Intelligent Octopus Go works like a dream.

Nice roof but which way does it face?
Brutal question but we of a certain age must ask it. Do you intend staying in the bungalow until they carry you out in a box?
If so, it's worth considering.
 
I'm generally happy with Octopus Intelligent Go, via my One charger.
My only minor issue is that I opted to charge via the Ohme App, which is generally fine, but you end up programming a percentage increase which is a bit of a lottery. Last night, I programed a 43% charge to get me to 80%. Found the car charged to 85% this morning...... Not that I'm unduly worried!!
 
Loveclose said:
I'm generally happy with Octopus Intelligent Go, via my One charger.
My only minor issue is that I opted to charge via the Ohme App, which is generally fine, but you end up programming a percentage increase which is a bit of a lottery. Last night, I programed a 43% charge to get me to 80%. Found the car charged to 85% this morning...... Not that I'm unduly worried!!
Click to expand...
You have to set the charge limit to 80% in the car.
 
Rolfe said:
I have an installer coming to see me this week about solar/battery/home charger.

The shine has slightly worn off the reliance on the granny charger, partly because the winter weather dissuaded me from using the rapid charger five minutes walk away, and then they doubled the price of that charger so it's really not attractive any more. Having to think about what I'm doing the day after a long trip because the car won't be back at 100% till evening the following day. Now the weather is getting better I'd like to know I can have the car ready by morning.

Once you get a home charger you start thinking about a variable tariff. Then you think about the "variable" part, and what it might do to the price of your daytime usage, so obviously you start thinking about a home battery and storing cheap night-time power for use during the day.

Then you think about your roof, which in my case looks like this.

View attachment 25534

(That's Prospero in the drive, Caliban's predecessor. Sob!)

Then you think, well the amount all that would cost would buy a hell of a lot of electricity, and you're back at square one...
Click to expand...
You can do some easy calculations here, not 100% accurate but a good calculator.

You have a good area of roof there, you could at a guess get 16 panels which in my case equated to 7 kW generation capacity. If you went for say 10 kWh of battery storage that would be a great system and I would expect to pay circa £12k for it (I did with mine, taking out a loan to fund it).

Expect to generate from solar around 3,200 kWh per year.

So how much do you save?

3200 x £0.30 = £960

Battery storage charge up off peak every night)
10 x (£0.30-£0.075)= £2.25 per day - £821.25 per year

So a total of £1800 per year.

£12,000 / £1800 = 6.6 years.

It is actually better than that because youre not charging at crazy prices and you do earn some money from export. You can actually generate £2.25 per day just by dumping the battery into the grid during the day and charge at night (15p kWh sell, 7.5p kWh buy).

Since doing the above my average unit cost of electricity is under 8p kWh.

Make sure you go Zappi and it's connected to grid supply BEFORE the solar if you want smooth operation between all of the systems.
 
Another option if solar doesn't prove to be viable is just to have a home battery and a charger. When not charging the car on the cheap rate charge the home battery and then use it to power your house in the daytime.
 
Ian Key said:
Another option if solar doesn't prove to be viable is just to have a home battery and a charger. When not charging the car on the cheap rate charge the home battery and then use it to power your house in the daytime.
Click to expand...
Yes. when we move this will be my priority. Simple to install and the time-shifting will save a ton.
 
Griffian said:
I don't set anything in the car. I tell the Ohme what I want to add and by what time and it takes care of it with Octopus setting the charge slots to achieve the requirement.
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They were assuming you were complaining that it didn't stop at 80% - you can set a charge limit in the car to protect the battery (if you have a LR MG4). That's all, this wasn't about a car schedule.
 
@Rolfe we are looking at the whole cost question slightly differently - we're looking at having the lot; battery, charger and solar panels all done in one go, which is, as you say, a lot of outlay. We're not looking at whether we get the money back, but rather at future proofing our bills so that they don't go up as precipitously as they have lately. That, to us, is worth more than either trying to outlast the initial cost or to get the cost back by selling excess back to the grid.
 
That's very much how I'm looking at it. I heat the house with kerosene and unfortunately that isn't going to change, but if I have access to some cheap electricity it might also help mitigate the oil bills.
 
tsedge said:
They were assuming you were complaining that it didn't stop at 80% - you can set a charge limit in the car to protect the battery (if you have a LR MG4). That's all, this wasn't about a car schedule.
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Ah. Ok. I was doing that 10% to 100% charge for the first time. Must have got the wrong end of the stick!
 
Ian Key said:
Another option if solar doesn't prove to be viable is just to have a home battery and a charger. When not charging the car on the cheap rate charge the home battery and then use it to power your house in the daytime.
Click to expand...
It doesnt need to be an either/or situation, I charge all of my home batteries AND the 2 EV's at the same time.
 
Rolfe said:
That's very much how I'm looking at it. I heat the house with kerosene and unfortunately that isn't going to change, but if I have access to some cheap electricity it might also help mitigate the oil bills.
Click to expand...
Get an ashp in for dhw & ch. Save a fortune. We went from lpg - paid for itself. Free during summer, more expensive during winter but no where near as expensive as the lpg.
 
Finally ( after a month of on/off attempts) got Octopus IG working on Wallbox Pulsar Max to MG4 SE LR.
Having been working fine for the previous 8 months ( and Go the previous 3 years) with my Kia Soul, the switch over to the MG has been somewhat irritating. Finally worked this afternoon and schedule created for a quick 10% charge tonight. I think it was something to do with the order the test was completed in. Octopus state plug car in before starting test. For the first time today I didn't plug the cable in until everything else was good to go. And hadn't activated the car by sitting in the drivers seat.
I've also set the car schedule to 2330-0530 so domestic battery isn't drained ( I know, move CT clamp to somewhere else - next tweak, but in the meantime) by cheap peak-time charging.
Wing and a prayer 🤞 way to go 😉
 
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DaevM said:
Finally ( after a month of on/off attempts) got Octopus IG working on Wallbox Pulsar Max to MG4 SE LR.
Having been working fine for the previous 8 months ( and Go the previous 3 years) with my Kia Soul, the switch over to the MG has been somewhat irritating. Finally worked this afternoon and schedule created for a quick 10% charge tonight. I think it was something to do with the order the test was completed in. Octopus state plug car in before starting test. For the first time today I didn't plug the cable in until everything else was good to go. And hadn't activated the car by sitting in the drivers seat.
I've also set the car schedule to 2330-0530 so domestic battery isn't drained ( I know, move sensor to somewhere else - next tweak, but in the meantime) by cheap peak-time charging.
Wing and a prayer 🤞 way to go 😉
Click to expand...
The car schedule 'may' interfere with the IOG scheduling and prevent the charge.
 
Tight Git said:
The car schedule 'may' interfere with the IOG scheduling and prevent the charge.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am aware of that possibility thanks. I never had a problem with the Kia Soul doing the same. In theory I'm connecting the car at 2330 and disconnecting at O530 without having to be in the garage instead of my bed 😴😁👍.
Octopus has already set the schedule for 0230-0400.
As I say, wing and a prayer and we'll see 🤞
 
DaevM said:
Yes, I am aware of that possibility thanks. I never had a problem with the Kia Soul doing the same. In theory I'm connecting the car at 2330 and disconnecting at O530 without having to be in the garage instead of my bed 😴😁👍.
Octopus has already set the schedule for 0230-0400.
As I say, wing and a prayer and we'll see 🤞
Click to expand...
It worked 😁👍

Now to try and work out which ct clamp needs moving where to stop the domestic battery being drained during car charging time. There was a really good post in here somewhere that I understood but bu&&ered if I can find it now 🤔
 
DaevM said:
It worked 😁👍

Now to try and work out which ct clamp needs moving where to stop the domestic battery being drained during car charging time. There was a really good post in here somewhere that I understood but bu&&ered if I can find it now 🤔
Click to expand...
The feed to the wallbox / charger needs to be before the consumer unit(s) for the house / solar / battery
 

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