more.
why would anyone choose GO over IO ……..

 

[Cardo]

My Go Faster tariff sadly comes to an end on the 12th of April and I had every intention of moving to IO but after reading here I am starting to have second thoughts. I normally do between a 100 and 200 miles a day so need IO to work without having to worry about waking up in the morning with no charge.
I have a MS and a Zappi and need the car to be at around 90% every day, now the dilemma seems to be to stay with a form of Go or bite the bullet and go to IO.

I wouldn’t worry. You can use IO much like Go/Go Faster by switching off Smart Charge and using the Zappi boost timers to charge 2330-0530. The T&Cs just require you to use Smart Charge once a month, so maybe enable it at the weekend when it wouldn’t be a disaster if the charge failed. Having said that, I’ve been on IO since mid December and two nights ago was the first time the charge failed due to the wake up issue. As you have a Zappi, you may be interested to know native IO integration should be coming to the Zappi around May, which should move the load to the Zappi from the Tesla/Tesla servers, which I’m hoping will be more reliable and will also integrate with Eco+.

 

[Kashp]

I am getting a message in the Octopus app that 'Vehicle charge limit too low' as others. Usually set the charge limit on IO to 100% and 82% in the Tesla. So yesterday I changed the charge limit on IO to 80% (below the one on Tesla) and it stopped charging at 74% this morning. I noticed this @7am so changed the IO charge limit to 100% and it started charging again. I don't want to set the charge limit to 100% on the Tesla so I don't have to lower it when supercharging.
Does the message mean anything really? Shouldn't IO charge to the lower of IO charge limit/Tesla charge limit ?

 

[Cardo]

I am getting a message in the Octopus app that 'Vehicle charge limit too low' as others. Usually set the charge limit on IO to 100% and 82% in the Tesla. So yesterday I changed the charge limit on IO to 80% (below the one on Tesla) and it stopped charging at 74% this morning. I noticed this @7am so changed the IO charge limit to 100% and it started charging again. I don't want to set the charge limit to 100% on the Tesla so I don't have to lower it when supercharging.
Does the message mean anything really? Shouldn't IO charge to the lower of IO charge limit/Tesla charge limit ?

Setting the car’s SoC limit lower than the IO limit is going to throw off the IO scheduler. They should be the same or the IO limit should be lower.

 

[JamiePP]

My Go Faster tariff sadly comes to an end on the 12th of April and I had every intention of moving to IO but after reading here I am starting to have second thoughts. I normally do between a 100 and 200 miles a day so need IO to work without having to worry about waking up in the morning with no charge.
I have a MS and a Zappi and need the car to be at around 90% every day, now the dilemma seems to be to stay with a form of Go or bite the bullet and go to IO.

I set Off-Peak Charging to On under Schedule as a fallback, with off-peak end time of 05:30 and Departure time of 08:00 (or whatever you like) in the Tesla app, which is my fall back for the IO schedule failing to work (only once in 6 months). The car will always charge during IO hours in this scenario but won't prevent IO from doing it's thing in the normal course.

I don't own a Zappi or have solar so your requirements may differ.

 

[Kashp]

Setting the car’s SoC limit lower than the IO limit is going to throw off the IO scheduler. They should be the same or the IO limit should be lower.

Thanks but that doesn't charge to the set charge limit if IO limit is lower or the same. It falls short off either set limit. For example last night I set IO charge limit to 80%, cars SoC limit to 82% and it stopped charging at 74%. Is that the way it is meant to work?

 

[Cardo]

Thanks but that doesn't charge to the set charge limit if IO limit is lower or the same. It falls short off either set limit. For example last night I set IO charge limit to 80%, cars SoC limit to 82% and it stopped charging at 74%. Is that the way it is meant to work?

It sounds like it’s not calibrated properly. I’d be tempted to disconnect and reconnect the car to IO to carry out a new test charge. My car charges to what I ask it to, occasionally overshooting by 1 or 2%. I have IO set to 70% with the car set to 80%.

 

[Kashp]

It sounds like it’s not calibrated properly. I’d be tempted to disconnect and reconnect the car to IO to carry out a new test charge. My car charges to what I ask it to, occasionally overshooting by 1 or 2%. I have IO set to 70% with the car set to 80%.

Thanks for the reply. So with those settings what SoC is your car when the charging has finished - 70% or 80%?

 

[browellm]

Thanks but that doesn't charge to the set charge limit if IO limit is lower or the same. It falls short off either set limit. For example last night I set IO charge limit to 80%, cars SoC limit to 82% and it stopped charging at 74%. Is that the way it is meant to work?

When charging, is your charger delivering the full 32A to the car as shown in the Tesla app? Secondary to that, what charger did you onboard to IO with?

 

[Kashp]

When charging, is your charger delivering the full 32A to the car as shown in the Tesla app? Secondary to that, what charger did you onboard to IO with?

Yes, full 32A and onboarded with a Hypervolt and still using the same today.

 

[Jerryjal]

Thank you all for your replies, it does fill me with a bit more confidence to try IO.

 

[Pink Duck]

Hm, 23rd Saving Session stats in, but it's way out. I made it 15.145 kWh saved, Octopus claim 11.62 kWh!

 

[Cardo]

Thanks for the reply. So with those settings what SoC is your car when the charging has finished - 70% or 80%?

Usually 70%. Sometimes it overshoots and I might end up with 71% or 72%. I’ve not had it undercharge, so far.

 

[Pink Duck]

Realised that Octopus miscalculated the in-day adjustment, in that they considered T-0 to T-3 hour from start of Saving Session on 23rd instead of T-1 back to T-4. Wonder if they'll fix it, have tweeted to let them know.

 

[DoricJim]

I’ve had enough and submitted a service request to Tesla notifying them of the lack of wake ability in the app. Let’s see what they say…

Just an update. Service got back to me and have sent a firmware update to fix the issue. Not near wifi to download but will try later and see if that helps.

I’m still stubbornly on 2022.44.25 at the moment.

 

[Jerryjal]

Hm, 23rd Saving Session stats in, but it's way out. I made it 15.145 kWh saved, Octopus claim 11.62 kWh!

Still calculating for me.

 

[teotutulan]

I have the engineer coming tomorrow to install the wall charger for the car. I have already planned the switch to the IO, just hope everything will go smoothly with the charge as I am feeling slightly anxious after reading all these posts here.
Let me see if I got it right and please please correct me if I am wrong.
I set the charge limit on the car or on the app at 80% (or whatever my heart desires).
Set the smart charging possibilities of the charger (ohme pro) to off, just to make sure that it will act like a dumb charger.
Plug in the car to make sure I get a test charge.
After that it will be the case of requesting a charge when I need the car charged and IO will get me a slot - Otherwise it will only charge during the night slots 23:30 to 05:30, correct ?
My question is : Do I plug in the car all the time or only plug it on when it is needed or when IO gives me the slot ?

Thank you.