Octopus Intelligent Go exceeded requesting charge target

itm2

I have a Zappi Glo EV charger, and am on the Octopus Intelligent Go tariff. Yesterday I had the EV plugged in, but only requested a 5% top-up charge in the Octopus app (to be completed by 00:30), as I have 8 free “happy hours” to use before the end of the month, and I was planning to use them over the next 2 weekends to charge the car (it was at <45% SoC yesterday).

When I checked this morning I saw that the car had been charged to 100%, consuming >55kWh of electricity. This was quite annoying, as now I no longer have the opportunity to use my free weekend energy slots to charge the car, and I will be billed for EV charging that I did not request, and which I was planning to get for free over the next 2 weekends.

I had smart charging enabled in both the Myenergi and Octopus apps, and did not have any schedules configured in the Myenergi aop.

Does anyone have any idea why this can happen?

MeteredOut

Without any further info (that you might not also have), I can't see how anyone could do anything other than guess.

This is one to send to Octopus's team for them to check their logs.

I have had issues where the Octopus app does not properly save changes to my charging preferences.

kingstreet

Not sure about a Zappi, but if an Ohme charger loses its connection to the server it becomes a dumb charger and if plugged in charges immediately.

Keep_pedalling

One possibility is that you inadvertently triggered a boost charge.

You would not have been able to use all 8 happy hours before the end of the month as you can only use 2 in any one weekend.

QrizB

You would not have been able to use all 8 happy hours before the end of the month as you can only use 2 in any one weekend.

OP could use a maximum of six; two on each of the 18th, 25th and 1st.

This is assuming that Octopus doesn't extend the scheme beyond the 1st of November or start offering slots on days that aren't Sundays.

I also wonder how long a trip the OP was planning on taking at 0030 this morning, and whether that journey (plus any others) will have made enough space in the battery to add 14kWh on Sunday.

itm2

The battery was at <45% yesterday, so I was leaving plenty of room for happy hour charging.

The only reason that I plugged it in and requested a 5% top-up (I plugged it in in the morning) was that I was hoping that Octopus would schedule one or two daytime cheap slots as we needed to run the washing machine during the day. That turned out well, as it did indeed create a couple of cheap slots at lunchtime. Unfortunately it then completely blew up my plan by filling up the battery to 100% unexpectedly :0(

itm2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170088#Comment_82170088

I can't think how I could have triggered a boost charge in the middle of the night. I didn't have anything scheduled in the Myenergi app.

I wish I'd known that you can only use 2 happy hours per weekend.

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170186#Comment_82170186

The daytime cheap slots no longer apply for home usage, only for charging.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82170364#Comment_82170364

That is not true.

Any time you are charging the EV at the low-rate, the house load will also be at the low-rate, that has not changed.

If you exceed the 6 hour charging limit then any day time charging slots will not be at the low-rate for the EV or the home.

There is no circumstance where the EV is charging at the low-rate but the home use is not.

chrisw

I've found it's best not to plug the car in for the happy hours. The maximum you can use in the free hour is 16kwh which, for me at 3.5p, means a maximum saving of around 56p. In practice I've had about 40p. But if I plug the car in at a different time, I get the hour cost refunded plus there's a good chance I'll get the car and house at the reduced rate as well.

QrizB

I've found it's best not to plug the car in for the happy hours.

I'm really not following your logic here.

If you charge during the Happy Hour, it's free. If you charge at any other time, it isn't.