I know you've said. I found it to be a very minor faff to just turn off the smart charging when I unplug my car in the day. Then I turn it back on just as I'm about to plug in again in the evening - which sets up my overnight charge slots.
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Octopus Energy, including Intelligent and go
- Thread starter UrbanSplash
- Start date
I know you've said. I found it to be a very minor faff to just turn off the smart charging when I unplug my car in the day. Then I turn it back on just as I'm about to plug in again in the evening - which sets up my overnight charge slots.
scdoubleu
Member
Seems to me quite wasteful to do multiple short charges. This time of year it’s going to spend a significant chunk of each time slot just getting some warmth into the battery before proper charging begins.
AC charging at 7.4kW doesn't put significant heat in the battery. It takes about 5 seconds to ramp up to 32A, exactly the same as it does in summer.
Thanks, I hadn't thought about ad-hoc switching the smart charging on and off. Are you still on the beta app or are you using the main Octopus app now? I want to support them as much as possible, so I'll give it another go (ev.energy is so easy and seamless though!).
Just using the beta app, although functionally they are virtually identical other than the smart charging/holiday mode name change.
Hmmm, so wonder if it’s a LTE issue? I guess Octopus communicates with the car via LTE? The signal isn’t great in my neck of the woods. Last night the charger ran for 30 mins before the schedule kicked in and then it ran to plan afterwards. However it was no big deal as I didn’t turn on the charger till after 23:30. Still, have some way to go to get 90 seconds before it restricts charging.
I did wonder if that would work -
i.e use the Zappi scheduling to be the bouncer on the charge port door of the car.
I’ll give that a try - I was trying to use the system as designed and also some of my Intelligent charging plans have been starting before 23:30 and finishing after 05:30. This morning’s one went to 07:30!
Drew57
Active ember
@jlz78 - your last few posts suggest that since Tuesday you have switched to Intelligent Octopus to use with an existing Zappi (presumably mentioning a different charger when applying).
If so it's possible that delays & charging issues are related to the fact that Octopus do not yet consider it compatible & you may continue getting unexpected results. Surely if it was as simple as using it as a dumb charger then all brands would be compatible? Maybe the 'Intelligent' Octopus bit handshakes with the 'smart' bit in certain chargers but not yet for Myenergi? However if it is possible to forward view the slots Octopus would offer, switch to 'dumb' then manually set those slots in the Zappi this would indeed get around things. Can that happen?
Either way, as another Zappi user I'm interested to follow progress (but academic for now because I expect Octopus will increase the rates soon & in a couple of weeks we add another EV. I tried the Intelligent Octopus configurator but it wouldn't accept either that or the Zappi, just the Tesla & Type 2 meter but I need to reliably charge both cars via the charger so have to stay with Go Faster for now).
If so it's possible that delays & charging issues are related to the fact that Octopus do not yet consider it compatible & you may continue getting unexpected results. Surely if it was as simple as using it as a dumb charger then all brands would be compatible? Maybe the 'Intelligent' Octopus bit handshakes with the 'smart' bit in certain chargers but not yet for Myenergi? However if it is possible to forward view the slots Octopus would offer, switch to 'dumb' then manually set those slots in the Zappi this would indeed get around things. Can that happen?
Either way, as another Zappi user I'm interested to follow progress (but academic for now because I expect Octopus will increase the rates soon & in a couple of weeks we add another EV. I tried the Intelligent Octopus configurator but it wouldn't accept either that or the Zappi, just the Tesla & Type 2 meter but I need to reliably charge both cars via the charger so have to stay with Go Faster for now).
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So reading all these posts. The Zappi isn’t listed yet but if you choose generic it works and you turn off the schedule in the myenergi app?
But then you also get high battery use and have to keep turning the smart charging off in the when you have finished charging? Seems a lot of faffing around.
But then you also get high battery use and have to keep turning the smart charging off in the when you have finished charging? Seems a lot of faffing around.
That's great, because it implies Octopus are able to achieve the desired goal of shifting load.
Bizarrely, I put myenergi EV chargers into the set up test charge and the Octopus system never questioned it. The car test charged perfectly (Zappi turned to dumb) and so Octopus changed the tariff without asking. We have another EV arriving in the next few months, but I’m not sure if I’m fitting an extra charger or not.
My main theory is the Octopus handshake with the Tesla is over the mobile phone network, so therefore being in a weak signal area as we are is possibly why the car charging doesn’t turn off as quickly as it should.
It’ll be interesting to see if Octopus have an issue with us charging a second car normally on the off-peak period outside of the days when the Model 3 isn’t plugged in.
Intelligent Octopus doesn't interact with the charger in any way -- I suspect they ask what charger you have to rule out smart ones like Zappi that will interfere with the Intelligent Octopus logic (if the Zappi is not put into dumb mode).
The second car has to also be a Tesla. If you mean it won't be a Tesla and you'll just configure it to charge between 23:30 and 05:30, then yes, that will work (that's what I am currently doing with the Ev.Energy app to avoid the Intelligent Octopus phantom drain).
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