MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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The 2 cars thing will become an issue for more households. 6 hours is sat 180miles in the summer and less in the winter. There will be some use cases that wont be enough.
Wouldn't you just suck it up and pay the higher tariff if you need more charging in a 24hr period? Isn't that basically how both smart and dumb tariffs work - there is an amount of cheaper rate electricity available to encourage charging when wider usage is low/green generation is high - but it's not an unlimited benefit.
Even on full price tariff, EV still much less than ICE per mile and you would really be getting a blended rate as I assume you'll max out cheap tariff
That said I can see the benefits eroding over time with cheap rate windows getting smaller/price increasing as more move to using EVs and charging during cheap periods
Forgive my ignorance, but how do you charge a house battery
Just set a charge schedule in the app. So yes very much like setting an immersion on a timer.
Re the Ohme throttling thing, it looks like Octopus didn’t know about this, or at least they’re claiming not to? So maybe there aren’t as many people actively gaming the system as they thought.
It certainly happens to me a lot - never a problem however it would make the 6 hr limit change from being a slight annoyance into making the IOG tariff simply not competetive against a simple tariff with a fixed number of cheap hours per night. I do occasionally want to charge from a near empty battery to more than the half full that 6 hrs could give but to be fair that’s probably once or twice a year, normally after a long enough trip to be coming home near empty I’d be having a relatively light driving day the next day.
That said I can see the benefits eroding over time with cheap rate windows getting smaller/price increasing as more move to using EVs and charging during cheap periods
Exactly this.
It's the usual bait and switch model.
We're all being encouraged to do something and as more of us change to EVs etc it will flip the other way.
Yes we could all use less energy but it's on the government to invest and find a solution to make life better not worse. We as consumers don't really have much of a choice.
The competition for EV type tariffs is riseable. They're all roughly the same with ever so slight complications.
A total mess as usual.
I think the noise around the changes to IOG is largely just that, noise, tbh. I had to switch from IOG to regular Octopus in the summer when I changed from a compatible car to a non compatible one. Charger is an Easee One, which always was non compatible.
I used to plug the previous car (i4 40) in early evening whenever it was down at around 40-50% and it would reach the set 80% sometime during the night. Now with an EV3, and similar capacity 80 something kWh battery, I do exactly the same. The 5 hrs off peak from 0030 to 0530 can add up to 40% to the battery, though I have set to stop at 80% or 0530, whichever comes first.
in the 5 months I have had the EV3 there have been 2or 3 times, after getting back from a long drive, when it’s been down at less than 15% charge, which has then gone up to, say 50% for the next morning. If I needed it to be more than that on that day I would override the 0530 stop, or let it start before 0030, and accept that I would be paying for up to 5hrs charging at full rate on top of my 5hrs cheap rate rate, amounting to around a tenner extra for the peak 5 hrs.
In reality, I rarely use over 40% of the battery (around 120-140 miles) on a regular day, so end up plugging it in every night for a few days to get it back up to 80% for 0530 after a couple of days.
Try to be slightly more precise with your language if you are going to get prickly.
I've reviewed the thread and am confident that my explanation was clear, which included a worked example. I'm sorry if you didn't get it.
Ohme to rush out an app fix to allow you to limit charging at 6 hours. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite. It's also much less flexible than the current system, in terms of managing grid demand. Last night, charging was throttled back to 4kW which was only possible by widening the charging window to eight hours.
I guess one option could be to utilize the IOG cheap tarriff when it's offered outside the FIXED cheap rate (through your charger) , then plug in before bed via the 3pin, for 6 overnight hours at 3kw??
DrP
That would in theory work. It's only worth it if you've already had several hours scheduled before you go to bed.
You wouldn't even save my theoretical £3 as you're charging at less than half the rate.
Since it's only needed in days where the car needs charging back to back for big drives then for me it's more hassle than it's worth. We don't have a granny charger and it would take 4 years to pay back.
I think the noise around the changes to IOG is largely just that, noise, tbh.
I'm not sure what qualifies as "noise". What makes me unhappy is being expected to start charging my car without knowing how much it's going to cost, because the charging schedule is outside my control.
Don’t think you’re being expected to do anything, why not just manage your own expectations and charge from 0030 to 0530 at cheap rate and only charge in that time window ? 5hrs charging adds a big chunk to any car on a 7.5 kWh home charger.
What makes me unhappy is being expected to start charging my car without knowing how much it's going to cost, because the charging schedule is outside my control.
They've said they will be updating the app to allow you to stop charging at 6h, so your unhappiness should be confined to those times when you arrive home with a low battery and need it back to a high charge the next day. For most people that's not a very regular occurrence, so not much will change.
They've said they will be updating the app to allow you to stop charging at 6h, so your unhappiness should be confined to those times when you arrive home with a low battery and need it back to a high charge the next day. For most people that's not a very regular occurrence, so not much will change.
Not sure that is an improvement :-). I'd like to know how much I'm getting and what it will cost. I don't see what's so strange about that!
There's a lot of noise about charger throttling too.
Not all 7kw chargers deliver the full 7kw. Ohmes are reported down to 3kw.
Now you ought get 6 hours flat, if the charger drops to 3 you only get 18kw in your slot.
It sounds like energy limited rather than time limited would be more relevant.
Re the Ohme throttling thing, it looks like Octopus didn’t know about this, or at least they’re claiming not to? So maybe there aren’t as many people actively gaming the system as they thought.
It certainly happens to me a lot
I assumed it was Octopus throttling it, as I have a Hypervolt 3 and this happens to me too.
We don't have a granny charger and it would take 4 years to pay back.
Pay..you kids and your instant gratification needs..... 😉
DrP
Ive seen that also with my hypervolt
It sounds like energy limited rather than time limited would be more relevant.
That's what led to this situation - people spinning out the time to reach a certain energy in order to get their house on a cheap rate.
Don’t think you’re being expected to do anything, why not just manage your own expectations and charge from 0030 to 0530 at cheap rate and only charge in that time window ? 5hrs charging adds a big chunk to any car on a 7.5 kWh home charger.
You're not supposed to do that. The point about the intelligent tech, and the reason it's cheaper than their standard EV tariff, is that they can vary the timing and charging power.
There's a lot of noise about charger throttling too.
Not all 7kw chargers deliver the full 7kw. Ohmes are reported down to 3kw.
Now you ought get 6 hours flat, if the charger drops to 3 you only get 18kw in your slot.
It sounds like energy limited rather than time limited would be more relevant.
never had this with our OHME charger (we get over 7kwh) so I would guess it’s the energy company rather than the charger.
And regarding the two car issue further up, we are a two EV car household and it’s not been an issue for us. We get 3hrs a night so about 22kwh or around 100km per night which suits us fine, we just make sure there is a car always plugged in each night and use the weekend, when we use them less, to top them right back up. So we start each week with about 400km each and top up 100km every second day then right back up on our days off. Occasionally we have topped up a wee bit outside of or cheap rate of 8cent and had to pay 20cent which I hate doing being a tight arse. It works fine for our driving.
You're not supposed to do that.
if you are on standard Octopus, rather than IOG, that is exactly what octopus advises you to do.
Yes, but the extra discount on IOG is because they get to control when so your not supposed to do that (iirc you have to have a certain number of smart charges or they will push you back to the non smart tariff).
Yes, and I was suggesting it earlier in the context of just using the standard Octopus deal and being in control of what charges when/expectation management.
Evidently Phil from Octopus said it wasn't them and they were investigating chargers with Ohme. Then lots of folk with other chargers reported seeing similar behaviour.
This has just popped up, with an interesting reply from some who claims to know the workings!
https://www.reddit.com/r/OctopusEnergy/s/mvfZWe8QUj
If true the 6 hour limit will need some scrutiny - 6 hours at what rate?
Limit to 6 hours in every 24 for your car,
Limit to 6 hours from noon to noon, AIUI.
Ohme to rush out an app fix to allow you to limit charging at 6 hours. What could possibly go wrong?
I'd read it was 11pm - 11pm but 🤷♂️
Question: When you ought the Ohme system did you know that the charge rate could vary?
Seems like you'd actually be better off with a granny charger some of the time!
I'm interested in this because, as and when I get an EV, I'm wondering about chargers. They seem to be really expensive now to then point that they might not be worth it unless you do a reasonably lengthy daily commute - which I don't.
The car I would be buying is on the Octopus list so I don't really need a smart charger so I'm wondering whether to start with a commando socket (if I can get a 32A feed to where I would like it) so it would always charge at full power. I could then have a simple system that would tell the rest of the house when the car was charging on IOG and switch on other stuff at the same time.
Unfortunately all chargers now have to have the ability to restrict charge , to help grid , it’s part of the government rules
Just read this on the Octopus Energy forum (which is obvs red hot on this subject ATM). Never knew!
I had a local electrician around on Saturday. I'm trying to access the Energy Saving Trust Grant of £350 so have to use one of their approved installers. I Project EV Apex tethered. Cable run is long as it comes out of the wrong side of the house and will need to be brought right around, going to be about 20m of cable. Electrician estimates (pending detailed quote) about £1800 inc VAT. Seems steep but I've not done this before and I have only limited choice. Thoughts on this?
If its way too high I can go for Podpoint / Octopus install but will still require extra cabling and labour, plus I will loose the grant, so unlikely to save and potentially a lot more hassle dealing with a national.
Try ChargedEV - one of the national chains doing EV charger installs but on the EST approved list. I struggled with a local supplier either being way more expensive or just not interested. Is hat 20m of trenching or just 20m of cable pinned around the house or just buried at the bottom of the wall?
If its way too high I can go for Podpoint / Octopus install but will still require extra cabling and labour
Ignoring Octopus' complete inability to actually give me an appointment to install the charger I've ordered, if the cable run was longer than 10m it only added £100 onto the price so it would've been £1149 for me if I needed a cable run that long.
My Ohme charger automatically sets the slots and charging speed
Eh? No.. Octopus sets it - they are the supplier, they know when the electricity is cheap, Ohme don't. There may be some IT cock up causing issues however.
Now you ought get 6 hours flat, if the charger drops to 3 you only get 18kw in your slot.
The charger shouldn't be dropping to 3, that's the point - Octopus are doing their best effort to charge your car during the available time which will mean adjusting the power to fit that schedule.
Is hat 20m of trenching or just 20m of cable pinned around the house or just buried at the bottom of the wall?
No trenching, just pinned
Quote is now in, £1,542 (Charger, £473, Cable £119, odds and sods £lots, Fit, Test and Commission £720) VAT then on top of everything
Having been on the wrong end of a burning Project EV charger and their utterly shit technical support (across several issues) I strongly suggest you look at a different make.
They're beyond useless.
or 5,745kWh of charging at £0.27p/kWh on a granny charger at standard rate!
What's the lifespan of a charger?!
5745kwh equals roughly 2 years for the average driver....YMMV
At the end of that 5745kwh at standard rate of course you would have spent £1149 more on electricity than you would have done if you have been charging it at the 7p kw tariff. Though obviously you could have been on that tariff and got some of your charging done overnight cheaper too.
I know there will be a variation of quality of household electrics but.......holiday cottage (short term let) insurance pretty much blanket bans the use of charging EVs from standard 3 pin domestic sockets. I'm sure there is a lot of worst-case scenario going on there and it's easier to ban everything than make exception based on specific circumstance. However.......what's the story with domestic household insurance and granny charging as a long-term solution? I've no idea as I've never researched it. But, it would be 'unfortunate' to save a few bob and get stung with an uninsured house fire.
Eh? No.. Octopus sets it - they are the supplier, they know when the electricity is cheap, Ohme don't. There may be some IT cock up causing issues however.
Ohme gets the info from Octopus and sets the slots and charging power accordingly. It's done though the Ohme app.
The charger shouldn't be dropping to 3, that's the point -
Well no, because as you say, Octopus gives the info to Ohme.
At the end of that 5745kwh at standard rate of course you would have spent £1149 more on electricity than you would have done if you have been charging it at the 7p kw tariff.
Indeed, but without the £1149 spend on a charger [that may not actually charge any quicker on some occasions.
However.......what's the story with domestic household insurance and granny charging as a long-term solution? I've no idea as I've never researched it.
Me neither so I've no idea - but it's no different to plugging in an oil filled rad.
Me neither so I've no idea - but it's no different to plugging in an oil filled rad.
its quite different . an oil filled rad doesnt draw a constant 13amps. - but then neither do granny plug chargers - its capped at about 10amp but constant.... melted the plug inside my outdoor socket due to lack of airflow when the hatch is closed.
having been using a granny charger with mums car till i got a 7kw installed - i wont be bothering messing around with the granny charger - infact i dont think the car ill be buying even has one ..... might go to a 32kw commando or might go with a charge point but either way itll be charging a full power once or twice a week rather than a pittiful amount every night.
Does anyone use Ionity for public charging?
Having been on the wrong end of a burning Project EV charger and their utterly shit technical support (across several issues) I strongly suggest you look at a different make.
They're beyond useless.
Very interesting, thanks for the heads up.
Try ChargedEV - one of the national chains doing EV charger installs but on the EST approved list.
Cheers for this, I've got on to them and started the quote process with photos, online survey etc. I can charge at work so not in a mega rush, happy to wait a few months if necessary for one of the national firms.
an oil filled rad doesnt draw a constant 13amps.I guess it depends how cold/draughty/crap your house is.
melted the plug inside my outdoor socket due to lack of airflow when the hatch is closed.Do you have the option for "constant draw/load" sockets? I know i've seen them for schuko in 13A and 16A flavours. Rated for up to 4000W continuous. I was looking before i realised i could get my 3 phase up and running for almost zero effort.
There's a new British Standard for EV sockets which are basically higher continuous load. The socket standard was BS 1363 but the new one is BS 1363-2, imaginatively.
Interesting to read the above
For us I looked at getting a dedicated charger installed at the house but in the end it was going to cost in excess of £1400 for the most basic of chargers.
We don't use the EV that much, charging it on average once a week (52kWh battery), so I did a quick working out and we are better to just use the 13A granny charger. Overnight charging is absolutely fine, we are not in a hurry for it to charge and it may even be better for the battery health in the long run to charge slowly.
To recover the £1400 would take 4 years, by which time I'll have got rid of this EV, so it'll actually cost me more! And with all the uncertainty's at the moment over how the government will tax EV's, and the continued trend for public charging getting more expensive per kWh (Capitalism doing what capitalism does) I'm not yet convinced this is the way forward for us.
Whilst I do very much enjoy the EV itself, personally the numbers don't add up. If I was having to constantly be charging it up then I'd likely get something installed. But then again, I'd probably not as for the high miles we use the good old Diesel Volvo...
On a side note that new BS for EV sockets is handy. At the moment I have a dedicated outside socket anyway and I use an RCD with it for the granny charger. I might change it out to one of the new dedicated EV ones if there is any benefit...
Is it possible to connect a 13amp 3-pin plug into a home wall charger using some kind of adapter? I have a charger at home and need to (ironically) charge the battery on my other, petrol, car. I don't have an outdoor socket so I can either run a long extension to the car or take the battery out and charge it indoors. However, the charger is right next to the other car so it would be convenient to use it, if poss.
Thoughts?
I don't have an outdoor socket so I can either run a long extension to the car or take the battery out and charge it indoors
Or does your EV have a V2L function you can use, so you can plug the battery charger directly into the EV ?
Or does your EV have a V2L function you can use, so you can plug the battery charger directly into the EV ?
Good point, it might.
There's this sort of thing on Amazon but I'd make sure your charger isn't whacking 32A through it before walking away for any length of time.
www.amazon.co.uk/TKSE-Charging-Adapter-IEC-62196-Black/dp/B0DCZJZNT3
Does anyone use Ionity for public charging?
I use them when going on Holiday in UK as they are handy on the route we use. I take out a monthly subscription to get the cheaper rates then cancel it after each holiday as I charge at home 99% of the time.
Yep. Not many on the M1 but reasonably well spaced. (Leicester is good) The stations are always tidy and clear and away from congestion.
More on the A1.
Never get close to that big 400kW though 😉
Max I've had is 80kW when on bigger trips. They have a partner too with similar technology. Can't remember the name.
I make myself a member of big trips.
What's the most power anyone has had?
I despise all these down London where you have to pay top dollar and a parking fee etc.
I'd make sure your charger isn't whacking 32A through it
Electricity doesn't work like that. The load draws current based on the voltage supplied. 32A is the maximum available.
I was watching the video of the Octopus guy explaining their changes and noticed the bit about them really wanting customers to plug in whenever they are at home (so they can load balance). I can understand the advantages of this but in practice I only ever plug in just before I go to bed and wondered what others do.
Octopus can't talk to my car (just the charger). So, I have to tell it how much I want it to add each time I plug it in*. It then designs a schedule (which it then often changes multiple times). My "issue" is, what happens if I then decide I want to pop out again?
I'm not entirely sure how I stop it charging once it's started. I had this issue a few weeks back when I initiated cabin warming before the time I had told Octopus I wanted the car ready. It then started drawing power from the charger, which sounds like a good idea but it took me ages (and lots of random presses of buttons on various apps and in the car) to get it to stop and release the charge cable. Still not sure exactly what button did the trick. That's obviously just user error, but still puts me off plugging it in until I'm sure I'm not going to want to go out again.
*Actually the amount it adds seems to bear little relation to what I ask for and varies so much that I usually just ask for a fair bit more than I need then set the level I want in the car and let it stop the charge at that level, which I'm sure isn't what Octopus want either.
On our ID7 and Zoe you just press the unlock button (car for ID and dedicated for Zoe) and pull the cable out. It relocks after a short period. No need to stop the charge first.
Thanks @nixie
I think my problem was that I've got used to using the digital key (i.e. just using my phone to unlock and drive the car). A bit of googling suggests (as you said) that the simplest way to unlock the cable is just to press the unlock button on the key fob. Maybe I'll just go back to carrying a key. It's hardly a big deal.
I turned KESSY off before we had even finished handover so always use the key.
My new EV (i picked it up yesterday) is currently sat outside my work being charged whilst I wait for home charger to be installed, hopefully next week.
I'm currently with Fuse energy and my ChatGPT calculations suggest that I'm better off staying with Fuse rather than moving to Octopus. This was based on daytime household usage (7000 KwH per annum) and EV charging expectations (8k miles per year, nearly all charged at home). Fuse is has less extreme range between peak / off peak costs so whilst charging overnight will be more expensive, this is more than offset by lower daytime rate for everything else burning though power in the house.
When I was doing my calculations I estimated shifting 20% of current load over to off peak usage, mainly tumble drying and dishwasher. Am I missing something in my calculations, does this shift and outcome sound about right?
Yes, that's probably safest. I just find it seductively cool to use my phone. To the point where I now use it for pretty much everything. It seems amazing to me that I can walk out of the house with just a front door key and my phone. The phone will unlock and start the car (as well as warm it up for me in advance), I can use it to pay for pretty much anything I buy, it stores my train/plane tickets and my railcard, allows me to access my bank to move money between accounts, navigates me to anywhere I want to go, sends messages (text, whatsapp, email etc) to anybody I want to contact. I can even phone people if I really want to. All from a device that fits in my pocket. It really is amazing when you think about it. But I do remember my granny saying something about eggs and baskets 😀
On our ID7 and Zoe you just press the unlock button (car for ID and dedicated for Zoe) and pull the cable out. It relocks after a short period. No need to stop the charge first
Same on my e-niro. It has keyless unlocking but you need to have the fob in your pocket so I always have it with me.
But I do remember my granny saying something about eggs and baskets
Does the phrase 'single point of failure' mean anything to you? I hope you don't work in IT.
I only ever plug in just before I go to bed and wondered what others do
Either my wife plugs it in when she gets home or she just opens the flap on leaving the car then I plug it in when I lock up.
Either my wife plugs it in when she gets home or she just opens the flap on leaving the car then I plug it in
Must resist sounding like Jay from Inbetweeners......
Are you seeing many public chargers with their cables missing? Seen it a couple of times in the Birmingham area. Big bank of chargers this morning near Ikea and half have had the cables cut off despite having the anti theft sleeves on them.
Has anyone else noticed their car not charging since Octopus announced their changes? I don’t know if it’s to do with that or the latest ID software update on the car that went on around the same time but I frequently plug in and come out in the morning with little or no charge added. This morning i woke up, the schedule says it should be charging but it clearly isn’t. I’ve got octopus integrated to the Zappi charger which should have been sat in boost mode but wasn’t. Wondering if I should go back to integration direct to the car or if it’s an octopus problem or…
A few people on various ID7 forums have trouble with the car "going to sleep" if there's a break in the charging schedule and then not waking up when it resumes, resulting in not getting the requested charge. It seems like they're linking the charger to Octopus rather than the car - I've always had IOG configured to control the car and not had any issues (Hypervolt charger rather than Zappi though).
Edit - their issues predate the last SW update so it's not new behaviour for them
Has anyone else noticed their car not charging since Octopus announced their changes? I don’t know if it’s to do with that or the latest ID software update on the car that went on around the same time but I frequently plug in and come out in the morning with little or no charge added
Yes, it started after the ID software update for me. I've got the car connected to octopus. It feels like the car is going to sleep and Comms are lost. When it happens if I check the VW app the last sync time is the previous evening around when I plugged in. The car does not sync till I unlock it, presumably that wakes it up. After reading some threads that suggested each system had a energy bucket to use and that a system might be exceeding that I changed the setting in the app called "Optimised battery use" to on. This allows the traction battery energy to be used when the car is off. Since changing that charging had been more reliable. I can't remember if this was on it off before the ID update, off I think.
"Optimised battery use" to on.
I'd always had that on as it allegedly prevents issues with the 12v battery draining if the car is left unused for while
It's a stupid setting IMO. No clear explanation of what it does and what explanation there is makes me think it's not something the user should control.
No issues with my Kia EV6, Octopus linked to Ohme charger, car is not linked to the charger. Sounds like a VW issue. Have had the 12V battery go flat though, Kia blame their own App. Apparently if it keeps pinging the car it can flatten the 12V battery. Have to remember to close the app after use.
Saw some new chargers at the garden centre. Just checked and there are now 37 DC chargers within 2 miles of my house! When I got my first EV there were 2.
I'm currently with Fuse energy and my ChatGPT calculations suggest that I'm better off staying with Fuse rather than moving to Octopus. This was based on daytime household usage (7000 KwH per annum) and EV charging expectations (8k miles per year, nearly all charged at home). Fuse is has less extreme range between peak / off peak costs so whilst charging overnight will be more expensive, this is more than offset by lower daytime rate for everything else burning though power in the house.
When I was doing my calculations I estimated shifting 20% of current load over to off peak usage, mainly tumble drying and dishwasher. Am I missing something in my calculations, does this shift and outcome sound about right?
Has anyone got any thoughts on this?
It really depends on the practicalities/realitiy of of shifting that 20% load to off peak.Do you really want tumble driers and washing machines running during the night? Will the noise, keep you awake?
When I remember, I use the delay function for the dishwasher to run off peak, but I've been woken by it on occasion.
A spinning washing machine would definitely wake me up as our bedroom is over the kitchen and utility room.
We have 2 EVs covering about 20k miles per year so we are on Octopus Go and the numbers do stack up - or at least I think they did last time I could be bothered to do the analysis.
Thanks all. Interestingly yesterday for the first time I had a message in the app saying I couldn’t use it to unlock the car as the internal battery was low and suggests I turn on the optimised battery usage. I’ll give that a go and see if it makes any difference. I could integrate the car with octopus but that means any other vehicle on my charger won’t take the overnight rate, and worse, if the car is plugged in after my wife has been driving on her profile, it doesn’t do the intelligent charge.
if the car is plugged in after my wife has been driving on her profile, it doesn’t do the intelligent charge.
Really? Not seen that behaviour.
It really depends on the practicalities/realitiy of of shifting that 20% load to off peak.Do you really want tumble driers and washing machines running during the night? Will the noise, keep you awake?
I always say this and always people rip the piss, but fire service advice is to not run equipment unattended or overnight. To save a few pence isn't worth the risk IMHO. Yes, it's rare, but i have a mate who left dishwasher on overnight, awoke to a smoke alarm, couldn't get down the stairs because of the smoke, and got to safety through a window and a neighbour's ladder. Another mate is a fireman and reckons two breaths of smoke and you're already incapacitated, a few more and you're done for so gambling a smoke alarm has time to wake you in time to come to, to orientate yourself and then get out isn't a safe bet.
I bet they hate the utility companies then for promoting exactly this.
if the car is plugged in after my wife has been driving on her profile, it doesn’t do the intelligent charge.
Really? Not seen that behaviour.
Maybe it’s changed, I switched from car to charger integration months ago. But we had a couple of occasions where she came home and plugged in, and I guess because the API integration was with my credentials Octopus didn’t have the visibility of the charge status so we did a ‘full’ charge at the normal peak rate.
My Kia Niro is struggling charging with the cold - or at least not being very efficient. It's not gone above -5 in the day and down to -8 at night for the last couple of days. IOG gave it 25% last night as requested but the battery only went up by 13%. Similar pattern the last few nights.
My pet theory is that with the IOG plan breaking up the planned charging into small 30min or 1hr windows throughout 12hrs it was always charging a cold battery.
I might go against the Octopus recommendation and not plug in every day and let the car drop to a low level of charge, forcing IOG to plan a longer continuous charge cycle.......or just tell it that has 60% charge to do when it only has 20% so it plans a good long blast.
That said I can see the benefits eroding over time with cheap rate windows getting smaller/price increasing as more move to using EVs and charging during cheap periods
Exactly this.
It's the usual bait and switch model.
We're all being encouraged to do something and as more of us change to EVs etc it will flip the other way.
Yes we could all use less energy but it's on the government to invest and find a solution to make life better not worse. We as consumers don't really have much of a choice.
The competition for EV type tariffs is riseable. They're all roughly the same with ever so slight complications.
A total mess as usual.
TBH I think one the greatest benefits of an ev is if you can generate your own electricity, I think you’re just on the same track as petrol/diesel if you’re buying it in.
Although It’s tricksy sums as too how much you need for your daily driving and the cost of something like solar.(it’s to easy to get on the bragging rights of how cheap you can charge whilst neglecting the fact that your initial outlay is crazy high).
Switch to normal scheduled charging (by just deleting charger from IOG Octopus app) and see how it goes. Schedule 11:30pm to 5:30am for cheap electrons. You can reconnect IOG and charger by adding it again to Octopus app later, I think you only have to schedule one charge a month via IOG to stay on the tariff.
I’m just about to pull the trigger on octopus intel go and one of their fitted ohme chargers to charge my Skoda kodiaq hybrid. The Skoda cannot work directly with octopus so I need a charger that can. Seems to make sense to me to go with one that octopus supply in case of any compatibility issues later on?
TBH I think one the greatest benefits of an ev is if you can generate your own electricity, I think you’re just on the same track as petrol/diesel if you’re buying it in.
Not sure about that - home solar barely touches the sides of the average car use.
TBH I think one the greatest benefits of an ev is if you can generate your own electricity, I think you’re just on the same track as petrol/diesel if you’re buying it in.
Tbh, whilst I've not done the maths, I'm struggling to make this make sense.
EVs can take advantage of cheap overnight leccy by default (unless you work nights and your car is not at home overnight). So your home solar system is competing with 7p kWh power. And unless you do hardly any miles or have a roof the size of a football pitch it's not going to generate enough to cover all your miles, just some. That's a pretty sizable investment in solar and a battery for not a lot of financial gain.
There are a couple of folk near me with their own wind turbines - now that would maybe make more sense...but I can't believe they are cheap, even if you have the land in a suitable location.
Surely a solar and battery setup that completely irradiated the need to buy expensive daytime leccy for your domestic use is a better and more achievable objective.
On a good clear day I can drive 10mins to coast and see the tips of the turbines of my nearest offshore wind farm. Whilst I know that those elections specifically are not what ends up in my car it 'feels' like a sensible setup. We just need electricity prices properly decoupling from the price of oil and gas.
I’m just about to pull the trigger on octopus intel go and one of their fitted ohme chargers to charge my Skoda kodiaq hybrid. The Skoda cannot work directly with octopus so I need a charger that can. Seems to make sense to me to go with one that octopus supply in case of any compatibility issues later on?
Definitely go for a compatible charger, but do some research first as you have a few options, especially if you do not want to get locked in with one provider or want to integrate with battery etc. I can recommend the Hypervolt.