Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Charging Schedules good, but being charged at peak rate

RhythMick

Hi. I'm on 3-phase supply so it's taken me a while to get a smart meter installed at home, in fact I gave up on British Gas (who kept sending single phase engineers) and moved to Octopus who sorted it quickly. It's a Kaifa meter which I've read means the Octopus Home Mini won't work, so no live readings but I can see usage on the website.

I've moved to Intelligent Octopus Go, linked my Zappi charger up and it's working fine. Plugging my car in results in a new charging schedule on the Octopus app, giving me the charge I need by the time I need it.

The only problem is that checking my usage on the website shows the charges which Octopus scheduled correctly, but it shows them charged at the peak rate. The Octopus tariff details state that if Octopus schedules a charge during peak hours it will be charged at the off-peak rate.

I've emailed customer services to ask for an explanation. Anyone have any experience with this ? I'm not keen on the idea of checking that every charge has been charged correctly after the fact - I'm tempted to move on to the simpler Octopus Go and just controlling the scheduling myself.

MWT

RhythMick said:

The only problem is that checking my usage on the website shows the charges which Octopus scheduled correctly, but it shows them charged at the peak rate. The Octopus tariff details state that if Octopus schedules a charge during peak hours it will be charged at the off-peak rate.

It usually takes a few days to update the website with the correct billing, are you giving it enough time to do that?

RhythMick

MWT said:

RhythMick said:

The only problem is that checking my usage on the website shows the charges which Octopus scheduled correctly, but it shows them charged at the peak rate. The Octopus tariff details state that if Octopus schedules a charge during peak hours it will be charged at the off-peak rate.

It usually takes a few days to update the website with the correct billing, are you giving it enough time to do that?

No I'm not - I was checking on yesterday's data. So today (25th March) I'm looking at data for 24th and it's showing smart charging events at standard rate. If as you say it subsequently changes I'll watch for that thanks.

Actually yes if I now look at data for 23rd it shows smart charging events at off peak interspersed with peak periods. Yesterday they were all shown as peak.

So it must be as you say, they are at some point updated to reflect the smart changing events at off peak rates. OK thanks for that.

Keep_pedalling

It should sort it self out eventually and appear correct on the bills. There is no need to swop to Go, if you are worried about going into peak time just plug in the evening at set the ready time to 5;30. 

Are you using 3 phase charging or single phase?

born_again

Just wait till you get your monthly bill. If wrong on there, then contact Octopus.

QrizB

I've got IOG and while both website and app will happily tell me how many kWh I've used in a day/week/month, if I ask for costs it tells me it can't give that info because it doesn't know what tariff applies to each 30 minutes.

I only get accurate cost info when I get my bill.

So I agree with everyone else that it sounds like your account is still catching up with the change.

Peter999_2

QrizB said:

I've got IOG and while both website and app will happily tell me how many kWh I've used in a day/week/month, if I ask for costs it tells me it can't give that info because it doesn't know what tariff applies to each 30 minutes.

I only get accurate cost info when I get my bill.

So I agree with everyone else that it sounds like your account is still catching up with the change.

My parents are on IOG and get the same as you in that it won't show the costs.

However, I am on Agile and surprisingly they do show the cost of the electric the next day - even though the cost changes if different for each 30 minutes.

armith

Yes, it all seems to work, which is good - but it would be nice to know for definite the current rate. Recently I've been getting some weird charging slots allocated to me - things like 21:39 - 22:00. Does this mean the whole 21:30 to 22:00 slot is at 7p? I presume so, and I'll see when the bill arrives next week - but it would be good if the Octopus Home Mini (for example) could somehow say "you are currently paying 7p per KwH"!

MeteredOut

armith said:

Yes, it all seems to work, which is good - but it would be nice to know for definite the current rate. Recently I've been getting some weird charging slots allocated to me - things like 21:39 - 22:00. Does this mean the whole 21:30 to 22:00 slot is at 7p? I presume so, and I'll see when the bill arrives next week - but it would be good if the Octopus Home Mini (for example) could somehow say "you are currently paying 7p per KwH"!

Yes, whole 30 minute slot will be 7p, since the meter only sends readings every 30 minutes and they wouldn't be able to differentiate usage between 21:30-21:39 and 21:30-22:00

Somebody

Any update, OP?  

I moved onto IOG, did one charge, and got the first bill after 10 days.  On checking the bill they charged me peak rates for the charge outside of the normal off-peak period.  Emailed CS but so far no response.

My IHD displays the correct rate/kWh at the relevant time periods, and also correctly calculate and display the current cost per hour at the bottom.  I've since done a second charge and would like to know if the off-peak rate should be displayed during an IOG charge in the menu?   For me, it is using the day rate to calculate the cost per hour during charging outside of the 23:30 - 05:50 period; it's fine during that period.  In other words, does the IHD reflect the cheap rate dynamically during Smart Control Schedules?  

TIA   

QrizB

Somebody said:

My IHD displays the correct rate/kWh at the relevant time periods, and also correctly calculate and display the current cost per hour at the bottom.

Somebody said:

.In other words, does the IHD reflect the cheap rate dynamically during Smart Control Schedules?  

IHDs get their pricing data from the meter. It isn't updated in real time and so the IHD and meter will state that the daytime tariff applies during daytime IOG smart charging periods.

For as long as you're on IOG, don't believe any pricing info that your IHD shows.