Octopus Go - Dedicated EV charger required?

Glover1862

I've spoken to Octopus Go but not sure if the person has given the right info. Does the Go tariff only allowed if you have a full EV and dedicated charger? I've got a plug in hybrid and use a 13 amp standard domestic socket with the charger that came with the car. I also assume the £199 charger offer is no longer?

MWT

This is the stated requirement...

... so you should be fine with your hybrid and its supplied charger.

Glover1862

MWT said:

This is the stated requirement...

... so you should be fine with your hybrid and its supplied charger.

Cheers, that's what I thought, i'll email them with the part from the website. Fairly sure the £199 charger offer has gone. 

There standard daytime tariff is 30 kwh which is high but the 7.5p overnight makes it worthwhile for me. 

[Deleted User]

Glover1862 said:

MWT said:

This is the stated requirement...

... so you should be fine with your hybrid and its supplied charger.

Cheers, that's what I thought, i'll email them with the part from the website. Fairly sure the £199 charger offer has gone. 

There standard daytime tariff is 30 kwh which is high but the 7.5p overnight makes it worthwhile for me. 

FWiW, Octopus is working hard on its Intelligent EV tariff. To make use of this tariff, the owner needs either an OCPP-compatible EVSE or EV.  When the number of EVs or EVSEs increases to a certain level, I can well see the Go and Go Faster tariffs being withdrawn.

Glover1862

Dolor said:

Glover1862 said:

MWT said:

This is the stated requirement...

... so you should be fine with your hybrid and its supplied charger.

Cheers, that's what I thought, i'll email them with the part from the website. Fairly sure the £199 charger offer has gone. 

There standard daytime tariff is 30 kwh which is high but the 7.5p overnight makes it worthwhile for me. 

FWiW, Octopus is working hard on its Intelligent EV tariff. To make use of this tariff, the owner needs either an OCPP-compatible EVSE or EV.  When the number of EVs or EVSEs increases to a certain level, I can well see the Go and Go Faster tariffs being withdrawn.

Thanks, i have a Volvo s60 T8 which is fairly new and the car can choose the charging time. I think they said no over the phone because they expect a dedicated charger, but the website doesn't mentioned fixed dedicated charger, just charge at home.  

[Deleted User]

Glover1862 said:

Dolor said:

Glover1862 said:

MWT said:

This is the stated requirement...

... so you should be fine with your hybrid and its supplied charger.

Cheers, that's what I thought, i'll email them with the part from the website. Fairly sure the £199 charger offer has gone. 

There standard daytime tariff is 30 kwh which is high but the 7.5p overnight makes it worthwhile for me. 

FWiW, Octopus is working hard on its Intelligent EV tariff. To make use of this tariff, the owner needs either an OCPP-compatible EVSE or EV.  When the number of EVs or EVSEs increases to a certain level, I can well see the Go and Go Faster tariffs being withdrawn.

Thanks, i have a Volvo s60 T8 which is fairly new and the car can choose the charging time. I think they said no over the phone because they expect a dedicated charger, but the website doesn't mentioned fixed dedicated charger, just charge at home.  

Your car has an inbuilt onboard charger (OBC). The box on your wall or on your 13 amp cable is a charging point which goes by the grand title of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). Most EV/PHEVs will allow the owner to set charging times for tariffs such as Go and Go Faster. The latest EVSEs also allow the owner to set charging times via an App: in which case, the EVSE is left on Fast with no pre-set charging times. Intelligent Octopus is Octopus' solution to setting variable charging times throughout the night. Octopus takes control of the EVSE or the EV. It sounds simple but given how limited it is at the moment re the number of compatible EVSEs and EVs, I suspect that implementation is proving to be quite challenging.

lohr500

@ Glover1862 : What was your annual electricity consumption before getting the Volvo? And what are you currently paying per kWh? Do you fully use up the hybrid battery daily, so in effect you are putting a full charge into the battery each day?

The reason I ask is that if I have looked up the details for the car correctly it has an 11.6kWh battery. The granny type chargers that plug into a 13amp socket, typically only operate at 10 Amps. So to fully charge your battery it would take approximately 4.8 hours. (10amp x 240V = 2.4kWw. 11.6kWh / 2.4kW = 4.8 hours).

If my calculations are correct you would need the Octopus Go Faster tariff with 5 hours off peak to fully charge the battery on an off peak rate. Unless you install a higher capacity wall mounted charger to push more power into the battery in a shorter time.

But it doesn't end there. If you are a high consumer of electricity during the daytime and can't shift a reasonable chunk of that usage to the Go/Go Faster time window, you may find that the savings from the 11.6kWh battery charged at the 7.5p off peak rate ( 11.6 x .075 = £0.87) is wiped out by that higher peak rate price for the rest of your electricity consumption. Hope this makes sense.

I went through a similar thought process when I had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV with a 13.8kWh battery. 

I am no expert though so if anyone reading this sees a flaw in my logic, please pitch in!!!

[Deleted User]

lohr500 said:

@ Glover1862 : What was your annual electricity consumption before getting the Volvo? And what are you currently paying per kWh? Do you fully use up the hybrid battery daily, so in effect you are putting a full charge into the battery each day?

The reason I ask is that if I have looked up the details for the car correctly it has an 11.6kWh battery. The granny type chargers that plug into a 13amp socket, typically only operate at 10 Amps. So to fully charge your battery it would take approximately 4.8 hours. (10amp x 240V = 2.4kWw. 11.6kWh / 2.4kW = 4.8 hours).

If my calculations are correct you would need the Octopus Go Faster tariff with 5 hours off peak to fully charge the battery on an off peak rate. Unless you install a higher capacity wall mounted charger to push more power into the battery in a shorter time.

But it doesn't end there. If you are a high consumer of electricity during the daytime and can't shift a reasonable chunk of that usage to the Go/Go Faster time window, you may find that the savings from the 11.6kWh battery charged at the 7.5p off peak rate ( 11.6 x .075 = £0.87) is wiped out by that higher peak rate price for the rest of your electricity consumption. Hope this makes sense.

I went through a similar thought process when I had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV with a 13.8kWh battery. 

I am no expert though so if anyone reading this sees a flaw in my logic, please pitch in!!!

There are also charging losses to be taken into account; ie, 10kWh of charge doesn’t end up with 10kWh stored in the battery.

Glover1862

lohr500 said:

@ Glover1862 : What was your annual electricity consumption before getting the Volvo? And what are you currently paying per kWh? Do you fully use up the hybrid battery daily, so in effect you are putting a full charge into the battery each day?

The reason I ask is that if I have looked up the details for the car correctly it has an 11.6kWh battery. The granny type chargers that plug into a 13amp socket, typically only operate at 10 Amps. So to fully charge your battery it would take approximately 4.8 hours. (10amp x 240V = 2.4kWw. 11.6kWh / 2.4kW = 4.8 hours).

If my calculations are correct you would need the Octopus Go Faster tariff with 5 hours off peak to fully charge the battery on an off peak rate. Unless you install a higher capacity wall mounted charger to push more power into the battery in a shorter time.

But it doesn't end there. If you are a high consumer of electricity during the daytime and can't shift a reasonable chunk of that usage to the Go/Go Faster time window, you may find that the savings from the 11.6kWh battery charged at the 7.5p off peak rate ( 11.6 x .075 = £0.87) is wiped out by that higher peak rate price for the rest of your electricity consumption. Hope this makes sense.

I went through a similar thought process when I had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV with a 13.8kWh battery. 

I am no expert though so if anyone reading this sees a flaw in my logic, please pitch in!!!

Thanks for this, yes it does take about 5 hours to charge, I generally charge every day, maybe miss the odd day if I work form home. I’m current on the price cap with BG which is costing 20.9p going up to 29p flat rate in April, I see what you mean about the day rate being more expensive from Octopus.

ive actually changed my mind, Octopus are making it really difficult to change, the staff are almost hostile and seem put out doing anything to help, ended up having a big bust up over the phone as sales said they were doing me a favour by talking to me as it was me who called, real attitude problem, never experienced that before, it was a UK call centre and he insisted on calling me “mate” even after I told him he’s not my Mate! I’ve complained as asked them to review the call and see if they are happy with staff talking to customers that way.

Petriix

Octopus do seem to be trying to actively discourage new customers. You have to push through that. But the peak rate on Go is only 2p over the April price cap, and the lower standing charge reduces the effective difference further. Shifting just 10% of your usage to the off peak window will make it cheaper than any variable rate overall. Add in the £50 referral credit and you're laughing. Plus it's fixed for 12 months so no October increase either. 

Glover1862

Petriix said:

Octopus do seem to be trying to actively discourage new customers. You have to push through that. But the peak rate on Go is only 2p over the April price cap, and the lower standing charge reduces the effective difference further. Shifting just 10% of your usage to the off peak window will make it cheaper than any variable rate overall. Add in the £50 referral credit and you're laughing. Plus it's fixed for 12 months so no October increase either. 

Thanks, that actually changes things, I didn’t know it was fixed fir 12 months and avoids the April increase, I didn’t get that far into the conversation. What is the £50 referral credit and how do you get it? 

Still need to confirm if it requires a dedicated charger or the car supplied charger is ok.