UK Only: Octopus Energy - Intelligent Octopus Tariff - How you finding it?

[Wonky_Donkey]

Hi everyone - wanted to get a general opinion for how people feel about Intelligent Octopus. Is it working for you? Any quirks? Did your Ford account get blocked for 3rd Party API use? Any tips for other Mach-E owners?

Comment below…

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[Wonky_Donkey]

I’ll start the ball rolling with my experience so far…

Good points for me:

• The stopping / starting of charging seems to work ok
• It’s nice that sometimes they’ll charge the car outside of the normal overnight window of 23:30 - 05:30 to ensure you get the level of charge you need.
• The overnight pence/kWh rate is very good.
• No issues with Ford account getting blocked yet.

Issues for me:

• If left plugged in all day the car will randomly start charging around 14:00 in the afternoon. I thought this was being instigated by Octopus - but my billing says otherwise (got charged peak rate kWh prices on my bill)

 

[g8mb1t]

The cheaper rate is good but have had the following:

• Car would not precondition
• Leaving it plugged in the morning,the car would charge to 100% even if the app is set to 90%
• It’s not exact when specifying 90% it’s would take up to 92% before triggering to stop charging

Life was far simpler on octopus go faster.

 

[rodbin]

The cheaper rate is good but have had the following:

• Car would not precondition
• Leaving it plugged in the morning,the car would charge to 100% even if the app is set to 90%
• It’s not exact when specifying 90% it’s would take up to 92% before triggering to stop charging

Life was far simpler on octopus go faster.

Switched to Octopus intelligent which became active yesterday, not charged car yet as car charged at work. This morning wanted to see if using remote charge drew from mains or battery by observing increase if any on smart meter I have battery back up for Solar which stores 7KW of cheap electricity so usage on smart meter was at Zero no change when I used remote start so inconclusive. But what I did notice was that CHARGE TO 100% was greyed out and could not be used Wonder if that is a conflict with the Octopu App or another issue

 

[rodbin]

Resolved the not charging issue this was because it was outside the schedule set on the Pod Point Charger. Changed schedule and car now charging BUT at peak rate as reported by like Wonky Donkey. So it would appear it is better to schedule the Pod Point to charge between 23.30 and 05.30 so as not to risk the chance of charging during day at peak rate. Or the manual and fool proof option of not plugging in!

 

[Djmc321]

What chargers are compatible with this? I currently have Octopus Go with Ohme Home Pro and on overnight rate of 7.5p/kWh between 1230-0430.

I'm getting ads from both Ohmi and Octopus about the intelligent tarrif and whilst I like the idea of the extended charge window I think the overall tarrif costs between day and night would put me worse off than currently. Plus I think Octopus Go doesn't distinguish usage between car or other usage so we've been running our tumble dryer at the same time to presumably get cheaper rates.

The Ohmi doesn't have any direct integration coverage for the Mach E so basically only works by restricting charging between the above hours but it's not smart to go outside that to hit any charge targets and preconditioning doesn't work on the Mach E end. They've said to me again lately that there's no short-term roadmap to add Mach E either.

I'm curious how the above works with the car, is it through the Octopus app side?

 

[rodbin]

I think if you are getting 7.5 p for those 4 hours stick with it. In my home I changed from Shell to Octopus Go 3 months ago tariff was 12 p per KW for 4 hours. I have another property with EDF 7 hours at 11p off peak and no need to use App and no complications, tried to get them to take on home property but no joy So intelligent seemed next best option with extra 2 hours over GO and 10p per KW seemed next best option I wanted to have longer charge period to split time between solar batteries and car. The "Intelligent" Day time charge with occasional cheap rates was not a deal breaker and as it seems not to be working correctly with mine and Wonky Donkey's experience.

 

[rodbin]

"I'm curious how the above works with the car, is it through the Octopus app side?"
Sorry missed that. Yes it does work through Octopus App in fact I do not think you can get the intelligent tariff unless it is through the APP and having an E V, but once you have it the tariff applies to anything plugged in during the off peak 23.30 to 05.30. I have not got my head around which schedule will take priority POD point, Car, or Octopus need a bit more time with this

 

[Gerynant24]

So far I have not been able to get it to work. I have a Zappi charger. It passed the initial test to control the charge, but since then whenever I plug in the car, the charge never stops. Initially I thought this might be due to the map, as the car was reporting the wrong address during charging sessions. I reported the error to ‘Here’ and they’ve fixed that, but the charge still won’t stop.
I’ve given up now and I’m sticking to the manual method. Until Octopus works with the charger directly rather than trying to control the car, this is going to be just too unreliable.

 

[Djmc321]

Thanks for the feedback looks like I'll stick with my existing Go tariff for now.

 

[Gerynant24]

Oh I’d still switch to Intelligent if you can.
The extra 2 hours of low cost energy is worth it. The car passed the test charge which is the only requirement. Then you just disable it and carry on as before.

 

[rodbin]

Oh I’d still switch to Intelligent if you can.
The extra 2 hours of low cost energy is worth it. The car passed the test charge which is the only requirement. Then you just disable it and carry on as before.

Hi Are you saying to disable app ? Does that mean that guests plugging in will get same deal ?

 

[Gerynant24]

So long as you have a car that is capable of working with IO and it has passed the test, then they put you on the tariff. You can disable the intelligent control in the Octopus app. You still get the 23:30 to 05:30 cheap rate for any electricity consumed.
I just charge using the standard Zappi charging schedule during the 6 hours cheap period.
One day IO may complain that I’m not using the intelligent system but then they can explain why it doesn’t work ?
Been on the tariff for 3 months so far…

 

[Wonky_Donkey]

Really interesting to read everyone’s experiences so far - and that they are pretty similar to mine.

I’ve pretty much done the same as others and have set everything up to go on Intelligent and then turned off the “Smart Charge” option. I have a “dumb“ charger (Ford Mobile Charger using a 32A commando socket) so I’ve just set the Mach-E to only charge between Midnight and 5am and up to 85%. Works really well for me.

I did email Octopus about the random peak rate charge events that happen in the afternoon when using Smart Charging - but haven’t had a response yet.

If they happen to ask why I’m not using the smart functionality I’ll use the above plus the issue with 3rd Party API’s locking FordPass accounts. (to be fair I’ve not actually heard of any Octopus users getting locked out of their account yet, but it did get raised with Ford on the FordPass Community page some months ago and I don’t know if any exemption has been put in place)

 

[CloverRover]

I'm currently on the Octopus Exclusive fixed to May 2023, its 16.76p/kwh all day, i have asked about Intelligent & Go but they said i'm on a better deal. I have a PodPoint charger but i have just set it up to charge whenever i plug in as its all the same rate. Also use the pre con time on the ford pass app. It all works great. I also think using the Universe app for charging on the road is great, i can then add the chargers to my electric bill and settle up when i get paid.
Its been interesting to read about the other deals as i think i will stick with Octopus when my current one finishes.

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