Intelligent Octopus & Adjusted cheap rate charging.

Hi, the intelligent Octopus tariff will occasionally set a EV charging schedule that goes beyond the normal 05:30 cheap rate schedule. I’m happy that octopus will bill at the lower rate but I do not want to use power from the GivEnergy battery. To attempt to fix this I changed the discharge settings from “dynamic” to “scheduled” with a discharge start time of 7:30. But it still took about 3kwh from the battery before 7:30! I realise that GivEnergy does not fully integrate with Intelligent Octopus & I’m fine with the occasional manual intervention.

Don,t bother with discharge settings. Just use Eco and TImed Charge for the normal IO times. You might have to manually alter the Timed Charge times if IO schedules outside the normal IO hours.

Zakalwe I do wish GE would rename the timed discharge to 'Empty My Battery as fast as you can'. It might make people think twice before even trying it.

GeoffRiebold
Hi
I am on Eco7 with Octopus and they told me in writing the cheap time is 00:00 to 07:00 and also publish those times
https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs/articles/what-is-an-economy-7-meter-and-tariff/
Regards
Steve

SteveCook Each region has it's own E7 Period. It is accually dfined by the Networks.

SteveCook cheap time is 00:00 to 07:00

With the change to BST coming at the end of next month, I suggest you satisfy yourself whether the E7 period is GMT all year round or if it changes with the clock change. EDF has an EV tariff that is midnight to 05:00 GMT all year round (ie 01:00-06:00BST).

cluelesscris Further:

Eastern 11pm - 7am
East Midlands 11pm - 7am
London 11pm - 7am
Merseyside & North Wales Midnight - 8am
Midlands 11:30pm - 8am
North East 12:30am - 7:30am
North West 12:30am - 7:30am
North Scotland No standard setting - varies by meter.
South Scotland 10pm - 8:30am
South East Either 10.30pm - 5.30am or 12.30am - 7.30am
Southern 11:30pm - 6:30am
South Wales No standard setting - varies by meter.
South West No standard setting - varies by meter.
Yorkshire 12:30am - 7:30am

cluelesscris From memory, the E7 period is a 7 hour period sometime between the times you say. eg When we were on MANWEB E7, it was a fixed 7 hours but if the time clock drifted anywhere from midnight to 1am start, they were quite happy. What is the situation with smart meters? Is the period start a fixed time during the first hour for each customer or does everyone with a smart meter start at the same time for that DNO?

Tim I think it depends of the type of Smart Meter and the suppliers ability to use it. Those old school suppliers who still use antiquated billing systems require the use of multi-register smart meters with switched e7 circuits. For these it does not matter if the clock slips - the e7 usage is recorded in it's own register. Others, like Octopus just use the half hourly billing and sort it out centrally. Needlesstosay, this is why Octopus can be so creative with its billing - including the new two off peak periods in the Cosy tarriff.

An interesting story. My Daughter rented a bungalow that had an E7 meter that had been set up back to front. The time periods were switched for rate one and rate 2, All her bills showed she was billed at the cheap rate during the day and evening and high rate at night when she was in the land of the nod and not using anything. As a student this was a blessing.

cluelesscris South West No standard setting - varies by meter.

00.30 to 07.30 for me in south west

The DNO sets the E7 times. It took 2 months for Octopus to put in writing what my E7 hours are. As I live in SE England and my DNO is UP Power Networks, they are 22:30- 00:30, then back to regular tariff, then 02:30 - 07:30.
So no full continuous 7 hours for me, but the latter segment is fine to charge the battery. I still need Octopus to confirm what happens once BST arrives. I think you add one hour to those quoted.
But this in had to find via your DNO.

SteveCook Hi Steve, it’s not E7 I have, it’s “intelligent Octopus”. The deal is that cheap rate is from 23:30 until 5:30. But if it takes control of EV charging it sometimes chooses to charge at cheap rate outside those periods. For example the other Sunday morning it included a slot of charging from 6:30 to 7:30. The problem is I try to manually set the discharge start time for tat day to 7:30 so the battery isn’t drained by the car charging. BUT it hasn’t worked