Intelligent Octopus

[nowty]

First try yesterday worked perfectly. Plugged in and got 13hrs of cheap electric.

What happens if I unplug? Does that cancel the remaining additional cheap slots?

What happens if I don't like the schedule it has set, can I make it have another think? If so how?

There are different opinions on the unplugging and keeping or losing the cheap slots. But even if you stop the charge, say by use of an EV app, you still keep the schedule of extra cheap slots.

If you don't like the schedule, play with the settings (including charge rate of car if possible) and you get a new schedule. The new schedule overrides the old schedule but I'm not 100% sure what happens if you have already used some earlier cheap slot, then change the schedule.

There is a fair use (abuse) policy, that if you use more than 6 hours of managed charging night after night, they reserve the right to charge you peak on the hours outside of the the 23:30 to 05:30 slot. So in winter I only abuse it if I'm desperate , or there is a saving session on.

They do keep changing the functionality so what might have worked in the past might not work in the future. For example they did change it a few months back where if you set your EV app SOC level to a level lower than the Octopus app SOC it now complains.

[nowty]

After the angst of getting the I5 onto IO I don't want to risk being kicked off especially as Hyundai Ioniq 5 dont seem to be listed now. With this in mind the I5 will remain at home plugged in when we go to t'other place in Turkey and No1 son can keep an eye on it and the house for our time away.

This might be the reason why Hyundai are no longer showing, I thought I'd read something about them (and maybe other car manufacturers) not liking 3rd party apps. Did you have the IO app still enabled when you parked it at the airport and had the low 12V battery issue ?
https://owners.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/res ... elink.html

[Joeboy]

After the angst of getting the I5 onto IO I don't want to risk being kicked off especially as Hyundai Ioniq 5 dont seem to be listed now. With this in mind the I5 will remain at home plugged in when we go to t'other place in Turkey and No1 son can keep an eye on it and the house for our time away.

This might be the reason why Hyundai are no longer showing, I thought I'd read something about them (and maybe other car manufacturers) not liking 3rd party apps. Did you have the IO app still enabled when you parked it at the airport and had the low 12V battery issue ?
https://owners.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/res ... elink.html

Yes it was enabled. Although it has been before for a month at a time. In saying that the couple of percent soc off the ev main pack that I've seen it lose would cover a massive amount of blue link vehicle queries.

The main culprit (I think) is that below a certain low soc and figures do vary the vehicle software stops the main pack charging the 12V battery.

That combined with multiple blue link queries and IO app queries would certainly do it. The lesson for me is don't leave the car sub 20% soc for an extended period of time. Oh aye and don't lose IO!

[Yuff]

First try yesterday worked perfectly. Plugged in and got 13hrs of cheap electric.

What happens if I unplug? Does that cancel the remaining additional cheap slots?

What happens if I don't like the schedule it has set, can I make it have another think? If so how?

There are different opinions on the unplugging and keeping or losing the cheap slots. But even if you stop the charge, say by use of an EV app, you still keep the schedule of extra cheap slots.

If you don't like the schedule, play with the settings (including charge rate of car if possible) and you get a new schedule. The new schedule overrides the old schedule but I'm not 100% sure what happens if you have already used some earlier cheap slot, then change the schedule.

There is a fair use (abuse) policy, that if you use more than 6 hours of managed charging night after night, they reserve the right to charge you peak on the hours outside of the the 23:30 to 05:30 slot. So in winter I only abuse it if I'm desperate , or there is a saving session on.

They do keep changing the functionality so what might have worked in the past might not work in the future. For example they did change it a few months back where if you set your EV app SOC level to a level lower than the Octopus app SOC it now complains.

Hi Nowty

You only keep the 30 min schedule, rounded up or down, from when it was charging. So if you get a schedule at 5.59pm you get off peak from 5.30pm, if you unplug your car at 6.01pm then your schedule will end at 6.30pm.
I’ve been using cheap schedules since January as I don’t have enough storage and have two ASHP’s to run so I’ve used it a lot.
Pre understanding how IO works my average in December was 22p kWh, January onwards it’s been 7.5 ish per kWh.
In winter I was using 3000-3500 kWh a month

[Stinsy]

First try yesterday worked perfectly. Plugged in and got 13hrs of cheap electric.

What happens if I unplug? Does that cancel the remaining additional cheap slots?

What happens if I don't like the schedule it has set, can I make it have another think? If so how?

There are different opinions on the unplugging and keeping or losing the cheap slots. But even if you stop the charge, say by use of an EV app, you still keep the schedule of extra cheap slots.

If you don't like the schedule, play with the settings (including charge rate of car if possible) and you get a new schedule. The new schedule overrides the old schedule but I'm not 100% sure what happens if you have already used some earlier cheap slot, then change the schedule.

There is a fair use (abuse) policy, that if you use more than 6 hours of managed charging night after night, they reserve the right to charge you peak on the hours outside of the the 23:30 to 05:30 slot. So in winter I only abuse it if I'm desperate , or there is a saving session on.

They do keep changing the functionality so what might have worked in the past might not work in the future. For example they did change it a few months back where if you set your EV app SOC level to a level lower than the Octopus app SOC it now complains.

Hi Nowty

You only keep the 30 min schedule, rounded up or down, from when it was charging. So if you get a schedule at 5.59pm you get off peak from 5.30pm, if you unplug your car at 6.01pm then your schedule will end at 6.30pm.
I’ve been using cheap schedules since January as I don’t have enough storage and have two ASHP’s to run so I’ve used it a lot.
Pre understanding how IO works my average in December was 22p kWh, January onwards it’s been 7.5 ish per kWh.
In winter I was using 3000-3500 kWh a month

I've heard that as soon as you plug in the car starts to charge while Octopus figures out what to do and you get that 30-min slot on the cheap rate guaranteed.

I've heard of people plugging in and then putting the dinner on.

And, to answer your question: yes. I believe that if you plug in at 1858 then the entire 1830-1900 slot becomes cheap rate.

(I've been on Intelligent for 3 days, so this is more what I've heard rather than what I know to be true.)

[nowty]

I've heard that as soon as you plug in the car starts to charge while Octopus figures out what to do and you get that 30-min slot on the cheap rate guaranteed.

I've heard of people plugging in and then putting the dinner on.

I don't think thats true unless it gives it you an immediate slot in the schedule. But if you game it to give you an immediate slot, then dinners cheap.

I tend the keep the charge disabled in the EV App until I either get to the fixed rate cheap rate period or the schedule time, so that avoids the minute or two of peak rate charging whilst it figures out what to do. Typically I also don't like the extra slots because I have to preprogramme my battery inverter. But if I desperately need the extra power, example super cold in winter or the EV / home battery is empty and I need it charging a lot, then to me the extra cheap slots are worth it.

[Yuff]

I've heard that as soon as you plug in the car starts to charge while Octopus figures out what to do and you get that 30-min slot on the cheap rate guaranteed.

I've heard of people plugging in and then putting the dinner on.

I don't think thats true unless it gives it you an immediate slot in the schedule. But if you game it to give you an immediate slot, then dinners cheap.

I tend the keep the charge disabled in the EV App until I either get to the fixed rate cheap rate period or the schedule time, so that avoids the minute or two of peak rate charging whilst it figures out what to do. Typically I also don't like the extra slots because I have to preprogramme my battery inverter. But if I desperately need the extra power, example super cold in winter or the EV / home battery is empty and I need it charging a lot, then to me the extra cheap slots are worth it.

You only get off peak if you get a schedule.
Sometimes it takes a while for a schedule to appear so I switch it off manually in the Tesla app, I also have it charging at 5 amps.
I’m testing it this month to see if you get a schedule and immediately remove the schedule whether I still get the half hour off peak slot …..it definitely works if your car starts charging within a couple of mins and you then remove the schedule.

[AGT]

Signed up today. After a few years with the simplicity of Go Faster I’ve decided to take on a bit of additional complexity in order to get a few more cheap slots. Frankly in summer it doesn’t really matter what tariff I’m on because I don’t use much grid power however in winter I can really do with every additional cheap slot to power my A2A HP.

I’m not sure how best to “game” the system however I plugged in the evening to see how it all works and boom! I’d take that in winter!

Just moved from Go to Intelligent Octopus, now that they have added VW and QubEv onto their data base.
Looking forward to the extra off peak hours for the storage heaters!

[NikoV6]

I've heard that as soon as you plug in the car starts to charge while Octopus figures out what to do and you get that 30-min slot on the cheap rate guaranteed.

I've heard of people plugging in and then putting the dinner on.

I don't think thats true unless it gives it you an immediate slot in the schedule. But if you game it to give you an immediate slot, then dinners cheap.

I tend the keep the charge disabled in the EV App until I either get to the fixed rate cheap rate period or the schedule time, so that avoids the minute or two of peak rate charging whilst it figures out what to do. Typically I also don't like the extra slots because I have to preprogramme my battery inverter. But if I desperately need the extra power, example super cold in winter or the EV / home battery is empty and I need it charging a lot, then to me the extra cheap slots are worth it.

You only get off peak if you get a schedule.
Sometimes it takes a while for a schedule to appear so I switch it off manually in the Tesla app, I also have it charging at 5 amps.
I’m testing it this month to see if you get a schedule and immediately remove the schedule whether I still get the half hour off peak slot …..it definitely works if your car starts charging within a couple of mins and you then remove the schedule.

Interesting, do you set the charge rate in the car?

Other issue I think we have is an evening charge slot will empty our Powerwall as well as drawing from the grid? I know I can change the discharge limit higher on the battery but sometimes forget. I don't think there is a simple way around this

[Joeboy]

I don't think thats true unless it gives it you an immediate slot in the schedule. But if you game it to give you an immediate slot, then dinners cheap.

I tend the keep the charge disabled in the EV App until I either get to the fixed rate cheap rate period or the schedule time, so that avoids the minute or two of peak rate charging whilst it figures out what to do. Typically I also don't like the extra slots because I have to preprogramme my battery inverter. But if I desperately need the extra power, example super cold in winter or the EV / home battery is empty and I need it charging a lot, then to me the extra cheap slots are worth it.

You only get off peak if you get a schedule.
Sometimes it takes a while for a schedule to appear so I switch it off manually in the Tesla app, I also have it charging at 5 amps.
I’m testing it this month to see if you get a schedule and immediately remove the schedule whether I still get the half hour off peak slot …..it definitely works if your car starts charging within a couple of mins and you then remove the schedule.

Interesting, do you set the charge rate in the car?

Other issue I think we have is an evening charge slot will empty our Powerwall as well as drawing from the grid? I know I can change the discharge limit higher on the battery but sometimes forget. I don't think there is a simple way around this

Mt stack does that too, my workaround is to let it happen and if required give the batteries a timed charge for the last couple of hours of the session.