Octopus Energy, including Intelligent and go

[sadwkh]

*typos: when I called they told me to email

 

[sadwkh]

Do you mind me asking, I was under the impression that they apply a fair usage policy of only 6 hours of schedule charging. In circumstances like this when the app schedule charging for more than 6 hours, do they really charge the full rate on anything that is over? Thank you

OI will charge any scheduled charging outside the designated 6 hours at the cheap rate. From OI faqs:
Plus, when we schedule your charging, you’ll always benefit from the low rate for EV and home, even if we happen to ask your car to charge outside of the standard night hours.

 

[Jenson88]

OI will charge any scheduled charging outside the designated 6 hours at the cheap rate. From OI faqs:
Plus, when we schedule your charging, you’ll always benefit from the low rate for EV and home, even if we happen to ask your car to charge outside of the standard night hours.

Thank you for your reply. I might have confused you on my intended question. In the TC it says that IO is subjected to a fair usage policy with a maximum of 6 hours of managed charging per 24 hours. My question is that if it schedules to charge more than 6 hours? (if all outside the off peak windows), will we be billed the day rate of anything that is over the 6 hours? As I have come across a couple of times the app is going to charge my car for 8 hours but that is before 23:30, so I am not sure if I should take that or stop the charge after 6 hours. Thanks

 

[sadwkh]

Hi maybe contact octopus for clarification (good luck with that)

 

[browellm]

My question is that if it schedules to charge more than 6 hours? (if all outside the off peak windows), will we be billed the day rate of anything that is over the 6 hours

No, it has all been billed off-peak to date. I think the clause you refer to gives them scope to limit it to 6 hours in the future, but Octopus are very much in data gathering mode on this relatively new product. I expect it to stay like that during beta.

If they were going to bill you peak rates for scheduled charges outside of the fixed window, they'd tell you.

 

[Mrklaw]

It is Octopus yes, I was monitoring it using Teslamate, IO was waking the car once an hour for 15 minutes. When I informed Octopus about this they replied with…..

“
Like all charging, in order to Smart Charge your car, we will need to wake it up. We plan to back off and let your car go back to sleep (to avoid battery drain) as often as possible.
Currently, we only back off whilst the car is plugged in, as well as when the car is away from home and stationary. Try plugging in your car to send it back to sleep.
If your car is plugged in and it still won’t go to sleep, then this is unlikely to be caused by Intelligent Octopus is keeping it awake. It is likely that something else is causing your vehicle to stay awake.”

So I think it is best to disable smart charging once complete

its really stupid - once they've set the schedule, there is no need to keep waking the car. drains a huge amount - 3-4kwh a day looking at teslafi.

 

[sadwkh]

its really stupid - once they've set the schedule, there is no need to keep waking the car. drains a huge amount - 3-4kwh a day looking at teslafi.

Agree and why wake the car up when it’s not even connected

 

[Adopado]

I must admit that on the bais of the above discussion I wouldn't touch IO with a barge pole! There just appear to be too many potential points of failure in its present state (and I have been an Octopus "fan" being on GO, very successfully, since 2019).

 

[browellm]

he car. drains a huge amount - 3-4kwh a day

It's nothing like that once the car is plugged in. It's waking up for around 15 minutes per hour.

 

[browellm]

I must admit that on the bais of the above discussion I wouldn't touch IO with a barge pole! There just appear to be too many potential points of failure in its present state (and I have been an Octopus "fan" being on GO, very successfully, since 2019).

The problem is being massively overstated. If people can't be arsed manually toggling a switch in an app that takes about 10 seconds to do in order to get at least 2 more hours off peak, they've got different priorities to me.

 

[Kansalis]

The problem is being massively overstated. If people can't be arsed manually toggling a switch in an app that takes about 10 seconds to do in order to get at least 2 more hours off peak, they've got different priorities to me.

That removes one of the key points of the IO system though; the automation. If you have to manually turn it off & on every day to prevent the system draining your car battery it's a fundamental flaw in the design/coding of the system. Other apps that use the API are perfectly capable of letting the car properly sleep but Octopus seem to not be able to figure that out.

It's not difficult logic -

• If car is not plugged in, do nothing, let it sleep
• If car is at home and plugged in, read car SoC from API
  • Set charging windows based on SoC
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Monitor API for updates
• If car wakes up for any reason & updates API, take SoC reading
  • Recalculate windows if necessary
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Repeat as necessary

 

[browellm]

That removes one of the key points of the IO system though; the automation. If you have to manually turn it off & on every day to prevent the system draining your car battery it's a fundamental flaw in the design/coding of the system. Other apps that use the API are perfectly capable of letting the car properly sleep but Octopus seem to not be able to figure that out.

It's not difficult logic -

• If car is at home, read car SoC from API
  • Set charging windows based on SoC
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Monitor API for updates
• If car wakes up for any reason & updates API, take SoC reading
  • Recalculate windows if necessary
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Repeat as necessary

I never said it wasn't a problem, I said it was being overstated. Of course it needs fixing.

 

[Mrklaw]

It's nothing like that once the car is plugged in. It's waking up for around 15 minutes per hour.

maybe. I’m monitoring unplugged. Which seems worse - even without waking the car up, teslafi knows if its plugged in as I assume that’s passively knowable. So no excuses for octopus really.

 

[sadwkh]

That removes one of the key points of the IO system though; the automation. If you have to manually turn it off & on every day to prevent the system draining your car battery it's a fundamental flaw in the design/coding of the system. Other apps that use the API are perfectly capable of letting the car properly sleep but Octopus seem to not be able to figure that out.

It's not difficult logic -

• If car is not plugged in, do nothing, let it sleep
• If car is at home and plugged in, read car SoC from API
  • Set charging windows based on SoC
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Monitor API for updates
• If car wakes up for any reason & updates API, take SoC reading
  • Recalculate windows if necessary
  • Let car sleep
  • Wake up at next charging window
• Repeat as necessary

Great stuff. How does one give feedback to octopus? This is obviously a beta product and as a result they should be open to feedback from customers to improve their product

 

[browellm]

Great stuff. How does one give feedback to octopus? This is obviously a beta product and as a result they should be open to feedback from customers to improve their product

There's a feedback option in the app!

 

[UrbanSplash]

Hi. I think for this period of octopus scheduled charging, you get the lower rate. So any house usage is at the low rate. But the schedule changes so I guess you can be caught out if you stick the dryer on during a IO scheduled period outside the 6 hours and it changes.

I’ve an issue with IO currently so have it switched off. Just use the 6 hours off peak to charge the car

 

[browellm]

By the way, I've been calling for this to be fixed on the Octopus forums for months. It's not like I don't want it fixing, it just needs some perspective.

 

[spon88]

A quick question for IO users please as it's very likely the direction I will go following the fitting of solar and 19kwh of battery storage. I need the extended charging period to top the batteries up overnight. My question is in relation to the car charging which we only need to do infrequently. I've ordered a Zappi charger to use with IO but I'm also keeping the "dumb" charger alongside it - given my infrequent charging, could I still do this via the dumb charger on cheap IO rate? If so maybe even dispense with the Zappi? Is there anything in the IO terms which says you've got to charge "intelligently"?

The dumb Rolec charger has never missed a beat and all the talk of the quirks in the IO system and keeping the car awake seems a bit of a faff. Or do I still need the new Zappi to facilitate trickle charging the car when the solar is installed?

Sorry for the potentially daft questions but I'm trying to get ahead on the learning in advance of the new solar gear and tariff change where I can.

Cheers

 

[browellm]

could I still do this via the dumb charger on cheap IO rate?

No issue at all using the dumb charger. The tariff is doing all the smart stuff.

all the talk of the quirks in the IO system and keeping the car awake seems a bit of a faff

Now I'm confused. So you just want the six fixed hours of off peak charging by disabling smart charging in the app? Well OK. I'll say it again: this is against the spirit of the tariff and the ToU but I doubt you'll get kicked off it, although they'd be able to.

do I still need the new Zappi to facilitate trickle charging the car when the solar is installed

Yes, you would need the Zappi for Eco/Eco+ style trickle charging. I have a similar set up my Hypervolt and IO. The IO tariff isn't smart enough to allow trickle charging for solar, you'd need to disable smart charging manually or enable "bump charging" in the IO app.

 

[Mrklaw]

as the car will always give you cheap rate, and potentially more than the 6 hours - why not just use the app to do that scheduling as you'll naturally absorb lower bills from the occasional extra 30 minute slots across your household.