Octopus Intelligent Go - Smart Charging Schedule & 3 PIN EV Charger

powerful_Rogue

MeteredOut said:

QrizB said:

born_again said:

TBH a granny charger is so slow, that you are going to be better with a wall box. yes it will cost, but the convivence & speed of charge are well worth it.

Although a granny charger, being slow, increases the chance of Octopus extending your charging window so you get more whole-house consumption at the cheaper rate

Ah, thanks. I'd not thought of it like that

I wonder if it can be gamed, such as setting the "ready by time" to later in the morning (eg, 9am) on days I don't need to drive the car, in the hope that it sets smart charge slots to nearer to that time when the household is awake and there's an increased load being used. I wonder if setting the charge limit above 80% might change it too. 

That's Saturday mornings experiment

Not for much longer. Apparently Octopus are in the process of changing the tariff due to people gaming it such as this.

Also note, The tariff is dynamic - so at any point Octopus could change when they are going to charge your car. Do not rely on the initial notification at plug in for scheduling other loads outside of the 2330-0530 window.

Magnitio

I've also been using Intelligent Go for charging a VW using a granny charger. Most of the time it has worked OK and charging periods have often extended well beyond the 6 hour window. There have been a few times when the overnight charge has not worked and I've then adjusted the requirement to have the car charged by 10AM and Octopus provided a new charging schedule to cover the remaining time until 10. Octopus are very flexible at the moment on these charging periods, partly because people are still encountering issues with the process. I doubt this can continue long-term because some people are taking advantage of that flexibility.

There is a seperate thread discussing particular VW/Octopus issues. Octopus has said it is in discussion with VW to try to improve the situation. Not sure whether this is part of the temporary solution, but my car completely ignored the Octopus charging schedule last night and started charging at 11:30 until it stopped at 97% full instead of 80%.

Reed_Richards

Why should anyone want a fast charge if by using a slow "granny charger" they can extend the time when the whole house enjoys cheap electricity?

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

Why should anyone want a fast charge if by using a slow "granny charger" they can extend the time when the whole house enjoys cheap electricity?

... because some people really do need to charge the car faster most days so they can get to work in the morning with a full battery...

It is true though that Octopus are in the process of reviewing some aspects of the tariff in response to excessive 'gaming' by some users, so we will have to wait and see what that involves...

MeteredOut

powerful_Rogue said:

MeteredOut said:

QrizB said:

born_again said:

TBH a granny charger is so slow, that you are going to be better with a wall box. yes it will cost, but the convivence & speed of charge are well worth it.

Although a granny charger, being slow, increases the chance of Octopus extending your charging window so you get more whole-house consumption at the cheaper rate

Ah, thanks. I'd not thought of it like that

I wonder if it can be gamed, such as setting the "ready by time" to later in the morning (eg, 9am) on days I don't need to drive the car, in the hope that it sets smart charge slots to nearer to that time when the household is awake and there's an increased load being used. I wonder if setting the charge limit above 80% might change it too. 

That's Saturday mornings experiment

Not for much longer. Apparently Octopus are in the process of changing the tariff due to people gaming it such as this.

Also note, The tariff is dynamic - so at any point Octopus could change when they are going to charge your car. Do not rely on the initial notification at plug in for scheduling other loads outside of the 2330-0530 window.

Too often online, "apparently" means "I read it on facebook". Do you have a reference for that?

It is definitely dynamic - i did more playing last night, and by bringing the "ready by time" forward from 7am to 4am, it added 23:00 - 23:30 to the dynamic charging slots. But, changing it back after that 23:30 removed that slot and added slots within the overnight window.

It will be interesting to see what is billed for that period. I suspect it will be the peak rate, not the off-peak, since the  smart charging slots were updated and the 23:00 - 23:30 removed. I didn't force any additional use (I stopped my car charge) during that time as I suspected that will be the case.

peter3hg

powerful_Rogue said:

MeteredOut said:

QrizB said:

born_again said:

TBH a granny charger is so slow, that you are going to be better with a wall box. yes it will cost, but the convivence & speed of charge are well worth it.

Although a granny charger, being slow, increases the chance of Octopus extending your charging window so you get more whole-house consumption at the cheaper rate

Ah, thanks. I'd not thought of it like that

I wonder if it can be gamed, such as setting the "ready by time" to later in the morning (eg, 9am) on days I don't need to drive the car, in the hope that it sets smart charge slots to nearer to that time when the household is awake and there's an increased load being used. I wonder if setting the charge limit above 80% might change it too. 

That's Saturday mornings experiment

Not for much longer. Apparently Octopus are in the process of changing the tariff due to people gaming it such as this.

This makes no sense. Octopus are under no obligation to charge your car to the target amount, finish at the target time or offer any cheap periods outside of the 11:30-05:30 window. If they are bothered by "gaming" then they can simply not offer these additional cheap periods; it is entirely in their control within the current tariff structure.

MWT

peter3hg said:

This makes no sense. Octopus are under no obligation to charge your car to the target amount, finish at the target time or offer any cheap periods outside of the 11:30-05:30 window. If they are bothered by "gaming" then they can simply not offer these additional cheap periods; it is entirely in their control within the current tariff structure.

That isn't a solution, the whole basis for the tariff is for flexible control of large loads by Octopus so they can act in support of grid stabilization and profit from that involvement.

That requires that they are able to control loads at any time of day, not just within a fixed period as the 23:30-05:30 will often not be the cheapest/most profitable time to do it...

MWT

MeteredOut said:

Too often online, "apparently" means "I read it on facebook". Do you have a reference for that?

Not from Facebook, but from one of their integration partners.

No detail provided simply that there were some changes on the way, so we all have to wait for further details.

MeteredOut

MWT said:

MeteredOut said:

Too often online, "apparently" means "I read it on facebook". Do you have a reference for that?

Not from Facebook, but from one of their integration partners.

No detail provided simply that there were some changes on the way, so we all have to wait for further details.

Thanks - will be interesting to see what they do, as I can already see how it can be gamed.

For example, based on the current charge in my EV, I can change the charge limit and ready by time to have Octopus give me a smart charging period between 3-4pm this afternoon, and I could then plan other household loads for that time (I've not).

Reed_Richards

powerful_Rogue said:

... Apparently Octopus are in the process of changing the tariff due to people gaming it such as this.....

Surely the whole point of Octopus's many wacky tariffs and "saving sessions" is that Octopus (and other companies operating Demand Flexibility Service sessions) are trying to game us?  They want us to modify our behaviour and shift our times of high demand for electricity to times when that electricity is cheaper.