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

 

[Nicjwin]

My IO cut out after 0.1 Kw charge , next night got 5kw in before it cut out , next night 0.1 Kw . However stopped IO Smart Charging and went for a schedule in the Tesla last night and that cut out with various notifications BMS_a063 reconnect , CP_a006 service required .
So it may be the latest software update . Car charged ok when schedule turned off .

 

[Cardo]

My IO cut out after 0.1 Kw charge , next night got 5kw in before it cut out , next night 0.1 Kw . However stopped IO Smart Charging and went for a schedule in the Tesla last night and that cut out with various notifications BMS_a063 reconnect , CP_a006 service required .
So it may be the latest software update . Car charged ok when schedule turned off .

Not seen CP_a006 before but BMS_a063 has been linked to charge port failures (including mine). I would get a service request set up as you may have faulty parts.

 

[WllXM]

1st of Oct is here and so far no change to IO prices.
I know they are not bound by price caps but I would have expected the peak rate to be lowered by a couple pence to keep it in line with other tariffs and follow what was done last July…
Let see it if updates within the next couple days…

 

[yessuz]

1st of Oct is here and so far no change to IO prices.
I know they are not bound by price caps but I would have expected the peak rate to be lowered by a couple pence to keep it in line with other tariffs and follow what was done last July…
Let see it if updates within the next couple days…

IO avg price is kess than cap

 

[Epico]

So do we know if something funky is going on. I've just switched to IO and last night was my first try with it. I got a schedule but also set my car to wake at 11:30, which it did. It then stoped my charged at around 1 (when octopus was supposed to start charging) and it didn't charge during the time is said it would, so I got 10% instead of the 40 I was expecting.

Having read some suggestions here I've now adjusted the car to not start charging at 11:30 but leaving it to octopus. (I've stopped the car from the Tesla app, as I don't fancy paying 30p a kWh, is this the right thing to do?), however the octopus app is still saying "a charging plan will be made shortly after you plugged in" but I plugged in at 11 this morning. So...am I doing something wrong?

 

[browellm]

So do we know if something funky is going on. I've just switched to IO and last night was my first try with it. I got a schedule but also set my car to wake at 11:30, which it did. It then stoped my charged at around 1 (when octopus was supposed to start charging) and it didn't charge during the time is said it would, so I got 10% instead of the 40 I was expecting.

Having read some suggestions here I've now adjusted the car to not start charging at 11:30 but leaving it to octopus. (I've stopped the car from the Tesla app, as I don't fancy paying 30p a kWh, is this the right thing to do?), however the octopus app is still saying "a charging plan will be made shortly after you plugged in" but I plugged in at 11 this morning. So...am I doing something wrong?

Yes you set your car to wake, when the tariff is supposed to control your charging.

 

[MrT3]

Yes you set your car to wake, when the tariff is supposed to control your charging.

You are meant to disable all scheduling in the vehicle and set the charge limit above what you set in IO. It's only because IO can be a bit flaky that people set the vehicle itself to start charging at 23:30. But in theory you shouldn't have to do that and IO will start and stop by itself.


The main issue is that IO needs the vehicle to be awake to set a charging plan, and when you first plug in it can be 15+ minutes before it polls the vehicle and notices it has been plugged in. In that time you are either being charged full price for charging, or you manually stop charging (or have a schedule set to only charge at 23:30) and run the risk of the car falling asleep before IO polls it and a schedule not being set.

Setting a schedule for 23:30 means the vehicle will wake up and start charging on cheap rate, and on the next IO poll it will notice the car is plugged in and set a schedule but you will never get an extended charging slot before 23:30.

 

[browellm]

You are meant to disable all scheduling in the vehicle and set the charge limit above what you set in IO. It's only because IO can be a bit flaky that people set the vehicle itself to start charging at 23:30. But in theory you shouldn't have to do that and IO will start and stop by itself.


The main issue is that IO needs the vehicle to be awake to set a charging plan, and when you first plug in it can be 15+ minutes before it polls the vehicle and notices it has been plugged in. In that time you are either being charged full price for charging, or you manually stop charging (or have a schedule set to only charge at 23:30) and run the risk of the car falling asleep before IO polls it and a schedule not being set.

Setting a schedule for 23:30 means the vehicle will wake up and start charging on cheap rate, and on the next IO poll it will notice the car is plugged in and set a schedule but you will never get an extended charging slot before 23:30.

There's no point trying to troubleshoot people's problems with IO when they are going off piste with their 'clever' workarounds for this that and the other.

 

[MB2MB2]

I have been using IO for a couple of weeks now - overall it seems to work well. Occasionally it hasn't made a schedule and so I stopped the charging with the app, it had still charged as instructed in the morning.

Most times I get a schedule very soon after I plug in. Octopus Go reduced to 9p so the gain is a bit less than when I signed up (9.5) but still worth it I guess, plus I can schedule immersion, hot tub etc. for longer and cheaper.

 

[Pete UK]

So do we know if something funky is going on. I've just switched to IO and last night was my first try with it. I got a schedule but also set my car to wake at 11:30, which it did. It then stoped my charged at around 1 (when octopus was supposed to start charging) and it didn't charge during the time is said it would, so I got 10% instead of the 40 I was expecting.

Having read some suggestions here I've now adjusted the car to not start charging at 11:30 but leaving it to octopus. (I've stopped the car from the Tesla app, as I don't fancy paying 30p a kWh, is this the right thing to do?), however the octopus app is still saying "a charging plan will be made shortly after you plugged in" but I plugged in at 11 this morning. So...am I doing something wrong?

TLDR; set off peak end time 05:30

You do have the car’s charge target in the Tesla app above the charge limit set in the Octopus app right? It must be higher (or same) in the car.

Pretty much what you have set now works, yes. You’re doing it right. But that’s only one of two ways of doing it.
A better way to do it is as below though - IMHO; especially if you have solar batteries that you don’t want depleted by an extra IO slot or two after 05:30 and you’d prefer any potential extra slots to be in the evening (to take advantage of the whole house load being at a cheap rate when house load is likely to be higher than at 05:30).

I think the IO charging plan is usually allocated much later in the day (late afternoon/ early evening) because it’s a scheduled plan for an off peak overnight charge. I assume Octopus don’t poll the car much (if at all) during the day to avoid battery drain by waking it up lots of times unnecessarily. (People were complaining in the early days of the car being woken up constantly and causing unnecessary battery drain, especially when the car was at home but not plugged in! That’s fixed now though). I’m pretty sure this is likely the case, because when I charge the car from my solar panels or solar batteries, IO isn’t stopping the charge, even though smart charging is ‘on’. Which is nice.

I’m an advocate for setting 05:30 for the “off peak end time” in the Tesla app instead of a scheduled charge start time at 23:30.

Like this in the Tesla app:
>schedule
>departure
>off peak charge ‘on’
>All week
>Off peak end time: 05:30.

Also I set ‘departure’ for 08:30 on that same screen in case I need to cool/defrost.

Why this way?

I’m finding this works perfectly without the car starting to charge for a while at peak time when you plug in. And hence having to stop the charge every time you plug in. (Or forgetting).
Some people are ok with doing this but it’s one extra thing to remember and if I can simplify things I prefer to.

It works perfectly and is set and forget.

Also it won’t cause as much of a ‘grid surge’ at 23:30. Although my Solar batteries will !

I’ve never had a failed IO smart charge.

Hope that helps.

 

[Epico]

TLDR; set off peak end time 05:30

You do have the car’s charge target in the Tesla app above the charge limit set in the Octopus app right? It must be higher (or same) in the car.

Pretty much what you have set now works, yes. You’re doing it right. But that’s only one of two ways of doing it.
A better way to do it is as below though - IMHO; especially if you have solar batteries that you don’t want depleted by an extra IO slot or two after 05:30 and you’d prefer any potential extra slots to be in the evening (to take advantage of the whole house load being at a cheap rate when house load is likely to be higher than at 05:30).

I think the IO charging plan is usually allocated much later in the day (late afternoon/ early evening) because it’s a scheduled plan for an off peak overnight charge. I assume Octopus don’t poll the car much (if at all) during the day to avoid battery drain by waking it up lots of times unnecessarily. (People were complaining in the early days of the car being woken up constantly and causing unnecessary battery drain, especially when the car was at home but not plugged in! That’s fixed now though). I’m pretty sure this is likely the case, because when I charge the car from my solar panels or solar batteries, IO isn’t stopping the charge, even though smart charging is ‘on’. Which is nice.

I’m an advocate for setting 05:30 for the “off peak end time” in the Tesla app instead of a scheduled charge start time at 23:30.

Like this in the Tesla app:
>schedule
>departure
>off peak charge ‘on’
>All week
>Off peak end time: 05:30.

Also I set ‘departure’ for 08:30 on that same screen in case I need to cool/defrost.

Why this way?

I’m finding this works perfectly without the car starting to charge for a while at peak time when you plug in. And hence having to stop the charge every time you plug in. (Or forgetting).
Some people are ok with doing this but it’s one extra thing to remember and if I can simplify things I prefer to.

It works perfectly and is set and forget.

Also it won’t cause as much of a ‘grid surge’ at 23:30. Although my Solar batteries will !

I’ve never had a failed IO smart charge.

Hope that helps.

That all sounds like a good idea! I think the best bit there is the "stop charging" option. Hadn't seen that in the app! Your set up sounds pretty much identical to mine, though with the export now paying 15p I don't charge the car off the excess but let it export.

 

[Pete UK]

That all sounds like a good idea! I think the best bit there is the "stop charging" option. Hadn't seen that in the app! Your set up sounds pretty much identical to mine, though with the export now paying 15p I don't charge the car off the excess but let it export.

Yes. I was charging from Solar excess in the summer but now I’m letting it all get exported as well.

Charging car and solar batteries to 100% overnight and exporting any excess from the solar batteries before 23:30. And repeating.

I had some problems getting on the 15p export rate. Long story but it was resolved by phone this morning. (Unless it reverts itself back to SEG again ).

Incidentally they told me on the phone that the IO tariff is now called “Intelligent Octopus GO” and the export tariff is now called “Octopus Outgoing light”. Same rates though; 7.5p/31p and 15p for export.

I’m showing “Intelligent Octopus GO” and “Outgoing Octopus 12M Fixed” in the app though

 

[KennethS]

Incidentally they told me on the phone that the IO tariff is now called “Intelligent Octopus GO” and the export tariff is now called “Octopus Outgoing light”.

Interesting -- not certain when it happened but indeed our tariff now shows as "Intelligent Octopus GO" as well.

 

[David T]

Perhaps I'm too trusting of IO, but I have all schedules in the M3 off and charge limit at 100%. I plug car in then immediately hit the "stop charge ' button on-screen. I've always received a schedule and it's worked. Haven't a clue if or when the car wakes up or is woken up by octopus.

 

[MrT3]

Incidentally they told me on the phone that the IO tariff is now called “Intelligent Octopus GO” and the export tariff is now called “Octopus Outgoing light”.

Intelligent Octopus Go is correct but Octopus Outgoing lite is for Unintelligent Octopus Go customers, whereas IO Go customer get Octopus Outgoing Fixed.

 

[Leccy]

You are meant to disable all scheduling in the vehicle and set the charge limit above what you set in IO. It's only because IO can be a bit flaky that people set the vehicle itself to start charging at 23:30. But in theory you shouldn't have to do that and IO will start and stop by itself.


The main issue is that IO needs the vehicle to be awake to set a charging plan, and when you first plug in it can be 15+ minutes before it polls the vehicle and notices it has been plugged in. In that time you are either being charged full price for charging, or you manually stop charging (or have a schedule set to only charge at 23:30) and run the risk of the car falling asleep before IO polls it and a schedule not being set.

Setting a schedule for 23:30 means the vehicle will wake up and start charging on cheap rate, and on the next IO poll it will notice the car is plugged in and set a schedule but you will never get an extended charging slot before 23:30.

Mine behaves differently to this. It is scheduled in the car/Tesla app to charge at 23:30, so when I plug it in after work in the evening it doesn't start charging, but within 10 mins or so has an IO charge plan, and due to SOC and my target time, most nights IO starts it charging earlier than 23:30.

If for whatever reason (and it's happened a couple of times) IO fails to communicate with the car it still starts charging at 23:30 as per Tesla scheduling.

The downside of this for the IO grand scheme of things is that if, for example at the weekend, it only needs half an hour of charging overnight, and IO schedules it for say 4am, is that the Tesla schedule overrides the IO schedule and gets the half an hour charging done at 23:30

 

[kuruma]

Charging car and solar batteries to 100% overnight and exporting any excess from the solar batteries before 23:30. And repeating.

isn't charging to 100% a no-no for battery life?

 

[Pete UK]

isn't charging to 100% a no-no for battery life?

Yes, I should have said charging the car to 80% and the solar batteries to 100%.

The newer Tesla LFP car batteries can be charged to 100% though not 80%.

 

[kuruma]

I’m an advocate for setting 05:30 for the “off peak end time” in the Tesla app instead of a scheduled charge start time at 23:30.

Like this in the Tesla app:
>schedule
>departure
>off peak charge ‘on’
>All week
>Off peak end time: 05:30.

I’m finding this works perfectly...

It works perfectly and is set and forget.

I’ve never had a failed IO smart charge.

Well that went VERY badly. I followed your instructions to the letter leaving Tesla on 100% (as instructed by Octopus) and IO at 80% which is our normal overnight charge level. I also set a 20% reserve on the powerwall because I knew it was going to be overcast this morning and didn't want to drain it to zero and have to run the house off the grid. Plugged the car in around 2145, cancelled the charge on the touchscreen and got a charging plan immediately in Octopus. It said it would start charging at 1am.

At 2335, I happened to check the Tesla app and noticed the car was charging. That's wierd I thought and stopped the charge as I could see that the charge plan was still scheduled for 1am.

The cat woke me up at 5:26am. Before turning over, I checked the Tesla app. The car wasn't charging but for some reason had charged to 90%, 10% more than we'd asked IO to charge it to. Strange, I thought. I moved the reserve on the powerwall back to 0% so the house would start taking from the powerwall instead of the grid once peak started at 5:30. Went back to sleep.

When I got in the car at 8:15, it was at 100%. I winced and checked the powerwall. As I suspected, it was on zero. 20% had been drained into the car and the car had taken the rest it needed to get to 100 from the grid.

On the phone to Octopus this morning, they told me to get rid of that Off peak end time 0530 setting under Schedule because it had screwed with IO. They've agreed to refund me for all energy consumed today (not just peak) because we've had both the car and the house running of the grid instead of the powerwall from 530am. They were adamant that ANY charge scheduling settings in a 3rd party app (Tesla, wall charger, etc) would create unexpected behaviour in IO.

So, your mileage may vary considerably from Pete's.

 

[browellm]

smh