MG4 + Octopus Intelligent

[fshuk1]

Summarizing, you can get 6 hours of cheap electricity at 10p/kwh at night and expensive electricity 40pish/kwh during the day. In order to be able to go on this tariff you needs to have an OHME charger. Here is the interesting/question part. I just got this from OHME help desk

"For the Ohme integration with the Intelligent Octopus tariff, as long as you charge the car on a 'Charge Schedule' (set in the Ohme app) with a 'departure time' for the next morning, all charging will be considered 'Smart Charging' and will be billed at off-peak rates.



This is the case whether the charge took place inside the 23h30-5h30 window or outside of it."

"OR OUTSIDE OF IT " !!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I come home at 4pm with near enough empty car and I set the schedule to say I want 100% by 8am tomorrow. So I have an SE SR, so I need near enough 50kwh. With 7 KWH charger and efficiency of 90% , I would charge at 6.3kwh. I will need say 8 hours of charging. does this mean

1) In the morning the car will have charged only (6.3*6)=37.8 kwh since the rest of the time I don;t have cheap electricity
2) In the morning the car will always be at 50kwh charge with two hours of normal electricity charged at cheap rate

Can anyone shine a light?

 

[Ian Key]

I think you need to ask Octopus as they will be billing you.

 

[IanJ54]

As far as I understand, Octopus intelligent will only charge your car outside of the specified cheap rate time 23:30-05:30 when they deem that there is low use and the buying unit rate is low enough. In other word the car will only charge when Octopus decides outside the cheap rate. I believe they will inform you when this is likely to be which I think gives you the added advantage of being able to put the washing machine on.?

 

[Jomarkh]

I have seen screen shots where you are told the extra hours outside of the 6 hour window. You will get 6 hours but may not get more if demis high.

 

[zAndy1]

Is the MG4 ever likely to be compatible with intelligent Octopus with a zappi charger or do you definitely need an ohme one?

 

[Tight Git]

Is the MG4 ever likely to be compatible with intelligent Octopus with a zappi charger or do you definitely need an ohme one?

There were some tweets from Zappi claiming it would be incorporated into IO around May this year.

I wouldn't bank on it and I'm waiting to see what happens before I get an EVSE installed.

 

[zAndy1]

To be honest I'm not convinced intelligent octopus will work out to be the best tariff for me anyway. I work from home and I'm currently on Octopus tracker which is around 24p / kWh all day , ok that's not ideal for charging a car but it's not the end of the world , full charge would be about £15 which still works out a lot cheaper than petrol. I just think paying 40p/kWh for 18hrs a day would probably wipe out the 15p / kWh saving charging on IO would give me compared to charging on octopus tracker.

 

[siteguru]

I would love 24p/kWh ... mine is currently the cap rate (34p), but even at that it's still cheaper to run the car than a diesel or petrol.

 

[fshuk1]

To be honest I'm not convinced intelligent octopus will work out to be the best tariff for me anyway. I work from home and I'm currently on Octopus tracker which is around 24p / kWh all day , ok that's not ideal for charging a car but it's not the end of the world , full charge would be about £15 which still works out a lot cheaper than petrol. I just think paying 40p/kWh for 18hrs a day would probably wipe out the 15p / kWh saving charging on IO would give me compared to charging on octopus tracker.

I agree. But electric car is the start of the journey. I would look at home batteries next to charge at 10p and use during the day. Pay back is reasonable around 5 years. Then Solar panels and then heat pump. If you do it slowly and get the pay back and learn exactly what size you need is a nice hobby.
also have a look at this

 

[zAndy1]

I would love 24p/kWh ... mine is currently the cap rate (34p), but even at that it's still cheaper to run the car than a diesel or petrol.

Just switch to octopus tracker, it's been cheaper than the cap for ages now , hovering around 24p/kWh for me at the moment

 

[tsedge]

Just switch to octopus tracker, it's been cheaper than the cap for ages now , hovering around 24p/kWh for me at the moment

But presumably it went really high before coming down to these levels?

 

[siteguru]

Just switch to octopus tracker, it's been cheaper than the cap for ages now , hovering around 24p/kWh for me at the moment

Looked at the website:

Want to join Tracker? You need to…​

1. Have smart meters that send us regular readings. Register your interest to get them.
2. Join the Tracker waiting list. We'll allow 50 eligible customers onto the tariff every day, and the wait to join is currently around six months.

 

[zAndy1]

Looked at the website:

Oh, looks like I switched in the nick of time then. I had read something that said if you was on tracker for gas you could get switched onto the electric tracker tariff straightway , not sure how true that is though

 

[zAndy1]

But presumably it went really high before coming down to these levels?

Well I've been on it since the beginning of Jan when my really cheap go tariff ended and it's always been lower than the price cap since and for the last few weeks significantly so.
You can check the daily prices here (this link is for my region but you'll get the idea)

Octopus Energy latest Tracker prices for Yorkshire

See the latest prices and graphs for Octopus Tracker.

mysmartenergy.uk

 

[Jomarkh]

Is there a page showing Tracker prices for the past 6 months or year?

 

[Cocijo]

It‘s worth leaving your car plugged in during the day on a schedule if you can, if you’re on intelligent octopus. At random times you may get cheaper rate charge windows that will also benefit all house consumption during that time.

 

[Tig170]

It‘s worth leaving your car plugged in during the day on a schedule if you can, if you’re on intelligent octopus. At random times you may get cheaper rate charge windows that will also benefit all house consumption during that time.

Exactly thats how its works, you get the guaranteed overnight 10p rate, but if the grid is giving away energy for "free", i.e windy / sunny day - then you will also be able to "fill-your-boots" with cheaper energy - its works with quite a few cars or a ohme pro charger - but lets be honest if you can't get in enough overnight (6 x7KW = 42Kw/day) - then you need to move house to get to work et al.

to get an idea on how they system works - have a look at National Grid live - National Grid: Live - but this is the price now - not the future price which is more important for the domestic user - we have oil (kero 28) at home, and I can gauge what the forcourt prices are likely to do in the comming weeks, as I get a deliverd price upto 2 weeks in advance - I'm also lucky that I have an EDF 4.5 /KWh until May 2024 for the car (its very clear that overnight my MG4 is powered from france via nuclear energy)

 

[tsedge]

I have been researching Intelligent Octopus and Zappi chargers.

MyEnergi have completed their work to support IO. It is currently with Octopus to implement their end. Their CEO has said it is a priority and they are targeting May 2023 to have it done.