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

[grovep]

I've just signed up to Intelligent Octopus, as my Octopus Go Faster has now ended.

I create a separate FordPass account, and linked that to my Mach-E, and use this to login to Intelligent, aka "SmartCar", so if it gets locked out, then it doesn't affect my main account.

I've disabled the smart charging anyways, just wanted to get the tariff, so I can charge up my solar batteries in the cheap rate

Sorry if a dumb question but why would you disable smart charging? What benefit is there by disabling it? Or is it simply the reliability or lack of?

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[Wonky_Donkey]

In the simplest of terms disabling the smart charging option on Intelligent Octopus allows you to retain manual control of your charging schedule (and your FordPass account) while keeping the cheap overnight tariff between 11.30pm and 5.30am

It’s kinda circumventing the whole idea of IO because the idea behind smart charging is to balance out overnight grid demand, and not have this big surge at 11.30pm when the cheap rate kicks in and everyone’s EV suddenly starts sucking down the kW.

Smart is supposed to look at your car’s current battery level - look at what you say you need it to be and by what time, and then work out how long you need to achieve that. It will then start stop your charge in windows of lower demand to make sure you get what you want from your overnight charge.

It does work, but sometimes it has a moment and doesn’t quite work it out right (like the other night it said I only needed and allocated me 1½ hrs of 7kWh charging to charge me from 51% to 90%) and it has been known to keep talking to the car so frequently that your FordPass account gets locked out. (bit like you hitting the refresh on FordPass screen every 10mins)

It’s good, but not perfect yet. Hence why some of us disable the smart aspect.

 

[grovep]

In the simplest of terms disabling the smart charging option on Intelligent Octopus allows you to retain manual control of your charging schedule (and your FordPass account) while keeping the cheap overnight tariff between 11.30pm and 5.30am

It’s kinda circumventing the whole idea of IO because the idea behind smart charging is to balance out overnight grid demand, and not have this big surge at 11.30pm when the cheap rate kicks in and everyone’s EV suddenly starts sucking down the kW.

Smart is supposed to look at your car’s current battery level - look at what you say you need it to be and by what time, and then work out how long you need to achieve that. It will then start stop your charge in windows of lower demand to make sure you get what you want from your overnight charge.

It does work, but sometimes it has a moment and doesn’t quite work it out right (like the other night it said I only needed and allocated me 1½ hrs of 7kWh charging to charge me from 51% to 90%) and it has been known to keep talking to the car so frequently that your FordPass account gets locked out. (bit like you hitting the refresh on FordPass screen every 10mins)

It’s good, but not perfect yet. Hence why some of us disable the smart aspect.

Thanks - so these teething problems still exist

 

[Trerol0286]

Due to my job, I have a large detail of access to electricity pricing. Any chance someone could send through the rates for latest rates for intelligent Octopus?
Would love to compare that against what I have to see how reasonable they are... i.e how close they are to the day ahead market.
I am also doing a bit of a cost/benefit exercise considering solar & batteries, so this info would be a big help

 

[Wonky_Donkey]

Due to my job, I have a large detail of access to electricity pricing. Any chance someone could send through the rates for latest rates for intelligent Octopus?
Would love to compare that against what I have to see how reasonable they are... i.e how close they are to the day ahead market.
I am also doing a bit of a cost/benefit exercise considering solar & batteries, so this info would be a big help

I believe energy pricing varies across the UK based on area so you might get some variability in numbers.

I live in Norwich and my IO pricing was 40.14p/kWh peak rate / 7.5p/kWh off peak

…however that was on a fixed price deal which is just about to expire. Octopus got in touch today to say they no longer do fixed deals on IO tariffs and my new pricing will be 31p/kWh peak and 7.5p/kWh off peak.

I’m a happy bunny as my daytime rate has dropped 10p - but despite working from home I’m a pretty light daytime user so it won’t make a massive difference. All my kW tend to be overnight.

 

[Trerol0286]

I believe energy pricing varies across the UK based on area so you might get some variability in numbers.

I live in Norwich and my IO pricing was 40.14p/kWh peak rate / 7.5p/kWh off peak

…however that was on a fixed price deal which is just about to expire. Octopus got in touch today to say they no longer do fixed deals on IO tariffs and my new pricing will be 31p/kWh peak and 7.5p/kWh off peak.

So pricing is all over the place

Same for me, I am in Suffolk. I am guessing its a variable price right? i.e could change at any point??

 

[Wonky_Donkey]

Same for me, I am in Suffolk. I am guessing its a variable price right? i.e could change at any point??

Yeah - the new plans are variable. To quote Octopus….

 

[Trerol0286]

Yeah - the new plans are variable. To quote Octopus….

Interesting. Thanks. I am also considering the "Agile" tariff due to the potential of plunge pricing at half hourly intervals...

 

[Coppertrader]

You’ve got two options really….

1) Setup Intelligent Octopus to have control over your car - do the test charge - then disable the “smart charge” option on the Octopus app. You’re still setup but you’re in control of the charging while getting the longer charge window and better p/kWh rate.

or

2) Smile sweetly and let me amend the map for you on “here” maps and Google maps. This will correct any inaccuracy in your home location that your car sees. I discovered this is what was causing issues with my charging kicking off at random intervals when the GPS signal had a moment every now and then. Since getting it amended I’ve had zero issues.

WD, I have been having the same issue with my address being wrong on the ford mapping system. I have been on 'Here map creator' and updated my address to where it is actually located, but 9 days on, it has not been verified by the map creators. Do you know a quicker way to get this changed or do you know how long it usually takes?

Thanks in advance

 

[Wonky_Donkey]

WD, I have been having the same issue with my address being wrong on the ford mapping system. I have been on 'Here map creator' and updated my address to where it is actually located, but 9 days on, it has not been verified by the map creators. Do you know a quicker way to get this changed or do you know how long it usually takes?

Thanks in advance

It can vary but I’ve never had any of my amendments take more than 72hrs to get verified. I also do the double whammy and check Google Maps (and modify if need be)

If you’d like me to check the update I can - send me a DM with the address.

 

[StarLordRammi]

Anyone got any tips to get Octopus to detect the car quicker for Smart Charging? My charger is Hypervolt so that's a no from charger side for now.

Currently I
plug in the car
Let it charge for few seconds
Stop the charge from FordPass App
Wait for Octopus to assign slots but this can take between 10-30 mins.
If no slots assigned I repeat at above steps.
Once Slots are assigned I select Resume Schedule on FordPass.

Sometimes the car does stop charging randomly but since yesterday I've added Hypervolt in HA so I get a notification if it stops.

 

[boltonmackem]

I've just signed up to Intelligent Octopus, as my Octopus Go Faster has now ended.

I create a separate FordPass account, and linked that to my Mach-E, and use this to login to Intelligent, aka "SmartCar", so if it gets locked out, then it doesn't affect my main account.

I've disabled the smart charging anyways, just wanted to get the tariff, so I can charge up my solar batteries in the cheap rate

How does this work? Can you connect the car to two separate FordPass accounts? Did you set that account up just to connect to Octopus and then use your main account for day to day use of the FordPass?

 

[ocr_salty]

Anyone got any tips to get Octopus to detect the car quicker for Smart Charging? My charger is Hypervolt so that's a no from charger side for now.

Currently I
plug in the car
Let it charge for few seconds
Stop the charge from FordPass App
Wait for Octopus to assign slots but this can take between 10-30 mins.
If no slots assigned I repeat at above steps.
Once Slots are assigned I select Resume Schedule on FordPass.

Sometimes the car does stop charging randomly but since yesterday I've added Hypervolt in HA so I get a notification if it stops.

No advice to make it quicker, but this is the same as the process I have always followed for IO, though I've never unplugged and re-plugged in to get the slots, they just happen by magic.

I have had no issues since I confirmed my fordpass email address to Octopus. One thing I have found is that around 6:30am or my last 2 charges I have got a message to say that they couldn't talk to the vehicle, but the charge was complete anyway (may be because my charger delivers 7.6kw instead of 7.4?? so finished quicker than predicted?). One time I had departure times set which may have messed up the intelligent settings.

 

[ocr_salty]

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)

The issue with it charging at 2pm still exists if it's left plugged in, I usually unplug in the morning after an intelligent charge.

 

[StarLordRammi]

Been having issues charging.

Not sure where the problem lies

Like I mentioned above

Currently I plug in the car
Let it charge for few seconds
Stop the charge from FordPass App
Wait for Octopus to assign slots but this can take between 10-30 mins. If no slots assigned I repeat at above steps.
Once Slots are assigned I select Resume Schedule on FordPass.

After this, the car stops charging randomly

I've tried "Resume Schedule" and "Charge to 100%" options in FordPass and getting same issue

Anyone else had the same? Any fixes?

2 days ago it stopped charging before my Departure time so it wasn't preconditioning the battery and cabin.

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