Octopus Intelligent Go Questions

irishesman

Hi All
I've signed up to Intelligent and we're picking up our new EV tomorrow.

My setup is fairly simple, a Ohme Pro charger (fitting on the 24th) and an EV. Nothing else, no solar or batteries.

Having ready through the various topics on here, I would like the hive mind to confirm what my thoughts are and possibly answer a few questions I have. 
1) Intelligent Go allows for 6 hours charging at an off peak rate. From what I see, that will not necessarily be between 23:30-05:30. If I get given a slot at a different time (say 20:00 for 30 minutes) will I lose one of the original 23:30-05:30 time slots? 
2) I really don't want to charge the car outside the 7p rate, but from my understanding, you setup the charger to reach a certain percentage of charge at a certain time. ie 80% at 6am. Is it possible just to configure to charge at the 7p rate and not worry about the final battery charge level? Our mileage is low enough to not care about being fully charged every morning and getting to 80% can easily be over a 2 or 3 night period. What I want to try and achieve is that if the battery is only at 60% at 05:30, it stops charging until the next 7p rate slot and at that point continue charging until 80%.
3) Does the Ohme Pro allow me to see the amount of kWh used in a Day/Month/Week timeframe?
4) Does the monthly bill from Octopus split out off peak and peak usage? My IHD is still showing my old tariff. Does this change, and can I see the off peak/peak figures in there?

Thanks in advance for all my daft questions

debitcardmayhem

@matt_drummer has intelligent go I believe, amongst others. I am toying will purchasing an EV soon, I will be interested in his / their input too, going to check out an EV next week._

matt_drummer

I do.

It is always 7p between 23.30 and 05.30 even if you get additional slots outside these times.

@born_again has an Ohme, but I would imagine it has an app  that shows what is going on. I have a Zappi

The Octopus bill shows what you paid each 30 minutes, rate and amount.

The main bill shows what you have used in total at both rates.

The car will only charge at the cheap rates.

If you need more than that you have to bump charge, that is choose to charge at the higher rate.

Keep_pedalling

I have a Zappi rather than the Ohme charger but I think they operate in a similar way. I use the Zappi to control the charge rather than my ID3, I plug the car in with the Zappi set to Eco+ mode in the Octopus app, I tell Octopus the % of charge I want to add and the time I need the car and Octopus then creates the schedule. If any of that falls out of the 6 hour time slot you will still be charged 7p for any electricity you use during the schedule even if it is not going in the car.

So far it has worked flawlessly. 

matt_drummer

I am sure you can download a manual for the car and the charger?

Depending on what car you get, charging to a battery percentage is not always guaranteed!

We have a Tesla and a Peugeot, the Peugeot is no Tesla!

debitcardmayhem

matt_drummer said:

I do.

It is always 7p between 23.30 and 05.30 even if you get additional slots outside these times.

@born_again has an Ohme, but I would imagine it has an app  that shows what is going on. I have a Zappi

The Octopus bill shows what you paid each 30 minutes, rate and amount.

The main bill shows what you have used in total at both rates.

The car will only charge at the cheap rates.

If you need more than that you have to bump charge, that is choose to charge at the higher rate.

Thanks matt , am I correct that the cheap slot encompasses the whole household e.g. panel batteries too.

Keep_pedalling

matt_drummer said:

I am sure you can download a manual for the car and the charger?

Depending on what car you get, charging to a battery percentage is not always guaranteed!

Where the app is controlling the charge point the percentage you set is the % you want to add rather than the % the car needs to reach so it does not need to know what the actual status of the car battery is just what the battery size is. 

The alternative option is to leave the app to 100% and the car will stop the charge at whatever level it has been set to (default will normally be 80%). If you do this the Octopus schedule will be longer than needed, 

QrizB

irishesman said:

I've signed up to Intelligent and we're picking up our new EV tomorrow.
My setup is fairly simple, a Ohme Pro charger (fitting on the 24th) and an EV.

I'm also on IOG, with an Ohme ePod (I didn't want a tethered cable). I suspect my answers to your questions will be similar to matt_drummer's.

irishesman said:

1) Intelligent Go allows for 6 hours charging at an off peak rate. From what I see, that will not necessarily be between 23:30-05:30. If I get given a slot at a different time (say 20:00 for 30 minutes) will I lose one of the original 23:30-05:30 time slots?

No. You get 2330-0530 every day, plus any other slots that Ohme / Octopus choose to apply.

For example, one day in December my IOG times looked like this:

Tht's 7p/kWh from 0000-0930, and again from 1100-1200.

irishesman said:

2) I really don't want to charge the car outside the 7p rate, but from my understanding, you setup the charger to reach a certain percentage of charge at a certain time. ie 80% at 6am. Is it possible just to configure to charge at the 7p rate and not worry about the final battery charge level? Our mileage is low enough to not care about being fully charged every morning and getting to 80% can easily be over a 2 or 3 night period. What I want to try and achieve is that if the battery is only at 60% at 05:30, it stops charging until the next 7p rate slot and at that point continue charging until 80%.

Even if you can set this, there's really nothing to gain. The slots that are chosen automatically for charging will always be cheap rate ones. even if they're outside the 2330-0530 period. (Note there's also a "max charge" button in the app which commences charging immediately, at whatever rate is in force at that time. Try not to use this if you don't have to!)

irishesman said:

3) Does the Ohme Pro allow me to see the amount of kWh used in a Day/Month/Week timeframe?

Yes, the Ohme app provides this info. I'm typing on my laptop but will try to get a screenshot.

irishesman said:

4) Does the monthly bill from Octopus split out off peak and peak usage?

Yes. Plus you get daily charts like the one I've posted above, each accompanied by a table showing how much electricity you used in each 30-minute slot and what it cost you. My monthly electricity bill is ~33 pages as a result, which isn't a problem when it's a pdf but occasionally Octopus send me paper ones too ...

irishesman said:

My IHD is still showing my old tariff. Does this change, and can I see the off peak/peak figures in there?

No. The IHD doesn't know which 30-minute slots are cheap and which are expensive, so it can't give you an accurate cost. The kWh display is still accurate.
(Checking my IHD, it still has tariff info from Go, not Intelligent Go. I was on Go before my Ohme was fitted.)

irishesman

Keep_pedalling said:

I have a Zappi rather than the Ohme charger but I think they operate in a similar way. I use the Zappi to control the charge rather than my ID3, I plug the car in with the Zappi set to Eco+ mode in the Octopus app, I tell Octopus the % of charge I want to add and the time I need the car and Octopus then creates the schedule. If any of that falls out of the 6 hour time slot you will still be charged 7p for any electricity you use during the schedule even if it is not going in the car.

So far it has worked flawlessly. 

So if I understand correctly, if I ask for example a 70% charge added and that would take approx. 7.5 hours, I would get 7.5 hours of cheap 7p electricity? Or have I misunderstood?

QrizB

irishesman said:

Keep_pedalling said:

I have a Zappi rather than the Ohme charger but I think they operate in a similar way. I use the Zappi to control the charge rather than my ID3, I plug the car in with the Zappi set to Eco+ mode in the Octopus app, I tell Octopus the % of charge I want to add and the time I need the car and Octopus then creates the schedule. If any of that falls out of the 6 hour time slot you will still be charged 7p for any electricity you use during the schedule even if it is not going in the car.

So far it has worked flawlessly. 

So if I understand correctly, if I ask for example a 70% charge added and that would take approx. 7.5 hours, I would get 7.5 hours of cheap 7p electricity? Or have I misunderstood?

I think I've answered that one above

irishesman

QrizB said:

irishesman said:

I've signed up to Intelligent and we're picking up our new EV tomorrow.
My setup is fairly simple, a Ohme Pro charger (fitting on the 24th) and an EV.

I'm also on IOG, with an Ohme ePod (I didn't want a tethered cable). I suspect my answers to your questions will be similar to matt_drummer's.

irishesman said:

1) Intelligent Go allows for 6 hours charging at an off peak rate. From what I see, that will not necessarily be between 23:30-05:30. If I get given a slot at a different time (say 20:00 for 30 minutes) will I lose one of the original 23:30-05:30 time slots?

No. You get 2330-0530 every day, plus any other slots that Ohme / Octopus choose to apply.

For example, one day in December my IOG times looked like this:

Tht's 7p/kWh from 0000-0930, and again from 1100-1200.

irishesman said:

2) I really don't want to charge the car outside the 7p rate, but from my understanding, you setup the charger to reach a certain percentage of charge at a certain time. ie 80% at 6am. Is it possible just to configure to charge at the 7p rate and not worry about the final battery charge level? Our mileage is low enough to not care about being fully charged every morning and getting to 80% can easily be over a 2 or 3 night period. What I want to try and achieve is that if the battery is only at 60% at 05:30, it stops charging until the next 7p rate slot and at that point continue charging until 80%.

Even if you can set this, there's really nothing to gain. The slots that are chosen automatically for charging will always be cheap rate ones. even if they're outside the 2330-0530 period. (Note there's also a "max charge" button in the app which commences charging immediately, at whatever rate is in force at that time. Try not to use this if you don't have to!)

irishesman said:

3) Does the Ohme Pro allow me to see the amount of kWh used in a Day/Month/Week timeframe?

Yes, the Ohme app provides this info. I'm typing on my laptop but will try to get a screenshot.

irishesman said:

4) Does the monthly bill from Octopus split out off peak and peak usage?

Yes. Plus you get daily charts like the one I've posted above, each accompanied by a table showing how much electricity you used in each 30-minute slot and what it cost you. My monthly electricity bill is ~33 pages as a result, which isn't a problem when it's a pdf but occasionally Octopus send me paper ones too ...

irishesman said:

My IHD is still showing my old tariff. Does this change, and can I see the off peak/peak figures in there?

No. The IHD doesn't know which 30-minute slots are cheap and which are expensive, so it can't give you an accurate cost. The kWh display is still accurate.
(Checking my IHD, it still has tariff info from Go, not Intelligent Go. I was on Go before my Ohme was fitted.)

QrizB that is very enlightening.