Octopus Go Intelligent new 6 hours charging limit

[Rolfe]

Cross that bridge if it's encountered. If they make iOG too unattractive, we just switch. But as of now, you absolutely can switch it off, and if you don't want the car to take your solar and you don't want to switch off Smart Charging, just unplug the car.

 

[JohnV6]

Or pause it. At least I can on Ohme

 

[DB00nowthen]

What if I forget to to put the car on charge overnight. Then I plug the car in at, say 7 AM and request 40 percent by 11 am (my battery is nominally 64Kwh so 10 percent an hour is about what it can draw). If IOG grants me a smart charge during that time, will I still get the full 11:30 PM to 5:30 PM cheap rate for the house (ie not charging the EV)?

Supplementary question. What if I did the above smart charge and then requested and additional 30 or 40 percent? Would the one or two hours over 6 hours of EV charging mean that they would be charged at peak rate even if they were within the 11:30PM to 5:30 AM nominally cheap period?

I am asking these questions because I don't want to get it wrong. Not to game the system. I don't want to do that, and I don't think, with my EV battery capacity that it would be worthwhile even if I did want to do it.

I have read the FAQ and the original mail from Octopus, but I find it quite hard to decipher.

 

[LenEV2016]

What if I forget to to put the car on charge overnight. Then I plug the car in at, say 7 AM and request 40 percent by 11 am (my battery is nominally 64Kwh so 10 percent an hour is about what it can draw). If IOG grants me a smart charge during that time, will I still get the full 11:30 PM to 5:30 PM cheap rate for the house (ie not charging the EV)?

Supplementary question. What if I did the above smart charge and then requested and additional 30 or 40 percent? Would the one or two hours over 6 hours of EV charging mean that they would be charged at peak rate even if they were within the 11:30PM to 5:30 AM nominally cheap period?

I am asking these questions because I don't want to get it wrong. Not to game the system. I don't want to do that, and I don't think, with my EV battery capacity that it would be worthwhile even if I did want to do it.

I have read the FAQ and the original mail from Octopus, but I find it quite hard to decipher.

The bit I posted previously answers that, you always get the 2330-0530hrs period.

The 6hrs EV charging is the sum of all the periods octopus allocated you when you plug in, if they are out with the 2330-0530 period and are part of your 6hrs then the whole house is cheap

I think if there was a pattern of people forgetting to plug their car in and doing it at 0700 -1100hrs octopus will get wise to that you are basically extending the cheap period to 10hrs. They are asking owners to plug in as early as they can every night.
I actually don't think they would give 4 full hours from 0700-1100hrs

 

[DB00nowthen]

Looks like it'll impact people whose EVs have higher capacities. But not if their chargers run at higher outputs that the max 7KW that my Zappi can manage?

 

[Everest]

But not if their chargers run at higher outputs that the max 7KW that my Zappi can manage?

There are not that many domestic households that have a 3 phase supply in the UK and, even if they did, not all MG's support 3 phase charging

 

[EVsince2016]

The bit I posted previously answers that, you always get the 2330-0530hrs period.

The 6hrs EV charging is the sum of all the periods octopus allocated you when you plug in, if they are out with the 2330-0530 period and are part of your 6hrs then the whole house is cheap

I think if there was a pattern of people forgetting to plug their car in and doing it at 0700 -1100hrs octopus will get wise to that you are basically extending the cheap period to 10hrs. They are asking owners to plug in as early as they can every night.
I actually don't think they would give 4 full hours from 0700-1100hrs

If you plug in at 7am and requested 4 hours you can get the 4 hours then, applied to the previous night slot, usually on a windy / sunny Sunday morning.

Usually though, you get the following night.

I know because I do plugin early for solar, and turn smart off when it allocates an early slot.

 

[Rolfe]

Only once did I forget to plug in, and plugged in in the morning. I didn't really need that much but I just asked the app to go on charging till 10 am, the time I had to leave. At that time you could do that, and I took the car almost to 100% for 7p.

Now though, the latest ready-by time the app will let you set is, I think, 8.30. So I wouldn't have been able to do that. (I'd have got something though, probably enough.)

Maybe they'll change it again.

 

[LenEV2016]

If you plug in at 7am and requested 4 hours you can get the 4 hours then, applied to the previous night slot, usually on a windy / sunny Sunday morning.

Usually though, you get the following night.

I know because I do plugin early for solar, and turn smart off when it allocates an early slot.

Yeah but that then extends the cheap house period to 10hrs, I think octopus will get wise to that pretty quickly

 

[LenEV2016]

Looks like it'll impact people whose EVs have higher capacities. But not if their chargers run at higher outputs that the max 7KW that my Zappi can manage?

To be fair you were only ever guaranteed 6 hrs anyway, whatever the size of your battery.
Bigger batteries plus the people gaming could all be factors in the change of policy

 

[GaryMG4]

Only once did I forget to plug in, and plugged in in the morning. I didn't really need that much but I just asked the app to go on charging till 10 am, the time I had to leave. At that time you could do that, and I took the car almost to 100% for 7p.

Now though, the latest ready-by time the app will let you set is, I think, 8.30. So I wouldn't have been able to do that. (I'd have got something though, probably enough.)

Maybe they'll change it again.

Last month I attempted a calibration charge on the (64kWh) Niro. Plugged in at 8pm and requested 99% by 10am, it accepted 10am fine and despite initially scheduling 8pm to 6am it did most of the charge after midnight and stopped at 10am.

 

[Rolfe]

Calibration charges are the only thing that will be impacted by this I think.

I reckon don't use a Smart charge if you can only get 6 hours anyway. Start at 10.30 and let the car have access to the home battery for the first hour, reducing the amount of peak-rate juice consumed. Then over to cheap-rate, and recharge the home battery, holding it at 100% till 5.30. For the last hour the car gets access to the battery again. (My 51 kwh takes about 8 hours for a full charge.)

Might not be practical in the depths of winter though, might take too much out of the home battery, If I try that, I'll make sure the following day is forecast to be sunny.

 

[JohnV6]

I have just ordered another 4.2 kWh of home batteries. I reckon a 6 year pay back based on cheap rate charging

 

[EVsince2016]

Only once did I forget to plug in, and plugged in in the morning. I didn't really need that much but I just asked the app to go on charging till 10 am, the time I had to leave. At that time you could do that, and I took the car almost to 100% for 7p.

Now though, the latest ready-by time the app will let you set is, I think, 8.30. So I wouldn't have been able to do that. (I'd have got something though, probably enough.)

Maybe they'll change it again.

my latest ready by time remains at 11am

 

[JohnV6]

Ohme just let me set 11 am for Tuesday

 

[LenEV2016]

Ohme just let me set 11 am for Tuesday

Yeah my ohme has always let me set to 11am, the charging day is 12-12 I'm sire

 

[GaryMG4]

Calibration charges are the only thing that will be impacted by this I think.

I reckon don't use a Smart charge if you can only get 6 hours anyway. Start at 10.30 and let the car have access to the home battery for the first hour, reducing the amount of peak-rate juice consumed. Then over to cheap-rate, and recharge the home battery, holding it at 100% till 5.30. For the last hour the car gets access to the battery again. (My 51 kwh takes about 8 hours for a full charge.)

Might not be practical in the depths of winter though, might take too much out of the home battery, If I try that, I'll make sure the following day is forecast to be sunny.

I agree, no battery here so I was thinking timed 6 hours with Zappi set to ECO so there would be a max of 18 x1.4kWh after the timed part using as much of my solar excess to finish off the charge.

 

[GaryMG4]

Yeah my ohme has always let me set to 11am, the charging day is 12-12 I'm sire

If it is midday to midday then that will get me round the other potential problem of charging 2 cars on consecutive days where it schedules the first in the early morning slot and the second during the evening.