Octopus Go Intelligent new 6 hours charging limit

[Kenp1]

I was watching what was going on overnight when I was sick and couldn't sleep. The slots were in constant flux. I did a running commentary on twitter and the Octopus bot stepped in asking me to DM. I did, but got no reply.

This was the eventual charging pattern.

Yes, that's how it is every time, the schedule it shows at the start isn't what you get.

 

[EVsince2016]

It used to pretty much give fixed night slots, minus the old popular 00:30-01:30 slot.

It has changed over time, probably the most about a year ago.

 

[GaryMG4]

The schedule is based on wholesale price, demand and what you have asked for, so it is different every night, not sure what you mean by latest changes, there hasn't been any changes.

Maybe they are fine tuning their algorithm, until the last couple of months the slots tended to be longer with positive breaks, lately the schedules have instances like 01:00-01:26, 01:26-02:35,03:00-03:15 etc. Sometimes even if the schedule shows a 3 continuous slot when you look at the logs afterwards it is similar to @Rolfe has shown with some of the breaks being down to zero then restarting straight away. I think this is what the MG4 detects as a possible failing charger, and number of 'fails' then it aborts the charge.

 

[Kenp1]

I've been on the tariff for 8 months and it has always been like this, get lots of slots right next to each other, and some very short ones, if you keep checking the app you can see them changing. The only thing I've noticed is that sometimes I think it confuses itself, as I will ask for 20% charge and actually get more than this, maybe 25%, other times it is exactly what I ask for.

 

[GaryMG4]

I've been on the tariff for 8 months and it has always been like this, get lots of slots right next to each other, and some very short ones, if you keep checking the app you can see them changing. The only thing I've noticed is that sometimes I think it confuses itself, as I will ask for 20% charge and actually get more than this, maybe 25%, other times it is exactly what I ask for.

Maybe it is location dependant, in an effort to balance the grid. I have noticed that Cambridge area will get some different 'offers' to mine even though it is not that far away. What I have noticed that since the greener nights initiative the %age added has been variable 50% requested 45-55 added and for the first time a smart charge failed at 2am having added 5kWh when 32 had been requested with the car aborting the charge after 4 very short charging slots. The only other time I had seen this failure was with solar when I had left the ECO+ setting at 100% on a day with a fair amount of cloud.

 

[EVsince2016]

Just watched the boss speech.

Hope all gets sorted

 

[MarkGSmith1982]

I agree but I assume it is 6 hrs per day. So if it charges from 09 00 to 15 00 you don't get the low price from 23 30 to 05 30

I would say the opposite.. "if they schedule it to charge in the peak times" then you would get the standard 6hrs off peak.. although if they decide to schedule it in the off peak times you would only get 6hrs at a cheap rate every 24hrs.. and as they are in charge of shedules...

 

[salty]

I was watching what was going on overnight when I was sick and couldn't sleep. The slots were in constant flux. I did a running commentary on twitter and the Octopus bot stepped in asking me to DM. I did, but got no reply.

This was the eventual charging pattern.

View attachment 41836

S'pose it's better than some of the crap on the Telly.

 

[johnb80]

Honestly, I'm just going to set the occasional Smart charging session for say 50% starting at 11.30 and ending at 5.30 to keep on board with the requirement to use it sometimes, and charge on the Zappi schedule the rest of the time.

I think they're going to find that a lot of people are going to be doing that, and that they're not going to get many takers for any surplus they have outwith that period.

I'm not sure if you can schedule charging within your MG4, I can on my i3. If you set the schedule 23:30 to 05:30 and leave the Zappi configured linked to IOG with Smart Charging enabled, you can plug in anytime, the Zappi will only respond when the car wants to charge at its scheduled time. The IOG charging slots will be sent out to yourZappi and the car charged accordingly. You meet the requirements of IOG because smart charging is enabled, your house batteries will be on charge so not emptied into the car etc.

 

[GaryMG4]

That might be interesting to try. When on Go I set the Tapo to switch on at 00:25 and the car to start at 00:30, finish at 05:30 and the Tapo to switch off at 05:35, primarily to record the amount used. At present I plan to charge the Niro on smart charge and MG4 on Zappi timed.