Octopus Power Ups and Free Energy Sessions
- Thread starter Mercenary Keyboard Warrior
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 9,410
- Location
- Birmingham
I agree, just got back from Wales and plugged the car in, and it gave me a slot 2pm till 5pm. Is that eligible or not, not clear. So i unplugged and I will have to plug in again later.
Was just about to come on here and check, said to the missus, if I plug in now, it'll start to charge.
But if I turn off smart charge and set the time for the 50% off, that probably won't work either lol
Edit - just read they sort it all out, regardless of when the smart charging time is.
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Yes, it should be.
66kw into the car here, got a couple of washing loads done as well.
The question is will it offset not plugging either of the cars in tonight and therefore cooking and showering at normal rate whereas normally we'd be doing that at 7p. Might do the sums later if I get a quiet half an hour.
It's not abuse when I leave the house at 0415, the percentage setting is irrelevant as I've got the Hypervolt registered with Octopus rather than the cars so they've got no idea what charge the cars are at and they're both limited to 80% in car anyway.I’ve got home batteries so I’m not completely abusing the IO system
Not sure how long the ‘set to to +100% and a 4am ready time’ to get 5pm slots will last.
I'm currently using the system entirely as they've designed it, it just so happens that they give me charging slots at useful times compared to my evening peak load.
It’s hard to argue it’s being used in good faith if you always ask for +100% and your car has materially less than 100% capacity available to charge.
Asking for +100% implies your car is functionally empty and is set to an SOC limit of 100%.
I’m not saying don’t do it, all I’m saying is don’t pretend it’s being used in the way it’s intended to be used.
Asking for +100% implies your car is functionally empty and is set to an SOC limit of 100%.
I’m not saying don’t do it, all I’m saying is don’t pretend it’s being used in the way it’s intended to be used.
I'll do the sums tomorrow and change the charge percentage to what is required and see what it offers me slots wise but again the vast majority of people have no interest in having to go and play about every time they plug the car in, so if they offer the ability to register the charger and leave everything set so you can plug in and forget I'd still say it's being used in good faith.
The vast majority of people like my parents/wife/anyone not particularly techy will just set and forget. Even the app itself isn't particularly clear what you're actually setting, it took me a couple of goes to realise that it means the amount of power to add and not what you want the battery percentage to end up at.
I'm not disagreeing there's a bit of gaming the system but that's only because I'm a bit more technical than most, I'd say a lot more people will be doing the same thing but in good faith ignorance.
The vast majority of people like my parents/wife/anyone not particularly techy will just set and forget. Even the app itself isn't particularly clear what you're actually setting, it took me a couple of goes to realise that it means the amount of power to add and not what you want the battery percentage to end up at.
I'm not disagreeing there's a bit of gaming the system but that's only because I'm a bit more technical than most, I'd say a lot more people will be doing the same thing but in good faith ignorance.
53.36 kWh pulled at 3.5p, plugged the car in at 22:25, and it started charging at 23:00, which meant the house batteries didn't fully discharge to 15%, they were at 22% and the car was at 71% and if it's half priced it's getting charged to 100%.
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Managed to do 39.9kWh at 3p/kWh as Im on Octopus EV saver tariff due to my car being on their scheme. Mine also started charging at 23:00 like Ronski's, but then stopped for around 2 hours as I only asked for 30%. Also got a dishwasher cycle in and the heat pump did its legionella cycle.
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How often do you do that? I hear if over done Octopus might have a word?
I got my credit for the free electricity session on 5th August. They've given me 63 pence, which is clearly wrong as I used 3.57kWh in the hour and my baseline is zero.
So after all that, I'm about 30 pence down and that's not considering losses and lost export.
I won't be taking part again.
Edit: Also, they gave me a slot from 23:00 to 23:30 that day when charging my car and this has also been charged at full rate. This nearly always happens when I get that particular half hour slot.
So after all that, I'm about 30 pence down and that's not considering losses and lost export.
I won't be taking part again.
Edit: Also, they gave me a slot from 23:00 to 23:30 that day when charging my car and this has also been charged at full rate. This nearly always happens when I get that particular half hour slot.
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Well that's 53p more than me, I got 10p. I used 1.3 kWh on that occasion, so should be credited 38p 
Where are you getting the rate charged for the half hour charging at 23:00? Only reliable place is your actual bill/statement.
Where are you getting the rate charged for the half hour charging at 23:00? Only reliable place is your actual bill/statement.
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Yes, its from my bill. It keeps happening in that 23:00 to 23:30 slot.Well that's 53p more than me, I got 10p. I used 1.3 kWh on that occasion, so should be credited 38p
Where are you getting the rate charged for the half hour charging at 23:00? Only reliable place is your actual bill/statement.
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So from looking on Reddit, people have been charged in the session at the peak rate if the car didn't charge (and it appears few people's did) but then refunded 7kWh for the free charging hour, plus energy used in the hour but only at the cheap rate.
Net result, if your car didn't charge and you used 10kWh in the hour, you'll be charged for 10kWh at full rate (say £2.75 at 27.5p/kWh) and then refunded for 17kWh at the 7p rate (so £1.19 back).
So this "free" session probably cost most IOG users money unless the car charged (which for the majority it seems it did not).
A total swiz.
Net result, if your car didn't charge and you used 10kWh in the hour, you'll be charged for 10kWh at full rate (say £2.75 at 27.5p/kWh) and then refunded for 17kWh at the 7p rate (so £1.19 back).
So this "free" session probably cost most IOG users money unless the car charged (which for the majority it seems it did not).
A total swiz.
Well that's 53p more than me, I got 10p. I used 1.3 kWh on that occasion, so should be credited 38p
Where are you getting the rate charged for the half hour charging at 23:00? Only reliable place is your actual bill/statement.
I just checked. 51p.
Well worth all the effort
It just had to be plugged in. The issue is if you didn't get a slot in that hour, you were charged at peak rate but then only refunded at the cheap rate, so you're down about 20p for every kwh used.