Intelligent Octopus - Undercharging

[melduk]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help answer a question as Octopus email support is very slow at the moment.

I have recently switched to Intelligent, seems better than Go due to more hours. However it seems to not hit the charge limit.

In the Tesla app I have my limit set to 90%, in the Octopus app I have my limit set to 90%.

Yet I woke up again today to only have 82% battery, it always seems to be around 80-83%.

Any ideas why? Have I not configured this correctly?

 

[browellm]

A couple basic questions, apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs:

Do you know what your charger actually delivers in kWh? At 32A you should be getting about 7.4kWh. Does your charger consistently deliver that?
You didn't accidentally have a limit set in the car?
On these cold mornings, the reported charge will be 1-2% off what you set, mainly because of Tesla's BMS.

Obviously 7-8% off is a lot and not what I would expect. Today schedule was adjusted a lot by IO. Mine last slot finished 10:30-11:00 presumably to take advantage of extra solar. Kraken moves things around often.

 

[Adopado]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can help answer a question as Octopus email support is very slow at the moment.

I have recently switched to Intelligent, seems better than Go due to more hours. However it seems to not hit the charge limit.

In the Tesla app I have my limit set to 90%, in the Octopus app I have my limit set to 90%.

Yet I woke up again today to only have 82% battery, it always seems to be around 80-83%.

Any ideas why? Have I not configured this correctly?

I note that it's charging to 90% of 90% ... could that be significant? Could the two settings be interacting e.g. if the Octopus app is set to 90% then it charges to 90% of what the car is set to i.e. 81% ...(so setting Octopus to 100% would get your cars max figure which is 90%) ...speculation I know!

Alternatively maybe there just isn't time due to low kW charging rate ...

 

[btc1k]

Friend of mine had these issues, found that the two charge levels can conflict.

Leaves Octopus one always at 100%, manages actual charge level through Tesla app (say 90%). Works fine then

 

[Adopado]

Friend of mine had these issues, found that the two charge levels can conflict.

Leaves Octopus one always at 100%, manages actual charge level through Tesla app (say 90%). Works fine then

I'm feeling all smug now ...

 

[NSS89]

I’d read on here to leave IO on 100% no matter what and then set the car to the actual charge required. I’ve always done this and not had any issues.

 

[browellm]

I think it’s also a bit of a ‘hack’ in terms of slots as IO thinks you want 100% so gives you slots based on that.

Yeah Octopus might need to give that some thought in the future , but stuff generally stays in beta for a long time. Go is still beta for some reason.

 

[melduk]

I note that it's charging to 90% of 90% ... could that be significant? Could the two settings be interacting e.g. if the Octopus app is set to 90% then it charges to 90% of what the car is set to i.e. 81% ...(so setting Octopus to 100% would get your cars max figure which is 90%) ...speculation I know!

Alternatively maybe there just isn't time due to low kW charging rate ...

After I wrote this I thought the same! Going to try this tonight and see how it goes.



Also though looking at the Tesla app it looks that my charge is set at 17A which I think should be at 26A but I think electrician said best to limit? So maybe this will also cause issues?

 

[browellm]

Also though looking at the Tesla app it looks that my charge is set at 17A which I think should be at 26A but I think electrician said best to limit? So maybe this will also cause issues?

There's your answer. If you set up IO and told it you had a 7kWh charger, it will be expecting it to deliver the full 32A.

 

[Adopado]

There's your answer. If you set up IO and told it you had a 7kWh charger, it will be expecting it to deliver the full 32A.

Yes, though depends on whether OP is referring to 17amps as the default fugure when not in the middle of a charging session (in which case it's irrelevant) or whether that's the rate mid charge (in which case it's an issue).

 

[greendriller]

I read that you should set the max amps to 80% of your circuit breaker (ie 26A if you have a 32A breaker) to avoid tripping your board as the car draws continuous load. I have a 100A fuse but max 32 A breakers in the board. So my car will only draw 6KWh against a potential of 7.4KWh

 

[browellm]

I read that you should set the max amps to 80% of your circuit breaker (ie 26A if you have a 32A breaker) to avoid tripping your board as the car draws continuous load. I have a 100A fuse but max 32 A breakers in the board. So my car will only draw 6KWh against a potential of 7.4KWh

Nonsense, frankly. And if you're an IO user your schedule will never charge your car correctly.

 

[DeejUK]

I read that you should set the max amps to 80% of your circuit breaker (ie 26A if you have a 32A breaker) to avoid tripping your board as the car draws continuous load. I have a 100A fuse but max 32 A breakers in the board. So my car will only draw 6KWh against a potential of 7.4KWh

In 9 years of EV ownership, I've never done this. I believe the only time the charger breaker has tripped is when the earth rod had too high resistance (because the soil got too dry). Taking only my (unqualified) experience into account, I think it's safe to set it to full current and get faster charging.

 

[Adopado]

I read that you should set the max amps to 80% of your circuit breaker (ie 26A if you have a 32A breaker) to avoid tripping your board as the car draws continuous load. I have a 100A fuse but max 32 A breakers in the board. So my car will only draw 6KWh against a potential of 7.4KWh

That's not right. A 32A breaker doesn't trip at 32A. They are rated to safely handle that figure continuously. Some installers choose to use 40A breakers and some 32A ... anyway I haven't tripped mine (32A) over the past 3 and a bit years.

 

[Adopado]

I believe the only time the charger breaker has tripped is when the earth rod had too high resistance (because the soil got too dry).

...and that instance the trip would be of the RCD aspect and NOT the current load breaker.

 

[Darreno]

That's not right. A 32A breaker doesn't trip at 32A. They are rated to safely handle that figure continuously. Some installers choose to use 40A breakers and some 32A ... anyway I haven't tripped mine (32A) over the past 3 and a bit years.

This. My charger often pulls 32.4 amps without any issue on a 32amp RCD.

 

[kuruma]

Leaves Octopus one always at 100%, manages actual charge level through Tesla app (say 90%). Works fine then

That's all fine and dandy... unless you need to charge to a level under 50% which the Tesla app won't let you do (inexplicably). Since switching to IO, I've enjoyed the fact that, if we want to, we can stop charging at, say, 35% if that's all we need.

 

[Ferret]

That's all fine and dandy... unless you need to charge to a level under 50% which the Tesla app won't let you do (inexplicably). Since switching to IO, I've enjoyed the fact that, if we want to, we can stop charging at, say, 35% if that's all we need.

Because the battery will stay healthiest around 50%.

 

[kuruma]

I've read between 20 and 80. Have you got a definitive ref for 50% specifically?

 

[Darreno]

I've read between 20 and 80. Have you got a definitive ref for 50% specifically?

Tesla recommend 90% max for daily.

Mine is set to 90%, done a few 100%s, 3k miles in with zero degradation.

Range Tips | Tesla Support United Kingdom

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