This is the best resource I've found for Octopus IO
FWIW I am not sure I’ve ever seen it charge outside the window,
Not sure I understand what you mean but my experience (only the last few months) is that it starts charging pretty much as soon as I plug in. I'd assumed this was because the windy weather had given a glut of electrons in the hopper, but maybe it was more complex than that.
you will only know for sure when you get your bill at the end of the month. The info from octopus is vague, but there is a faq that states this.
This is the bit that has me worried.. big difference between 30p pKWh and 7.5p pKWh, I realise that it's still cheaper than petrol or 40-70p pKWh at a public charger, but the saving was one of the reasons for forking over £1000 for a home charger, and it's a little galling that their best option is 'wait until you get your bill to see if it was working!'
I was hoping that the Ohme integration into the Octopus app would improve things (when I added the charger to Octopus and did the test charge it created a new 'Devices' tab that just takes me to the Ohme app but says integration is coming). Once again, digging through the Octopus FAQ's and blog posts the last mention of progress with this integration I can find is from June'22 which doesn't install a huge amount of confidence.
I can't seem to get Octopus to comment on that either, does anyone have any more info.?
It’s 2330 – 0530 at the low rate PLUS whenever it charges the car outside those times. You always get the low rate overnight, so that’s when you schedule your washing etc.
Ok, that makes sense and is what I've been doing.. (Car+dishwasher+washing machine+tumble dryer all at once makes for a big scary looking number in the Live usage display on the Octopus app!!)
A couple of comments I saw further back seemed to be implying that they were charging the car during the day and were somehow able to tell that the cheap tariff had kicked in and been able to take advantage of that with in home appliances.
My son is planning an epic cake baking session this weekend for a school Christmas fete event. While the two ovens are blazing, I have a feeling I might need to charge my car!
A couple of comments I saw further back seemed to be implying that they were charging the car during the day and were somehow able to tell that the cheap tariff had kicked in and been able to take advantage of that with in home appliances.
You don't know ahead of time when the low rates will be, but when you activate a schedule (My Charger in the app) and plug in your car you will see the charging schedule as a graph in the Ohme app. You will (maybe) also get a notification on your phone with a list of the charging times. That can change, but I think in practice it mostly doesn't.
When you've finished the charging you can see the session listed on the app under Charging Stats. This will tell you the cost of your session so you can check that it was what you expected. In general if the app reads "Smart Charging" then you're good.
This is the bit that has me worried.. big difference between 30p pKWh and 7.5p pKWh, I realise that it’s still cheaper than petrol or 40-70p pKWh at a public charger, but the saving was one of the reasons for forking over £1000 for a home charger, and it’s a little galling that their best option is ‘wait until you get your bill to see if it was working!’
If you're on the Intelligent tariff - which you won't be until your charger is confirmed as working, then you will NEVER be charged 30p for any kWh going into your car unless you manually select 'Charge ASAP' which is called 'Max Charging' in the app IIRC.
If you’re on the Intelligent tariff – which you won’t be until your charger is confirmed as working, then you will NEVER be charged 30p for any kWh going into your car unless you manually select ‘Charge ASAP’ which is called ‘Max Charging’ in the app IIRC.
Ok that's good information, thank you. I am definitely on the Intelligent tariff, Octopus app says so, Ohme app says so.
When you’ve finished the charging you can see the session listed on the app under Charging Stats. This will tell you the cost of your session so you can check that it was what you expected. In general if the app reads “Smart Charging” then you’re good.
Seems like I was just underthinking it then. I had assumed that this summary was just a simple calculation of cost as defined by the tariff periods that pass over from Octopus ie. if charging between 11:30 and 5:30 then cost = 7.5p x KWs used. Given that I have, up to now been to scared to plug the car in before 11:30pm that's all I've seen.
My Ohme price calculation is always wrong. As per the octopus graph I showed above though, it always gives me the cheap rate.
I would definitely recommend the Facebook group linked above. They have a pinned post that explains 99% of the things that you need to know, and if it doesn't people are happy to help.
Main thing is to turn off all options in the Ohme app that could influence charging (eg. price cap period, battery health etc.) so that the Octopus side of things has full control.
I would definitely recommend the Facebook group linked above. They have a pinned post that explains 99% of the things that you need to know, and if it doesn’t people are happy to help.
Unfortunately I absolutely refuse to use Facebook, don't have an account, never have. If the pinned post is as good as you say I'll see if I can get someone to snag it for me. Thanks for the help.
My Ohme price calculation is always wrong. As per the octopus graph I showed above though, it always gives me the cheap rate.
the calculation on the Charge Stats page after you’ve finished charging ? Or on the dashboard as you’re charging ? The former always works for me. The latter is always wrong
If the pinned post is as good as you say I’ll see if I can get someone to snag it for me.
If you message me with an email address I can send it
Given that I have, up to now been to scared to plug the car in before 11:30pm that’s all I’ve seen.
They recommend you plug the car in all the time, in other words plug in when you get home. It won't start straight away. They want you to do this because if the price goes very low, for example on a sunny windy evening in May they will charge the car then. The wholesale price of electricity can be zero or even negative in such situations so they want to sell it to you for 7.5p. The benefit to you is that you still pay 7.5p even on a still night when the price is higher. And it's not just a commercial thing - you are helping store renewable energy which makes it more viable and means less base load generation from gas is needed. If you keep your car plugged in it can be charged with this kind of renewable surplus, which means it doesn't then need charging at some other time when other people need it.
Re the price calculation - until relatively recently you weren't able to programme the flexible tariff in to the Ohme charger - but now I think it does. I can't be bothered to check though as it's not going to make a difference to me either way.
I’ve ordered a model y as a second car as I feel I need to scratch the electric car itch which I collect on Saturday. Genuinely quite excited about it and will be very useful for my biking trips. <br /><br /
>Has anyone any experience of the British Gas hive home charger. It’s similar cost to everything else but includes a year of free charging. Should I wish to move to octopus after 12 months then it’s compatible with their cheap ev tariffs. Seems like I can stay on my standard variable rate and not need to pay an increase for day rate electricity. Should be a good saving over the first 12 months
With my experience of them I ignore anything touched by BG. I’m sure the charger itself is fine, but as a company their service is just awful.
Well after a few weeks of nervously awaiting my insurance renewal for the Model
3 I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is going to be slightly cheaper than last year if I combine our two electric cars into a multi car policy.
Strangely my home insurance has hiked up much more than the car insurance. Overall though the total cost for two electric cars and the house insurance has ended up almost the same this year as last, which is a result considering what I was expecting.
Which multi car policy did you get ?
Admiral.
Just been listening to Harry's review of the Lotus Eletre, what a disappointment! Frigging enormous, weighing 2.5 tonnes, enormous battery (112KW) and piss poor efficiency (he clocked 2.16 miles/kwh driving carefully in 'range' mode on a 145 mile round-trip).
I get that they need a volume selling luxury SUV to finance the other stuff like Porsche, Aston, Lambo and Ferrari have done, but what a poor effort. Where's the innovation? Of all the companies doing this, surely Lotus could have done better with the weight of the thing.
Just been listening to Harry’s review of the Lotus Eletre, what a disappointment! Frigging enormous, weighing 2.5 tonnes, enormous battery (112KW) and piss poor efficiency (he clocked 2.16 miles/kwh driving carefully in ‘range’ mode on a 145 mile journey).
That review was an odd one, if you read any other reviews they all reckon they go close to the manufacturer claimed efficiency. Not sure whether Harry had a pre prod version or whether the other reviews are wrong.
Anyway, speaking of efficiency, I tried driving my car in eco mode yesterday on a motorway journey and got substantially better 'fuel' economy that I would normally get in the cars default mode, ie it was around 20% better. So then I tried it on a non motorway journey and got and even bigger improvement. There's surprisingly little actual info about what eco mode does in this car (merc eqc) , aside from reduce throttle sensitivity, but I'm wondering if it prevents the rear motor from being used, and defaults to front motor only, because it's surely not possible to get that kind of improvement from reduced throttle sensitivity alone.
In both tests I was driving as I normally would, same sort of average speed (ie between 70 and 80 on mway), with the same regen settings as I normally use. I can feel the reduced throttle sensitivity, but cant feel any other differences.
I was just surprised how much difference it made
julians
That review was an odd one, if you read any other reviews they all reckon they go close to the manufacturer claimed efficiency. Not sure whether Harry had a pre prod version or whether the other reviews are wrong.
Could be something as simple as a sticking brake, but if Lotus send a review car out with a problem like that...
Harry is anti-EV. He’ll have thrashed the living daylights out of it, and the charge cost comparisons are based on the most expensive public charging available.
I’ve no doubt a massive high-powered SUV isn’t going to be spectacularly efficient, but with a 110kW battery it’ll have usable range when not driven like a tit. And I find it a bit rich coming from someone who’s daily driver probably struggles to crack 15mpg.
bensales
Free MemberHarry is anti-EV. He’ll have thrashed the living daylights out of it, and the charge cost comparisons are based on the most expensive public charging available.
I’ve no doubt a massive high-powered SUV isn’t going to be spectacularly efficient, but with a 110kW battery it’ll have usable range when not driven like a tit. And I find it a bit rich coming from someone who’s daily driver probably struggles to crack 15mpg.
"Thrashed the living daylights out of it" ... over a 140 mile round trip. And how exactly does one "thrash the living daylights" out of a 600BHP+ car over that distance without losing their licence? It's nonsense.
Secondly what is the incentive for Harry to make stuff up, especially regarding Lotus which he is a fan of and owns IIRC two cars including an Emira? If anything this type of criticism would be likely to get him blacklisted from reviewing Lotus products in future.
Finally regarding harry being 'anti-ev' and driving a '15 mpg daily' ... what's that then? I seem to recall his daily is actually a hybrid of some sort, and he'd been seriously considering a Taycan but couldn't live with the range.
I didn’t say he was making things up. I said he has an obvious bias, that you can see if you watch any of his videos featuring an EV, and he’s hardly known for taking it easy in cars. It’s a test car. It’s a ‘sports’ SUV. He’s going to drive it with a heavy right foot. It’s what he does and how he makes his money. He’s painting a picture to get YouTube clicks and he knows what his audience likes.
Assuming he had an Eletre R, that has a projected range of 310 miles which with a 110kW battery gives a completely shite 2.8 miles per kWh, and that will be driving as economically as possible in warm temperatures. So a real world efficiency of not much more than 2 miles per kWh seems pretty likely especially in winter.
bensales
Free MemberI didn’t say he was making things up
Yeah you did, he explicitly says he was driving it with range in mind, at the speed limit and no more, in the range-maximising mode, and you are stating that he "thrashed the living daylights out of it" "to get youtube clicks".
But this is all besides the point - let's pretend that what you're asserting above about him having 'a heavy right foot for clicks' is true.
So it follows then that he would that he would have driven the Taycan the same way?
Yet somehow he got nearly 50% more miles/KWH from the Taycan than the Eletre.
Assuming he had an Eletre R, that has a projected range of 310 miles which with a 110kW battery gives a completely shite 2.8 miles per kWh, and that will be driving as economically as possible in warm temperatures. So a real world efficiency of not much more than 2 miles per kWh seems pretty likely especially in winter.
It's comparable with the Tesla Model X P100 (100kWh usable - 333miles), BMW iX M50 (105kWh usable 315miles) and other large SUeVs.
Quick Q (apols if already covered in previous 130 pages)- if you have a charge box at home, what stops other people plugging in & using your leccy?
Not sure the model X P100 is a fair comparison being a much older model. Model Y long range has a 319 mile range from 75 kW battery = > 4 miles per kWh for a comparable size car.
FB-ATB - they’re always locked with a PIN code to use.
... mine isn't (pod point from 12yrs back) but we're out woop woop so it's an unlikely scenario. I have padlocked my cable thou as it'd be annoying for that to be stolen
@FB-ATB my Tesla charger when being installed had the option to either allow all cars to charge from it or just your own. I had the same concerns!
@andylc: cheers. Work are considering setting up a salary sacrifice scheme so I am contemplating using that but had wondered about all the wall chargers that are now popping up on people's houses!
Harrys numbers didn't sound that far off what I got from my Audi ETron - similar size and weight cars. I got between about 2.2 and 2.8 m/kw/hr between winter and summer use.
Basically - if you drive something that has the weight and aerodynamics of a village pub then it's going to have poor efficiency.
what stops other people plugging in & using your leccy?
The ohme chargers have a setting that you can enable that means you have to approve each charge in the app before it will charge the car.
It’s always amazed me with all the publicity around cloning car remotes and stealing cars that pretty much all new cars don’t have the option of a PIN number to drive which you can enable if you want. Would solve that issue so easily if you couldn’t just drive them away once unlocked.
Easee charger recognises you and your car so you don’t need to use the App each time, just plug in and it starts. But if my neighbour plugs in it triggers the app to ask if I allow it to start.
An EV is on my radar in the not too distant future, but we don't have a drive or off-road parking. Wondered if I could fit a charger on the stairs, then run cable down a lamppost when charging, like the image below. I'm assuming that council might take a dim view, but it would only be a few hours a week. Cable well above head height, 7 foot or so. Anyone done anything like this?
Anyone done anything like this?
There's a house near my father in law that runs a cable across the pavement to their tesla parked on the street, but it's a granny charger they use, not a 7kw wall charger.
Not sure on the legality of it etc, it certainly causes much grumbling from my fil.
They don't use a cable protector etc, it's just the cable laying loose across the pavement, common sense would suggest to get one of those bright yellow cable protectors Togo over the cable
Not sure the model X P100 is a fair comparison being a much older model. Model Y long range has a 319 mile range from 75 kW battery = > 4 miles per kWh for a comparable size car.
Model Y performance is 303 miles from 81kWh (78usable) and is smaller and slower. There's not much in it.
That’s 3.88 miles per kWh versus 2.86, so over 35% more efficient. Worlds apart. Performance is very similar just over 3 secs 0-60. Size looks pretty similar.
Also not relevant to the discussion but it looks more like a Kia than a Lotus. Although if Kia had made it, it would probably be more efficient…
maybe you could get someone to put a drainage channel across the pavement to run your cable thru. Could get you in trouble with the council tho, if someone reports it.
Quick Q (apols if already covered in previous 130 pages)- if you have a charge box at home, what stops other people plugging in & using your leccy?
My Podpoint doesn’t have a lock on it either (it’s 3 years old), but through the app, is only scheduled to come on at 1 in the morning and go off again by 4, to charge my PHEV. If someone tried to use it in the daytime, when my car isn’t there, it wouldn’t work.
That’s 3.88 miles per kWh versus 2.86, so over 35% more efficient. Worlds apart. Performance is very similar just over 3 secs 0-60. Size looks pretty similar.<br />Also not relevant to the discussion but it looks more like a Kia than a Lotus. Although if Kia had made it, it would probably be more efficient…<br /><br />
Having sat in an Eletra and owning a Tesla, I’d say it has nothing in common with the Model Y apart from being a big electric SUV. The lotus is much bigger, heavier, extremely plushly equipped and will go round corners a whole lot better. Might just as well compare it to a Volvo EX30 which is faster than either of them to 60 but also not really comparable in any other respect if it wasn’t an EV.
Re pavement crossing, definitely talk to the council as something will have to happen about this and councils won't make changes unless they know how many people want it.
I might write to someone as well, even though it does not affect me directly.
