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]

So my smart meter has always been on my old rate, despite being on IO. As a result it thinks I'm charging the car at the daytime rate so costs have been high on the smart meter but correct on the octopus app. Octopus told me this will be fixed at some point but not to worry as I'll be charged normally.

This week the smart meter now has me at 10p all day every day. While I've not doubt I'll still be charged normally via the app it does feel like I've gone back in time a few years looking at my daily leccy cost

Is that actually the smart meter or are you referring to the little In Home Display?

I'm not sure any IHDs are sophisticated enough to cope with IO or other smart tariffs, mine certainly isn't but the ability to see real time house usage is useful nevertheless. If you do mean the IHD, just use it to monitor usage in kWh and for gas - your bill for both will show actual cost.

 

[Astrape]

So my smart meter has always been on my old rate, despite being on IO. As a result it thinks I'm charging the car at the daytime rate so costs have been high on the smart meter but correct on the octopus app. Octopus told me this will be fixed at some point but not to worry as I'll be charged normally.

This week the smart meter now has me at 10p all day every day. While I've not doubt I'll still be charged normally via the app it does feel like I've gone back in time a few years looking at my daily leccy cost

Yes the dumb in home monitor cant cope with multiple time segments, poor thing.

 

[RedMod3]

Yeah mine has drifted off by an hour after they finally got it correctly aligned with IO, after first setting my night storage heaters to turn on between 11:30 am and 5:30 PM !

But why does the ALCS go wrong with the clocks change? If the ALCS is correctly set in the meter for 23:30-5:30, you would expect that when the meters clock changes, the ALCS would move with it. It makes no sense for the ALCS to ignore the clock change and therefore deliberately become wrong for 6 months of the year !?!????

The ALCS works off GMT, so if you are on IO, and want 6 hours, they have to reset it every 6 months.

I was on GO, and I've decided to let the ALCS give me 4 hours, without any resetting so I always get 4 hours at the reduced tariff on my immersion, but when the sun is out like today, I've taken in NO grid power for 36 hours now (and not given them any either of the 54.47kWh I generated today).

 

[Craigm86]

Hi all,

I know this has been covered before but there's so many pages and so many answers.

We have two EV'S - One Tesla and One Kia. We phoned Octopus today and asked if we can have two cars, answer was no.

I can't see how Octopus would know if i'm charging another car by taking advantage of the lower rate. The same way i could use my washing machine or dishwasher etc.

We have two chargers, so can always use a specific one for each car as i believe you have to tell them what charger you use?

Can we have two cars with IO. Is it possible and just a bit naughty?

Any help appreciated.

 

[browellm]

Hi all,

I know this has been covered before but there's so many pages and so many answers.

We have two EV'S - One Tesla and One Kia. We phoned Octopus today and asked if we can have two cars, answer was no.

I can't see how Octopus would know if i'm charging another car by taking advantage of the lower rate. The same way i could use my washing machine or dishwasher etc.

We have two chargers, so can always use a specific one for each car as i believe you have to tell them what charger you use?

Can we have two cars with IO. Is it possible and just a bit naughty?

Any help appreciated.

You can have two EVs, but only one can be onboarded controlled by the tariff unless you onboard with an Ohme Pro charger.

Assuming you don't have an Ohme Pro, onboard the Tesla on to IO. When you need to charge the Kia, just schedule it for the fixed off-peak period.

 

[Craigm86]

You can have two EVs, but only one can be onboarded controlled by the tariff unless you onboard with an Ohme Pro charger.

Assuming you don't have an Ohme Pro, onboard the Tesla on to IO. When you need to charge the Kia, just schedule it for the fixed off-peak period.

Thank you very much!

 

[Jonnymack74]

Is that actually the smart meter or are you referring to the little In Home Display?

I'm not sure any IHDs are sophisticated enough to cope with IO or other smart tariffs, mine certainly isn't but the ability to see real time house usage is useful nevertheless. If you do mean the IHD, just use it to monitor usage in kWh and for gas - your bill for both will show actual cost.

Aye that's the one. Since I've had IO since Feb my display has been telling me I've been spending anywhere between 10-20 quid a day depending how much I charge. Now it's down to 3-5 quid.

 

[Rooster6655]

IO Failed to charge my model 3 again tonight despite having a schedule at 23:30 for 7 hours. I couldn't get it running from the app and had to go outside and unlock and plug the thing, plug it back in and away it goes. I have had enough and will revert to setting the schedule in the Tesla to start at 23:30 until the scheduling works properly for me.

Yes this happens to me often too and recently when using a charger outside of the home it stopped the charge and creates a schedule at lunchtime, based on these ongoing issues it will be turned off!

 

[browellm]

Yes this happens to me often too and recently when using a charger outside of the home it stopped the charge and creates a schedule at lunchtime, based on these ongoing issues it will be turned off!

Just move to Go. There's no penalty for doing so.

 

[Utumno]

Just move to Go. There's no penalty for doing so.

Apart from the loss of two whole hours of off-peak rated household electricity each day.

 

[browellm]

Apart from the loss of two whole hours of off-peak rated household electricity each day.

Keep getting told the tariff isn't fit for purpose by some posters, so if that's the case and the user can move to Go without penalty. Why should that customer
a) keep having to put up with the agony and injustice of the one or two quirks of the current tariff, easily worked around?
and
b) keep having Octopus subsidise them for their intransigence and sense of entitlement of having a product they want to treat as "6 hours of Go" but isn't?

 

[yessuz]

Keep getting told the tariff isn't fit for purpose by some posters, so if that's the case and the user can move to Go without penalty. Why should that customer
a) keep having to put up with the agony and injustice of the one or two quirks of the current tariff, easily worked around?
and
b) keep having Octopus subsidise them for their intransigence and sense of entitlement of having a product they want to treat as "6 hours of Go" but isn't?

Or customer disables the "smart function" until Octopus gets grip with the tariff and sorts out all the issues.

Octopus is offering the product which should work - but if it doesn't - why should customer be penalised for the Octopus mistakes?

 

[browellm]

Or customer disables the "smart function" until Octopus gets grip with the tariff and sorts out all the issues.

No, it's a beta tariff. If you don't want to participate under the terms of the beta, you are free to move without penalty.

What you are describing is cakeism.

 

[DM250141]

Good Morning. Signed up to IO yesterday and was a perfect set up in app and with the car.
My go faster ran out of steam yesterday so had to change to something else, the IO prices are a big leap from go faster. Hopefully prices will reduce in July?
Two questions please.
My Podpoint was set 21:30/02:30 and the app told me how many kWh sent to car.
Now the Podpoint is a dumb charger and in the app it does not give me any figures.
Where can I find amount of kWh sent to car?
If car charge time moved to suit them (does it move outside 23:30/05:30) do house appliances get lower rate at the same time, if yes do house appliances also get lower rate again at 23:30/05:30. Or only when car charging.

 

[browellm]

If car charge time moved to suit them (does it move outside 23:30/05:30) do house appliances get lower rate at the same time, if yes do house appliances also get lower rate again at 23:30/05:30. Or only when car charging.

from the OP

 

[DM250141]

I know the difference between IO and GO. I chose IO because I believe it is the lesser of two evils.
I also understand about a schedule outside of the 6 hours and that household use applies as well. What I would like to know is, if schedule is outside of the 6 hours. Do you still get the lower rate during the normal 6 hours.

 

[Medved_77]

I know the difference between IO and GO. I chose IO because I believe it is the lesser of two evils.
I also understand about a schedule outside of the 6 hours and that household use applies as well. What I would like to know is, if schedule is outside of the 6 hours. Do you still get the lower rate during the normal 6 hours.

Yes

 

[DM250141]

Yes

Thank you.

 

[Cardo]

Good Morning. Signed up to IO yesterday and was a perfect set up in app and with the car.
My go faster ran out of steam yesterday so had to change to something else, the IO prices are a big leap from go faster. Hopefully prices will reduce in July?
Two questions please.
My Podpoint was set 21:30/02:30 and the app told me how many kWh sent to car.
Now the Podpoint is a dumb charger and in the app it does not give me any figures.
Where can I find amount of kWh sent to car?
If car charge time moved to suit them (does it move outside 23:30/05:30) do house appliances get lower rate at the same time, if yes do house appliances also get lower rate again at 23:30/05:30. Or only when car charging.

The PodPoint app should still tell you how much has gone into the car even if you don’t use a schedule. I also receive a monthly email with the daily charging quantities.

 

[browellm]

I know the difference between IO and GO. I chose IO because I believe it is the lesser of two evils.
I also understand about a schedule outside of the 6 hours and that household use applies as well. What I would like to know is, if schedule is outside of the 6 hours. Do you still get the lower rate during the normal 6 hours.

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