MG4, Zappi and Octopus Intelligent Go

[Rip Van]

Experimenting after making this thread I'll tell you something that isn't debatable for us.
If I put the exact amount of charge I want and plug the car in I get a really bad schedule and a couple of times it's said "from 1am".
If I put 80% on the App it will start from 8:30pm so we get cheap house electric.

I don't believe you'll get cheap house electric from 8:30pm. You will in your cheap (7p) window. I believe it's only car charging at 7p if Octopus give you a schedule outwith the cheap window.

 

[LenEV2016]

I don't believe you'll get cheap house electric from 8:30pm. You will in your cheap (7p) window. I believe it's only car charging at 7p if Octopus give you a schedule outwith the cheap window.

As far as I'm aware everytime they schedule a charge the whole house gets the 7p rate

 

[Rip Van]

As far as I'm aware everytime they schedule a charge the whole house gets the 7p rate

Not outside the window, as far as I'm aware. Maybe need to recheck.

 

[mikgle]

Not outside the window, as far as I'm aware. Maybe need to recheck.

My understanding is octopus have said its for everything once the intelligent charge starts..

 

[Tig170]

My understanding is octopus have said its for everything once the intelligent charge starts..

Thats how ours works, 95% of the time you just plug in and it starts immediately, and the house and EV is charged at the 7p rate - we dont touch any of the settings and let octopus decide when it wants to charge.

 

[dsr]

My understanding is octopus have said its for everything once the intelligent charge starts..

Agreed.

 

[Rolfe]

But if you only actually charge for 3 hours and you've told Octopus you want 60 kwh, then you're getting maybe 9 hours of low-tariff electricity. Octopus takes a dim view of this.

 

[mikgle]

But if you only actually charge for 3 hours and you've told Octopus you want 60 kwh, then you're getting maybe 9 hours of low-tariff electricity. Octopus takes a dim view of this.

Well at least its using up all that renewable power which we're told often has to be switched off at the windfarms.. whats the problem?

 

[GaryMG4]

But if you only actually charge for 3 hours and you've told Octopus you want 60 kwh, then you're getting maybe 9 hours of low-tariff electricity. Octopus takes a dim view of this.

Perhaps they are getting wise to this idea. Recently I've noticed that the initial schedule tends to start quite late but then I get the odd half hour around 21:30 and 22:30 slotted in.

 

[LenEV2016]

But if you only actually charge for 3 hours and you've told Octopus you want 60 kwh, then you're getting maybe 9 hours of low-tariff electricity. Octopus takes a dim view of this.

Well at least its using up all that renewable power which we're told often has to be switched off at the windfarms.. whats the problem?

It goes against their fair use policy!

Monitoring: Octopus Energy monitors usage and reserves the right to enforce this policy and take action if it's deemed to be violated through excessive or manipulated use.

 

[Tig170]

It goes against their fair use policy!

Monitoring: Octopus Energy monitors usage and reserves the right to enforce this policy and take action if it's deemed to be violated through excessive or manipulated use.

It will be interesting how Tariff Information Labels | EDF develops with EDF - in recent weeks its been between free overnight to 17.86p on 21/10/25 overnight.

 

[LenEV2016]

Is that like octopus agile? Looks similar, dynamic pricing

 

[Tig170]

Is that like octopus agile? Looks similar, dynamic pricing

Yes, albeit only 3 bands - looks ideal for those with an EV & ASHP only.

 

[GaryMG4]

It goes against their fair use policy!

Monitoring: Octopus Energy monitors usage and reserves the right to enforce this policy and take action if it's deemed to be violated through excessive or manipulated use.

That probably explains why they still haven't priced my first 'greener nights' session as I used 54kWh that day. I'd let both cars get low in anticipation of the consecutive greener nights.

 

[Les burrows]

As far as I’m aware for Octopus intelligent go to work it’s as to be used with a compatible EV or a compatible charger.
I have 2 MGs an MG4SE and an MG5 FL neither of which are compatible but I use a myenergi Zappi charger which is compatible with igo.
The T/Cs of igo say you must plug the EV in and choose how much percentage you want the vehicle to receive and by what time, and in the case of the Zappi it needs to be set to Eco+ in the app or the Eco and 2 leaves showing in the Zappi screen.
Octopus then take control of the Zappi and decide when to charge the EV to the requested level by the requested time this as worked faultless with the MG5 but several times the MG4 as had issues these have normally been along the lines that when the first schedule charge time comes around it will start the charge this could be as little as 30 minutes, then it stops the charge, then on the next schedule time it might or might not start again and often the Zappi will show EV is full this is most annoying.

Now as I said earlier the 5 as none of these issues it will stop and restart as the Zappi tells it to via octopus schedules so this I was putting down to to an issue with the MG4 car and I have been getting around it by stopping the charge in the Zappi app and restarting it when I do that the octopus app might say vehicle is not plug in then when I have rest the Zappi octopus will send me a new set of schedules and it then 9 out of 10 works OK the second time difficult to understand really.

Now on speaking to octopus about this issue they asked which car I had registered with them when I first went onto the Intelligent go tariff to which I replied the MG5 which remember as no issues, and the chap said well there’s no problem with the app then is there, so I asked him how do I registered the 4 as well as the 5 and he replied you can only register one EV to the tariff which surprised me, so the point of this tale is, make sure your EV is correctly registered if it’s not it might not work as it should.

As regards using settings in the car or the charger or its app this is outside the T&Cs of igo and I have read people have been reject off igo and place on Octopus go for gaming the system by messing around with the schedules,
The go tariff as I hour less charge time and is 1.5 pence more expensive per KW but as none of the issues referred to here.
One other thing I discovered is Octopus do not know at what state of charge your vehicle is at, only what you request to be put into it, how do they do this you ask well when you register your vehicle in my case the MG5 FL LR they know that car has a 61kwh battery fitted to it so if I request a 50% charge in the octopus app they will supply me with around 30kw of power when they decide it’s best for them to do so to help the balance the grid this can often be outside of the 23:30-05:30 time range plus have read in the T&C in times of the Free electricity if your vehicle is plugged in they may charge it or my not it depends on the state of the grid but they might make a credit to your account I believe.

And I do believe within these timed charging times your total electricity is charged at the lower rates this does not occur on Octopus go as the only cheaper rates are fixed overnight for 5 hours only and within them 5 hours all your electricity is at the cheaper rate for them 5 hours only so Octopus intelligent go needs careful monitoring to get the most out of it which can be done by you or several computer programs I believe home assistant and netzreo plus others.
So in summary
Octopus knows when you’re using the igo app correctly.
They also know when your not and if not they can remove you from that app so be careful what your doing or at lease how often your doing things outside the octopus T&Cs.
Les.

 

[mikgle]

Yes I can relate to having 2 different evs, my mg4 is registered with IGO and I use this to charge my car via the Zappi, however my wife has a Renault Zoe and I have tried a few times to charge it with the zappi on IGO but it doesn't like it and often trips the zappi. So I have a dumb rolec charger too as well as a 16A socket and now I use these to charge the Zoe, often at the same time as the mg, that's how I get around it. I just have to watch the total current being used during an intelligent charge

 

[GaryMG4]

Yes I can relate to having 2 different evs, my mg4 is registered with IGO and I use this to charge my car via the Zappi, however my wife has a Renault Zoe and I have tried a few times to charge it with the zappi on IGO but it doesn't like it and often trips the zappi. So I have a dumb rolec charger too as well as a 16A socket and now I use these to charge the Zoe, often at the same time as the mg, that's how I get around it. I just have to watch the total current being used during an intelligent charge

I think you'll find if the zappi was installed correctly it uses one CT clamp to monitor the incoming current and will throttle back the charge rate if the total house usage would blow the main fuse.

 

[GaryMG4]

One solution I have considered is to turn off smart charge and just use the 6 hour slot on a timer basis, that enough to go from 30-80% in one session. I believe you have to do one smart charge a month under the terms and conditions but that shouldn't be a problem especially if you have another EV. At the moment the MG4 is behaving itself after a Zappi reset and 10mm spanner reset on the car.

 

[mg4mc]

I don't have a Zappi, I'm just interested. But does it not allow you to have multiple car profiles which define the battery capacity and max charge rate? I only have experience of an Ohme so far and this allows you to do that.

So with multiple cars, you would select three things: the car profile, amount of charge to add, and time required.

 

[mikgle]

I don't have a Zappi, I'm just interested. But does it not allow you to have multiple car profiles which define the battery capacity and max charge rate? I only have experience of an Ohme so far and this allows you to do that.

So with multiple cars, you would select three things: the car profile, amount of charge to add, and time required.

I don't think so but its octopus who controls the charge in any case, based on the car model it was registered with.. interestingly, octopus groups car makes into categories which allow different levels of interaction, Ford and Tesla being the best one, others are more limited.