MG4, Zappi and Octopus Intelligent Go

[Tig170]

Yes, that's my issue too, or part of it. Because they're always changing the slots I can't know when the car is going to charge, so it drains the home battery. Also, it's inconvenient to have all these slots popping up here there and everywhere with no warning when you have your inverter programmed on the basis that that's not going to happen.

I agree its a complete pain, also see this



....before moving the CT clamp (as luckily the EV charger was on its own consumer unit), I set the MG4 to only charge between 11:32pm & 05:28am - that way I didn't get any instant slots from Octopus as soon as I plugged it in to the EV charger.

 

[LenEV2016]

I agree its a complete pain, also see this



....before moving the CT clamp (as luckily the EV charger was on its own consumer unit), I set the MG4 to only charge between 11:32pm & 05:28am - that way I didn't get any instant slots from Octopus as soon as I plugged it in to the EV charger.

Im a bit late to this chat but is this a zappi specific issue (plus obviously battery+ solar) has anybody with an ohme experienced the same issue

 

[Tig170]

Im a bit late to this chat but is this a zappi specific issue (plus obviously battery+ solar) has anybody with an ohme experienced the same issue

Yes mine is an ohme which had the same problem, until I moved the CT clamp from the solar / battery (MG4, Zappi and Octopus Intelligent Go) - now resolved.

 

[Rolfe]

I've watched all that, but not done anything about it. (When my electrician arrived last week to do some more work on the system he was eyeing it up and saying that the Zappi was saying something about a CT clamp not being in the right place, but I was able to put my hand on my heart and declare that I'd only thought about it, not done it. The error cleared on its own.)

Many people say it's as simple as moving a CT clamp, but all the YouTube videos including that one talk about getting an electrician to add another consumer unit and that sort of thing. Nobody shows "just move that clamp and it's done."

It's not just about the battery being drained in the charging slots anyway, it's other inverter settings. It's just much more convenient to know that the car isn't going to charge outwith the 7p window, and forget about it all.

 

[GaryMG4]

We've just squeaked home with 3% in the Niro, so I asked for 99% by 10am. I think the Niro has a little more usable than my MG4. I purposely gave it a 14 hr slot to fit the charge in, but it scheduled from plug in (19:50) to 6am as a single slot. It's a shame you can't register multiple vehicles with IOG but at least they are both around 64kWh.

 

[LenEV2016]

We've just squeaked home with 3% in the Niro, so I asked for 99% by 10am. I think the Niro has a little more usable than my MG4. I purposely gave it a 14 hr slot to fit the charge in, but it scheduled from plug in (19:50) to 6am as a single slot. It's a shame you can't register multiple vehicles with IOG but at least they are both around 64kWh.

Can you not add separate vehicle to your charger, not sure what you have but my ohme app has the MG and my Born registered on it and I flick between the two as needed.

 

[GaryMG4]

Can you not add separate vehicle to your charger, not sure what you have but my ohme app has the MG and my Born registered on it and I flick between the two as needed.

I think it's a known issue with IOG and smart charge. It doesn't really cause an issue as both batteries are similar size and I treat them similarly

 

[mikgle]

To be fair, it should work both ways.. if the smart schedule says its starting at 10pm, as it did for me tonight, then not start for whatever reason is not good. So it then said 10.30pm and didn't, then again 11pm and it didn't. Its still not started. Come on octopus play fair, you can't accuse people of gaming the system and then they game the system.. its against my terms and conditions!!

 

[tsedge]

You can get kicked of intelligent if they believe you are gaming the system, as has been said it's against their conditions.
It's not a nice schedule/bad schedule it's them trying to balance the grid.
Asking for an inflated amount to charge, so you can get a "Nice schedule" is definitely against there conditions and not what they want you doing.

Expecting people to know their SOC and enter the delta every time is - in my view - completely unrealistic. The person controlling the app may not be the driver and it is easy to forget to note it when leaving the car. Just plugging the car in is all anyone should have to do.

All I do is occasionally connect to do an IOG app charge, but most of the time I just use my Zappi without IOG within the core hours. This is all within the Ts&Cs I signed up to, you are only required to do a charge once a month via the intelligent system. The Zappi schedules never fail.

I gave up with the intelligent schedules, since it didn't work reliably and I was left without a proper charge several times (despite all the latest updates), and also they became ridiculously fragmented which left me worrying about wear and tear due to repeated small charges.

You don't even really need to charge with IOG once a month, I believe they wait for 90 days of inactivity before warning you the tariff may be withdrawn, but that is technically breaking the Ts&Cs.

 

[gary333]

Expecting people to know their SOC and enter the delta every time is - in my view - completely unrealistic. The person controlling the app may not be the driver and it is easy to forget to note it when leaving the car. Just plugging the car in is all anyone should have to do.

I agree, it would make much more sense if they defaulted it to a lower charge (say 25%) and then tell customers (via push message) they have to intervene to up figure this when they need charging by a higher figure (if they want to reduce incorrect schedules).

I set mine at 50%, if i need more I manually increase it. If it's say at 70% and I needed it the next day I am guilty of just leaving it at 50% when plugging in, but this has got to be better than the 100% crowd, and I rarely plug in at high SoC anyway.

 

[mg4mc]

Expecting people to know their SOC and enter the delta every time is - in my view - completely unrealistic. The person controlling the app may not be the driver and it is easy to forget to note it when leaving the car. Just plugging the car in is all anyone should have to do.

But that restriction is down to MG not opening up their API to Octopus, drive a VW (or any of the other compatible cars) and you can just plug in as they originally intended. The fact they have opened it up to non-compatible cars albeit with that one extra step is a bonus.

And is setting the desired charge really that onerous compared to the constant faff you get at public chargers, or driving a an ice to a petrol station?

I don't care when the slots are, coming up to the years now and it has always been ready to go in the morning.

If your solar/battery system isn't wired to cope with it, then either get it rewired, or move to another fixed period tariff, just stop the moaning about it. You're on a flexible tariff, if you want a fixed period tariff then switch to one!

The cheap tarrif is because of the flexibility it gives Octopus, and that flexibility means they may want to move the slots and charge rates around.

 

[tsedge]

But that restriction is down to MG not opening up their API to Octopus, drive a VW (or any of the other compatible cars) and you can just plug in as they originally intended. The fact they have opened it up to non-compatible cars albeit with that one extra step is a bonus.

Yes that is true.

And is setting the desired charge really that onerous compared to the constant faff you get at public chargers, or driving a an ice to a petrol station?

Yes. It is just human nature. When I did used to use it, I just left it at 70% or something high, so I always got as much juice as the car wants.

I don't care when the slots are, coming up to the years now and it has always been ready to go in the morning.

I do and it wasn't ready to go - several times - due to flaws/bugs in the system.

If your solar/battery system isn't wired to cope with it, then either get it rewired, or move to another fixed period tariff, just stop the moaning about it. You're on a flexible tariff, if you want a fixed period tariff then switch to one!

I don't have a solar or a battery system. I got it just to get 6 hours overnight low cost charging (as did many people sign up for that).

I'll moan about whatever I like thanks - as you are moaning about me.

It is a fixed period tariff PLUS an intelligent component. It can be used as either / both.

The cheap tarrif is because of the flexibility it gives Octopus, and that flexibility means they may want to move the slots and charge rates around.

Yes, I get that, but it doesn't work well enough in my opinion.

I won't shut up to please you, but you can block me if you like.

 

[LenEV2016]

But that restriction is down to MG not opening up their API to Octopus, drive a VW (or any of the other compatible cars) and you can just plug in as they originally intended. The fact they have opened it up to non-compatible cars albeit with that one extra step is a bonus.

And is setting the desired charge really that onerous compared to the constant faff you get at public chargers, or driving a an ice to a petrol station?

I don't care when the slots are, coming up to the years now and it has always been ready to go in the morning.

If your solar/battery system isn't wired to cope with it, then either get it rewired, or move to another fixed period tariff, just stop the moaning about it. You're on a flexible tariff, if you want a fixed period tariff then switch to one!

The cheap tarrif is because of the flexibility it gives Octopus, and that flexibility means they may want to move the slots and charge rates around.

Totally agree and it may come back to compatible cars only if people continue to game it.

It is one thing forgetting to change the amount it is another constantly setting it too high to get a "Good schedule" as has been talked about on here.

As I said there is none of the issues with compatible cars, my ohme app is set to 80% state of charge (not amount) as my Cupras API is shared and the charger knows my cars state of charge so accurately schedules.

I was on another forum where it was being discussed about IOG being limited again to cars that just share APIs

 

[tsedge]

Totally agree and it may come back to compatible cars only if people continue to game it.

I am not gaming anything. My usage is inside the Ts&Cs.

 

[LenEV2016]

I am not gaming anything. My usage is inside the Ts&Cs.

I wasn't meaning you, I was talking about the member who was referencing bad schedules and good schedules, purely based on getting time out with the set six hours.
They stated they regularly set their charger to add 80% even though they didn't need that as it guaranteed them extra slots.
They are definitely gaming the system

 

[tsedge]

I wasn't meaning you, I was talking about the member who was referencing bad schedules and good schedules, purely based on getting time out with the set six hours.

Understood.

They stayed the regularly set their charger to add 80% even though they didn't need that as it guaranteed them extra slots.
They are definitely gaming the system

There's no need to regularly set it. It stays at whatever you set it to.

All I did when I got it was set it high (+70%) and leave it - and if people think that is gaming, then it really needs to make it clearer in the app: for example, force you to choose the delta EVERY TIME before it schedules the charge.

 

[LenEV2016]

From their terms and conditions

2.4.1.8 Intelligent Octopus Go is subject to a fair use policy with a maximum of six hours of managed charging per 24 hours. Should your charging schedule request more than six hours per 24 hours, we reserve the right to charge any incremental usage above six hours at the day rate.

The article I read said they look at patterns not just the odd one off

 

[tsedge]

From their terms and conditions

2.4.1.8 Intelligent Octopus Go is subject to a fair use policy with a maximum of six hours of managed charging per 24 hours. Should your charging schedule request more than six hours per 24 hours, we reserve the right to charge any incremental usage above six hours at the day rate.

The article I read said they look at patterns not just the odd one off

Looks fine to me.

 

[Les burrows]

Yes, that's my issue too, or part of it. Because they're always changing the slots I can't know when the car is going to charge, so it drains the home battery. Also, it's inconvenient to have all these slots popping up here there and everywhere with no warning when you have your inverter programmed on the basis that that's not going to happen.

Basically I only use Smart charging once in a while to keep their T&Cs happy. Or if, once in a blue moon, I really do want more than six hours charging. The rest of the time I have the Zappi programmed to charge 11.30 to 5.30, and just let it do its thing. Sorted.

I'm not really interested in getting more than these six hours low-rate electricity. I fill the home battery and use that, so I'm pretty much never paying for peak rate power anyway.

Hi Rolfe, I agree with you that the octopus igo is very annoying in the way they keep changing the times for the charge sessions but in my understanding of igo and its T&Cs the charger
( in this case the Zappi for you and myself ) and the vehicle you are to charge, must not have timers set in them so that octopus can take control of the charging session.

It is most annoying when sometimes they issue time slots where they might stop a charge for only a few minutes and I have known this to be as little as 3 minutes and this can happen several times within the charging session and because they do these very stupid short stops in charging more than once sometimes within the same night, I have at times found the Zappi showing EV is full when it’s not or waiting for EV, and the car as not restarted the next session of the charge which is infuriating at times.

So the wiring for the Zappi can I believe be configured so that your home battery does not see this as a house load and therefore does not discharge into the car.

Now I don’t know which home battery you have fitted, I have the Tesla Powerwall 3 13.5kw and thankfully via the Tesla app on my phone I can stopped the battery discharging when I know the Zappi is charging my MG5 or my wife’s MG4 but of course i have to monitor what is going on to do this and if I do stop the battery discharging the house goes back onto the power coming from the grid which is fine overnight at 7p.

So when I spoke with MyEnergi about this they explained about the wiring configuration to some extent but at that time my battery had only been in a few days but I am going to speak with them again about this refusal to restart and showing EV is full when it’s not.
If I find anything out I will update the thread
Les.

 

[gary333]

Hi Rolfe, I agree with you that the octopus igo is very annoying in the way they keep changing the times for the charge sessions but in my understanding of igo and its T&Cs the charger
( in this case the Zappi for you and myself ) and the vehicle you are to charge, must not have timers set in them so that octopus can take control of the charging session.

It is most annoying when sometimes they issue time slots where they might stop a charge for only a few minutes and I have known this to be as little as 3 minutes and this can happen several times within the charging session and because they do these very stupid short stops in charging more than once sometimes within the same night, I have at times found the Zappi showing EV is full when it’s not or waiting for EV, and the car as not restarted the next session of the charge which is infuriating at times.

The "annoying" way IOG works is why it's cheaper though for the end user. If they gave people pre-planned slots that don't move would negate the reason why IOG is a product.