Octopus intelligent last week issues

[Corkage Time]

Yes this is exactly what we do also. Register an EV with octopus then just switch off the smart octopus part and manage charging through the cars themselves.

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[Jwa1]

I could be wrong, but from what I can tell after a quick scan of my bills and chat with a friend who has a Tesla, a benefit of smart charging is that you whole house ends up getting extra hours at 7.5p.

So therefore I am charging my car as slowly as I can most of the time (1kW).

Yesterday I got back at 4pm and the Octopus charge plan was immediately set from then until 11am today. There will probably be a subsequent one right after.

We live rurally, so don’t have gas to the house and all of our energy is electric. We have a very demanding air source heat pump. I’ve managed to get my bill down by £100 in the worst months since having the Taycan and Octopus Inteligent Go. I’m sure they’ll sort the charge limit issues at some point… once Porsche make their app easier to use!

 

[MrB]

I’m not sure if this might or might not help but when I first set up OI I went through the app and set up using the Taycan as the device. This caused me no end of issues and it never quite worked right. When I removed it form Octopus I went back in and set up OI but this time using the charger as the device (Ohme Home Pro). This has worked a charm ever since. The Ohme app handles it rather than Octopus (which shows ”we are in Beta mode” under devices) and has the benefit of being car agnostic too. The Ohme app is set up for the Taycan (as the larger of the two batteries in the “fleet”) but it happily charges both that and the Fiat. I realise this may be specific to the Ohme but it’s been (barring loss of connectivity to the Ohme server due a weak signal here) bang on and we get the 6 hrs overnight plus the tactical charging element.

 

[D00]

I could be wrong, but from what I can tell after a quick scan of my bills and chat with a friend who has a Tesla, a benefit of smart charging is that you whole house ends up getting extra hours at 7.5p.

So therefore I am charging my car as slowly as I can most of the time (1kW).

Yesterday I got back at 4pm and the Octopus charge plan was immediately set from then until 11am today. There will probably be a subsequent one right after.

We live rurally, so don’t have gas to the house and all of our energy is electric. We have a very demanding air source heat pump. I’ve managed to get my bill down by £100 in the worst months since having the Taycan and Octopus Inteligent Go. I’m sure they’ll sort the charge limit issues at some point… once Porsche make their app easier to use!

I think it is true that ‘intelligent’ and 23:30-05:30 reduced rates are ‘whole household’.
It is hard to fathom the Porsche profiles and timers which Octopus set. My experience was that those plans don’t necessarily match what actually happens. Only the usage or history tells when
Charging actually occurred.

 

[D00]

I’m not sure if this might or might not help but when I first set up OI I went through the app and set up using the Taycan as the device. This caused me no end of issues and it never quite worked right. When I removed it form Octopus I went back in and set up OI but this time using the charger as the device (Ohme Home Pro). This has worked a charm ever since. The Ohme app handles it rather than Octopus (which shows ”we are in Beta mode” under devices) and has the benefit of being car agnostic too. The Ohme app is set up for the Taycan (as the larger of the two batteries in the “fleet”) but it happily charges both that and the Fiat. I realise this may be specific to the Ohme but it’s been (barring loss of connectivity to the Ohme server due a weak signal here) bang on and we get the 6 hrs overnight plus the tactical charging element.

I think Octopus regard all of OI as beta.
Using your charger as the device possibly removes Porsche from the dependency chain but still relies on your local connectivity rather than the supply clock. Our signal in the garage isn’t great. Removing the connectivity dependency means you’re dependent only on a supply being available. If my understanding of how this hangs together is correct.

 

[MrB]

I think Octopus regard all of OI as beta.
Using your charger as the device possibly removes Porsche from the dependency chain but still relies on your local connectivity rather than the supply clock. Our signal in the garage isn’t great. Removing the connectivity dependency means you’re dependent only on a supply being available. If my understanding of how this hangs together is correct.

I suspect you may well be right and as noted, the connectivity has been the only subsequent issue. Like I say it may be purely chance but having the Ohme app control the OI has worked markedly better than having the Octopus app do so. May just be an Ohme thing of course.

 

[senwar]

I’m not sure if this might or might not help but when I first set up OI I went through the app and set up using the Taycan as the device. This caused me no end of issues and it never quite worked right. When I removed it form Octopus I went back in and set up OI but this time using the charger as the device (Ohme Home Pro). This has worked a charm ever since. The Ohme app handles it rather than Octopus (which shows ”we are in Beta mode” under devices) and has the benefit of being car agnostic too. The Ohme app is set up for the Taycan (as the larger of the two batteries in the “fleet”) but it happily charges both that and the Fiat. I realise this may be specific to the Ohme but it’s been (barring loss of connectivity to the Ohme server due a weak signal here) bang on and we get the 6 hrs overnight plus the tactical charging element.

I’ve got exactly the same setup. Was a bit tricky to get working initially (and Ohme weren’t great in customer support) but it works well now. Just plugged in and got various times calculated from 19:40 through to 7am.

Only annoyance I have is you can’t see the charging schedule in the app (or I can’t). Only way I can see it is extending the notification but if I click on it in error it takes me to app and I can’t see anything

 

[bn8959]

I have also gone the route of integrating OI in to my EVSE (Zappi in my case) and not the car. Works far far better in my opinion. Plus you get the bonus cheap rate hours when it’s plugged in - even if finished charging. Just set the OI app to ‘add 100%’ and it will schedule big chunks of low rate hours:

 

[MrB]

I’ve got exactly the same setup. Was a bit tricky to get working initially (and Ohme weren’t great in customer support) but it works well now. Just plugged in and got various times calculated from 19:40 through to 7am.

Only annoyance I have is you can’t see the charging schedule in the app (or I can’t). Only way I can see it is extending the notification but if I click on it in error it takes me to app and I can’t see anything

That’s the only snag isn’t it? I frequently tap on the notification rather than extending it and then the app gives you no indication of what the charge schedule is going to be.

 

[Nickj]

I have also gone the route of integrating OI in to my EVSE (Zappi in my case) and not the car. Works far far better in my opinion. Plus you get the bonus cheap rate hours when it’s plugged in - even if finished charging. Just set the OI app to ‘add 100%’ and it will schedule big chunks of low rate hours:

So, I tend to use mine in dumb mode but are people saying if you plug in with 10% and set a charge target of 100% and enough time at 7kw per hour is available before ready by time it will charge the whole battery at 7.5p ? Has anyone validated this and that they haven’t been charged at peak rate for the surplus?

If so I might go back to using OI to control it on the odd occasion I need more charge…

 

[bn8959]

So, I tend to use mine in dumb mode but are people saying if you plug in with 10% and set a charge target of 100% and enough time at 7kw per hour is available before ready by time it will charge the whole battery at 7.5p ? Has anyone validated this and that they haven’t been charged at peak rate for the surplus?

If so I might go back to using OI to control it on the odd occasion I need more charge…

See what is scheduled for me in my screenshot - 13 hours at 7p. There is no way for the EVSE (and therefore OI) to know the current SoC. I had plugged in at 60% and had a profile to charge to 80%, yet because I always leave the Octoous app set to ‘add 100%’ it always tried to schedule as many hours as possible, and therefore more cheap hours for the house! Doesn’t matter if the car is actually charging (as long as it’s plugged in).

 

[Nickj]

See what is scheduled for me in my screenshot - 13 hours at 7p. There is no way for the EVSE (and therefore OI) to know the current SoC. I had plugged in at 60% and had a profile to charge to 80%, yet because I always leave the Octoous app set to ‘add 100%’ it always tried to schedule as many hours as possible, and therefore more cheap hours for the house! Doesn’t matter if the car is actually charging (as long as it’s plugged in).

Even more confused now. If your battery was at 60% it would get to 100% in the allowed 6 hours at cheap rate. It’s not charging for 13 hours, It spreads them out over a longer period but could be charging at 2kw an hour at times so no benefit at all on the EV. Are you saying it would do this if you plugged in at 10% battery and charge all at 7.5p to 100%?

Also, are you saying the house gets 7.5p for all those hours? I thought the house was dumb as such and just got 7.5p for set hours and it’s irrelevant to the car charging?

 

[D00]

So, I tend to use mine in dumb mode but are people saying if you plug in with 10% and set a charge target of 100% and enough time at 7kw per hour is available before ready by time it will charge the whole battery at 7.5p ? Has anyone validated this and that they haven’t been charged at peak rate for the surplus?

If so I might go back to using OI to control it on the odd occasion I need more charge…

Is the schedule (the charging plan) shown in your screenshot actually executed? Have you reviewed bills to determine the unit rate that was charged to your billing account outside the regular reduced rate period of 2330 to 0530
My understanding is that only recorded ‘intelligent devices’ get the reduced rate during ad hoc intelligent periods - the entire household, including any EVs or Chargers not recorded as OI devices, get the reduced rate only between 2330 and 0530.

 

[Nickj]

See what is scheduled for me in my screenshot - 13 hours at 7p. There is no way for the EVSE (and therefore OI) to know the current SoC. I had plugged in at 60% and had a profile to charge to 80%, yet because I always leave the Octoous app set to ‘add 100%’ it always tried to schedule as many hours as possible, and therefore more cheap hours for the house! Doesn’t matter if the car is actually charging (as long as it’s plugged in).

So, bn8959s post caught my interest. Only been with OI 3 months but I never knew the whole house got 7.5p when the OI plan was applied ( thought the house was just the fixed 6 hours). I’ve now read various internet sources and tis true…

I’ve ratified it also, OI FAQ,

And also looked back on my bill when I accidentally left it to charge longer than I normally do, and just presumed I’d been charged peak rate for the difference over 6 hours but apparently not.. ( see 7pm rate onward )

Genuinely didn’t know this so thanks bn8959 ! I’m going to switch back to smart charging now.

 

[bn8959]

So, bn8959s post caught my interest. Only been with OI 3 months but I never knew the whole house got 7.5p when the OI plan was applied ( thought the house was just the fixed 6 hours). I’ve now read various internet sources and tis true…

I’ve ratified it also, OI FAQ,

And also looked back on my bill when I accidentally left it to charge longer than I normally do, and just presumed I’d been charged peak rate for the difference over 6 hours but apparently not.. ( see 7pm rate onward )

Genuinely didn’t know this so thanks bn8959 ! I’m going to switch back to smart charging now.

This is why I love having OI integrated to the EVSE. When integrated to the car, OI knows exactly how much energy you need to top up. So if you only need to go 60% to 70% SoC, OI won’t likely give you extra hours beyond your 6 hours. But with the EVSE integration, and setting the app to ‘add 100%’, OI will usually give you up to 12 hours, sometimes more, of low rate - even if you only add 5% SoC to your car in that entire time! (Just have to leave car connected).