Not really daytime but up to 11am, the Octopus app shows you what slots it has chosen to run alongside the standard window.
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Intelligent Octopus Go - just when I thought I understood!
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Soldato
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how long is a piece of string!.
FWIW at the moment i have never failed to get the charge i requested so long as it is physically possible.... if that meant octopus giving me a solid 10 hr charge, then it has always given it to me.
In the spirit of the package, i do not deliberately do this (though many do) but i had an unexpected thing crop up which meant me having to do a 200 mile drive the following day and the car was only on 30%.
also when we had some issues with our charge point, (fixed now fingers crossed) i regularly woke up at 5:30 am with a non charged car and i never failed to get an emergency charge to squeeze as much into the car as possible before leaving for work at 8am.
A lot of people really game it by arficially lowering their charge speed to try to get as many bonus slots as possible. Do that or dont do that its up to you and no judgement from me, but the official line is (according to myenergie) Octopus are aware of this, they consider it against the spirit of the package and they are considering removing some users from the service OR severely restricting when the bonus slots are given - at the moment it is very customercetric with them erring on giving cheap electricity when requested.
but for now at least, i know some who get at least 12 hrs cheap electricity every single day.
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Soldato
So my use case will be that I commute 3-4 days a week so need the car ready by say 8am.
Then typically Fridays to Mondays the car will be on the drive all day. If it charges to 80% on Thursday night then will I not get any cheap energy from Friday through to Monday as the car won't need to charge?
Then typically Fridays to Mondays the car will be on the drive all day. If it charges to 80% on Thursday night then will I not get any cheap energy from Friday through to Monday as the car won't need to charge?
Soldato
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you get cheap energy every day regardless for 6 hrs, 11:30pm - 5:30 am so you can set timers on your white goods, heat uo the hot tub, fire up the immersion heater all in those times for 7p /kwh in that period (i charge my house battery then)
you wont get any cheap bonus slots outside of those 6 hrs however unless your car is plugged in and ready to accept a charge. for every 30 mins bonus slot you get your car has to charge - sometimes only for a few mins - in it.
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Soldato
Yeah. In winter though for example, it would be advantageous to have some cheap energy in the daytime, so for example if I'm working from home I could put the electric heater on for a few hours in one room instead of firing up the central heating.
Soldato
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then you need to plug your car in. Not many time of use tariffs offer cheap peak time electricity . the point of the bonus slots really is so octopus can balance the grid. it likley wont need balancing during peak time on a winters day. for your use case maybe consider a house battery.
just bear in mind, they work, and they work really well...... but if time of use tariffs stop then their value plummets.
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edit ninja'd by Sandys
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Soldato
Thanks, I doubt the payback is there on a house battery, I was just hoping to piggyback on some cheap rate for other things as a side benefit to getting the EV.
When you request a bump charge, that's not at the 7p rate is it?
I wonder if, in the winter, it's worth putting a couple of electric heaters on a timer to come on for the cheap slot. Gas is 5p per kWh though but is less efficient so maybe I'm not saving anything. My house is pretty much all gas as we have combi boiler powering the shower, plus gas oven and hob.
When you request a bump charge, that's not at the 7p rate is it?
I wonder if, in the winter, it's worth putting a couple of electric heaters on a timer to come on for the cheap slot. Gas is 5p per kWh though but is less efficient so maybe I'm not saving anything. My house is pretty much all gas as we have combi boiler powering the shower, plus gas oven and hob.
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Soldato
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no bump charge is at what ever the rate is at that time..
so full price for 18hrs and 7p for 6 hrs.
as for whether a house battery is worth it.......... debatable for sure but i decided it was for me....
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Soldato
So just trying to understand how it works, the schedule you get from Octopus is set a day in advance? Is it the same schedule every day or is it different every day?
If you plug in your car let's say at 2pm and the battery is on 40%, would Octopus give you a random cheap rate that's not on your original schedule?
Soldato
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no not set a day in advance, it is created when you plug your car in.
and whilst for me it does not happen often, but even then, sometimes on rare occaisions the schedule can change after it has been created. the only certainty is cheap electricity 11:30pm-5:30am this is the same every night, set in stone.
everything else is flexible and subject to change until the moment your car starts to charge in any 30min period... then you know you have it for 100% certain.
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Soldato
Maybe it will all make more sense when I actually use it myself.
If I plug my car in at 7pm on 40% charge, then Octopus creates me a schedule at that point, right? What does that schedule say, and how far ahead does it go?
Then the next morning when I unplug my car, it clears everything and starts again when I plug it back in the next evening?
Soldato
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i think you need to use it..... it will all be clear.. you tell octopus when you need your car ready by, it does the rest.
when you unplug the car it resets the schedule and will create a new one when you plug in again.
Man of Honour
Octopus Intelligent Go doesn't talk to my OHME Home Pro charger so it opens the OHME app which seems to work the same way. I have a maximum unit price of 7.01 pence set so that it only charges on the cheap rate between 23.30 and 05.30. Once the car is plugged in a charging schedule pops up on the app. Usually it will be something like a slow charge for the first half hour then builds up to max power until almost at the charge I set it to then the last half hour or so it will gradually reduce the charge rate until it hit's my target. These periods will change according to how low the battery is and how much charge you want to achieve. I still have to set a target time even though the way I use it the time is irrelevant as it won't charge after 05.30 anyway, unless I get a bonus slot of which I have had three so far. If it doesn't achieve my target charge it will carry on the next night but this hasn't happened yet. I can also set it to do a full charge or charge immediately just with the press of a button.
Soldato
So if I was to plug my car in say at 10AM instead of the night before, and tell it I needed it charged by 8pm that day, I might then get some daytime cheap rate?
Soldato
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on the zappi you can only ask the car to be ready from any time between............ i think it is 4am and 11am (from memory, dont hold me to that) so in that case you may have to bump charge it.
as i under stand it however the Ohme charger may be slightly different and may allow any time........... But on the Zappi (which is what i have) you can plug n your car at 10am, but you would have to say ready by 4am to maximise the chance of extra cheap energy and then hope you get some bonus slots................... but if you *really* need the car ready for 8pm then you are probably gonna have to pay full beans (which is still less than petrol).
imo you are not understanding the point of intelligent octopus. (unfortunately) it isnt to allow ev car owners cheap electricity when ever they want it for their car and their house.
it is to balance the grid and to encourage ev owners to charge their car when the grid is under least load and therfore cleanest/cheapest......... and being able to force it to charge your car when energy is usually in demand is not really what it is intended for.
energy peak use time is roughly from around 3pm - 8pm............ obviously there are exceptions but generally i dont think anyone wants us charging our evs between those times unless we really need to.
in the future i expect it will have an extra facet added to it.
if you dont need your car between 10am and 8pm i can imagine a scenario where we can tell it to discharge our car to run our house (and we give a percentage battery we will allow for this, then when the grid is not under load it would then top it back up.
trials are already underway on this - Octopus offered me to go on one a few years back, but i didnt want their nissan leaf, which was needed due to the chademo charger.
but i think it will be commonplace well within the next decade and chances are it will be octopus who lead the way in the uk with a tariff for it. (infact if memory serves they may have such a tariff for everyone right now if you have a compatible car)
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Caporegime
I had issues with my intelligent go pairing.
Eventually got Octopus to fix my smart meter and then spent ages trying to repair my car/charger/app.Eventually succeeded but only with my 2kW granny charger.
Now when I plug the car in with my Podpoint it assumes it will only charge at 2kW so it gives me the entire days as a smart charging window.
Eventually got Octopus to fix my smart meter and then spent ages trying to repair my car/charger/app.Eventually succeeded but only with my 2kW granny charger.
Now when I plug the car in with my Podpoint it assumes it will only charge at 2kW so it gives me the entire days as a smart charging window.
Soldato
It wont have much energy to charge if its close to full so daytime slots will be unlikely. Agile will give a clue to when some cheap slots might pop up though.
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