Is there any updates on certification for the above yet? My old Pulsar/Ohme cable is playing up so I need to look at a new charger and would love to use the GiveEnergy one with my GE battery/inverter but must have Intelligent to get the 6 hour window to top batteries up due to slow charge rate of Hybrid Gen 1.
sammoj or you could switch to eon next drive, which has slightly better rates and works for any EV.
DD
And for 7 hours not 6.
From what I can see on the Octopus web site you either need an EV or an EV charger that IOG is compatible with. I’ve just requested to change tariff to IOG as I have just got an EV and ‘winter is coming’ as they say. So I will find out for sure soon.
Also read this -
https://www.reddit.com/r/OctopusEnergy/comments/1fprtid/how_to_do_intelligent_go_with_givenergy_ev_charger/
SteveClubley from what I've heard, chargepoint-based integrations are generally more reliable than car-based ones - possibly the former have more reliable net access.
It is a real shame that GE charger is not compatible - I am in the same position, ideally I would like to get the GE charger to keep everything in the same eco system and smart intelligence, but that would then restrict what cars I can get in order to be/stay compatible. I think I will end up with the Libby after all this.
I did check with both GE and Octopus and no-one was able to provide any kind of timescale as to if/when the GE charger would become compatible!
Or you could go for Eon Next Drive. That doesn't need any car or charger integration.
DD A bit more maintenance though, with charger-based integration it doesn't know the car's current/required SoC so you calculate&set the % you want to add each night rather than the SoC you want to end up with. With the car integrated instead, you can set-and-forget for "90% SoC by 05:30"
NorfolkMustard hmm.. yes. Though I think that even if you are using chargepoint-based integration, you can also tell it about your car and it can read SoC.
DD yeah with charger-integration you tell it your make/model so it knows the capacity based on manufacturer’s specs and can then calculate how many kWh 1% equates to. Then you can set it to “add 10% by 05:30” and Octopus knows that means add 8kWh for example, but it doesn’t know what SoC that will leave you with.
To make the best of it could just say “add 90% by 5:30” and you know you’ll have between 90-100% by the morning.
CW I have been waiting a year for the GE charger to ve supported by intelligent go, but nothing. All I can suggest is visit the Octopus site and request the GIV-EV-7.2 gets integrated. I am lucky and only do a low mileage, the cost difference with a higher mileage would be significant.
JWsol I am lucky and only do a low mileage, the cost difference with a higher mileage would be significant.
I only do a low mileage, but I still benefit significantly from using IOG rather than Go - primarily the improved export rate.
After a few failed attempts, following the Octopus process in their app, to switch to IOG, I finally got it to switch. My car, VW ID4, and the GivEnergy charger were listed in options. It was the final stage where Octopus do a test charge that kept failing. I thought it would be enough to close down the VW and GivEnergy apps on my iPhone but only when I deleted them did the test charge work ok. The Octopus app now shows the tariff has changed to IOG and the Devices tab shows the car and options for battery capacity limit and time by when Octopus will schedule charging to reach that limit.
SteveClubley What settings di you have on the charger? Speaking with Octopus and Skoda they both say the charge is disconnecting as soon as the request is made. I have t plug and go on but think there may be something else stopping it from allowing control
In the GivEnergy app I have Plug and Charge switched off. I have Charge at Max Power set to 32A. Under the lower menu setting of EV Charger Configuration I have Standalone selected.
I have a schedule active from 23:30 to 05:30.
In the car I have the car set to charge to 80%
In the Octopus app under Device I have Ready by Time set to 5:30 and Charge Target set to 80%. Octopus do then create a charging schedule after a few mins which you can see under Devices however this schedule doesn’t cause any charge activity. The GivEnergy app schedule does cause the charge to happen though. You could also just hit the Charge button in the GivEnergy app to start a charge. Be patient though as there will be a delay before charging happens in either schedule or charge button options.
Thanks Steve, I will try these settings today. I'd read plug and charge needed to be on elsewhere, but it didn't work. When you change to standalone, do you lose some of the app control, like charge directly from solar?
I'm considering a switch to IOG, but I'm unsure following the explanations in the previous posts. The process outlined by @SteveClubley seems to suggest that charging is still controlled by the GE EV charger. Obvious really when you think about it. If the charger says "No" then charging won't happen.
I suppose that I had assumed that if the car was compatible with IOG, then the generated schedule would be communicated to the car by Octopus. Is this correct?
This seems like the only way that it would work if Octopus does not support the GivEnergy charger.
Steve also referred to "Standalone" mode. Where do I find this setting? I've looked at the app, but could not find it. Probably there and I'm having a senior moment.
4tea2 I suppose that I had assumed that if the car was compatible with IOG, then the generated schedule would be communicated to the car by Octopus. Is this correct?
Yes. But the chargepoint has to be set up so that it's always willing to provide charge when asked, so that as soon as the car decides to charge, it can. So there shouldn't really be any scheduling restrictions set up on the chargepoint.
4tea2 I have the car controlled by IOG, I played around with a few settings/ automations but now just set the GE charger to plug and charge mode permanently. When I plug the car in I check/stop the charge and then let Octopus do its thing over the afternoon/evening/night without any conflicting controls.
Brian07
To charge from solar you would need to use one of the other settings in that section of the GivEnergy app. I haven’t done this yet because there isn’t enough sun at this time of year for it to be worth it. Also when there is enough sun it’s more cost effective to export it if you’re on the right export tariff eg import on IOG at 7p per KWh to charge car (and solar battery) and export at 15p on Fixed Outgoing or even more during peak period on Flux Export.
Interesting. Another method, will give it a try as the advantage of this way over how I’m doing it currently is that Octopus could schedule additional slots outside of 23:30-05:30 but still at 7p rate.
“Standalone” is one of the overall configurations setup by the installer. I’ve left it in “inverter control “, enabled plug-and-charge, and disabled solar charging. Two reasons for me: the frequency of only working out the solar excess once a minute left too much peak import happening when the sun goes in. And the 15p export means I try to maximise export kWh and keep peak import to zero.
Thanks Steve. That all makes sense, I'm new to all this so thanks for the advice.
NorfolkMustard, that's the exact setting I have currently, but it's not working, it seems like it can be dependent on the car too. I'll change everything about and back again until I can get it to work...
I tried turning on Activate Plug and Charge and sure enough the car started charging. I stopped it with the Stop button and was hoping that Octopus would setup a schedule to charge which they did. The problem was that charging would start again and again but not inline with the Octopus schedule. Is this your experience ? If so then aren’t you concerned that this will take place outside of the 7p off peak period ?
I stop the initial charge with the car’s app rather than the GE app. That has been working great for me.
I tried all these settings and still can't get it to work. think it must be something to do with my Car rather than the charger.
Thanks for your help everyone
Brian - did you follow the process with the Octopus app initially when you got onto IOG to completer their Test Charge stage ok?
I assume you did otherwise you wouldn’t be on IOG tariff?
Try the Bump charge option in their app too.
Hi Steve, it's their test charge that is failing. it starts the car charging but then says my car isn't plugged in. Octopus say something is disconnecting straight away so bee trying to change al settings to get it to work. will have to make do with octopus GO or swtich to EON
Brian07 TBH, unless you need the extra hours that IOG provide, I would just use OG - it's still 15p export and only slightly more expensive on import
I had the same experience with the test charge step. See my post above about a month ago in this thread ie delete other apps temporarily.
What Skoda model do you have? My daughter’s Enyak works with IOG and a granny charger and also with my GivEnergy charger when she visits.
SteveClubley experiencing the same issue with my parents Mini tonight, just keeps cycling the charge on Plug and Go.
I can see the charge schedule in the Octopus app, however the Mini is reporting something completely different and I have no idea if that is normal.
What I have done on the EV charger tonigth is limited it to charging between 23:30 and 05:30, I have no faith this is going to work for my parents.
Out of curiousity, what does the charge schedule say in your cars app? The mini makes absolutely no sense.
The VW is absolutely hopeless. It can’t even display the same miles available that the car’s internal screen displays. It doesn’t have the functionality to provide charging slot info. All you can really do with it is to set the max charge percentage limit.
My experience is the Octopus app is that the charge schedule changes throughout the night (Octopus say that this might happen) but still no charge occurs unless I use a schedule created in the aGivEnergy app. The charge appears to be controlled by the GivEnergy app. This normally is a full charge of 7.4kWh each hour til the end of the period however last night I was only topping up from 70 to 80% during the 6 hour period and it did choose different half hour slots to achieve this. I don’t think that they correlated to the proposed Octopus schedule but I need to try this again and check.
SteveClubley okay so bit of a development.
Octopus tell the Mini to go into Schedule Mode to stop it charging and then switch to Plug and Charge to activate charging.
What I’m finding is that the EV charger stop charging if there’s a break, I set it up the same as you with a Schedule between 23:30 and 05:30.
When the mini stopped at 00:00 the charger stopped, it didn’t continue with the next charge that started again at 00:00.
The difference with my setup is that I have Plug and Charge switched off in the app.
When I plug in Octopus creates a schedule but it doesn’t do anything.
I have 23:30 to 05:30 schedule setup in GivEnergy app and during that period car will charge to limit set with car app and solar battery will charge to full. (Grid supplies house til 05:30 then battery takes over).
SteveClubley I disabled P&G too, copied your setup and it did all work.
The Mini trickle charges about 1.2kW/h when its plugged in on P&G, which feels like a car issue as opposed to a GivEnergy issue.
matttheotter
Back in the summer before I got my VW ID4 I was trying to charge my daughters Skoda Enyak. It was only trickle charging and I tried various settings in the GivEnergy app. Only when I set it to Standalone (Grid) charging did it then charge at full 7.4kWh.
SteveClubley it will charge at 7.4kW when the car switches to P&C, however when the car is on Schedule it will trickle in, this seems like a mini issue.
Could it be that when it’s on a Schedule and charging at a trickle that the GivEnery control is being smart and spreading the charge out over the scheduled period so it meets the target charge by the end of the period?
I saw something like this with mine the other for the first time when I was just topping up to and 80% target from 70 something.
SteveClubley I mean the chargers are just dumb terminals, the car does all the smart, so the charger will be offering charge however I think this is a case of the Mini doing battery prep.
This is a good example of what’s happening, the car has finished charge by 00:30 however about 1.2kW keeps going into the car every hour until the end of the charge cycle, its very strange.
Hi. Mine is behaving in a similar way. Last weekend after a long trip the car was down to 17% charge. From 23:30 to 05:30 it charged at full 7kWH rate and got up to 66%. This is in line with what I expected based on battery size.
Yesterday evening car was down to 55%. I set the upper limit in the car to charge to 80% and between 23:30 and 05:30 it reached that using the charging pattern as per this image.
Isn’t this perfectly normal IOG behaviour? The only thing wrong is that you are setting the limit in the car and not on the octopus app
I’m setting 80% in the car and the VW app but this should effectively be the same thing. I’m also setting 80% in the Octopus app as well as the ‘ready by time’ (05:30). Octopus then show a schedule in the app but charging never aligns with it, I assume because there is no integration yet with the GivEnergy charger. I’m not bothered about that as for me my setup is working ie I plug in, it’s charging to reach 80% between 23:30 and 05:30 at 7p per kWh and charging the house battery at the same time.
So are you on IOG? If so you must be using the car as Octopus don’t use the Giv charger do they? If so set the car to higher than the octopus app and all should be fine. The house battery is just a side benefit. Charger should be set to charge whenever plugged in.
Yeah on IOG. Why set car battery percentage higher in the car? I only want it to go to 80% as that’s the recommended level. House battery charging at 7p is a very nice side benefit as full battery gets us through the next day and evening while there is so little solar at this time of year.
The charge is supposed to be controlled by Octopus so the car needs to be the same or higher. I found that if I set my Tesla to the same I often get a message from Octopus saying that it was too low so always opted to put it higher. If you set octopus to 80% that’s what you get at whatever random times octopus pick. Pretty sure all this is in the octopus instructions.
Again the house stuff is a very useful bi product.
Hello All,
I'm charging a Tesla through the GE 7kw charger on Octopus Intelligent Go. Octopus generated schedules etc are all working fine, and I use the Wonder Watt app to control and sync the battery charging with the car smart schedule.
The problem is the GE charger. It seems to commence charging as per schedule but then subsequently fails to restart charging if there is break in the smart schedule. Any ideas what might be causing this?
I have dual AIO batts and the charger is in Inverter Control setup with Plug & Charge activated.
[unknown]
Hi. I’m doing it differently with IOG and the GE EV charger. I have Plug and Go switched off. Octopus create a schedule but it’s superseded by the schedule I set in the GE app. The GE schedule I have enabled is 23:30 to 05:30. (I have a charge schedule set for the solar battery in the same hours).
Hi. I’m doing it differently with IOG and the GE EV charger. I have Plug and Go switched off. Octopus create a schedule but it’s superseded by the schedule I set in the GE app. The GE schedule I have enabled is 23:30 to 05:30. (I have a charge schedule set for the solar battery in the same hours).
I did wonder if its Plug & Go was causing the issue so I've turned it off. I read somewhere on here to leave it switched on but I think it may 'forget' its still plugged in when there's a break in the charging schedule generatedby IOG.
I may be wrong but having charged for say 1hr then switched off as per the schedule it then doesn't seem to operate when the next slot commences. Maybe the logic in the EVC needs to 'sense' the car being plugged in. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about😄
We do shift work sometimes with very early starts/late finishes so the flexibility of IOG is needed. Going to a fixed schedule would be OK but we'd lose out on the extended slots outside if 23:30-0530 which would leave us short on charge so I'd rather not override the IOG schedule.
JamesFisher22
You could maybe try having a longer schedule set in the GivEnergy app eg 19:00 to 07:00. It may start charging straight away but stop it manually and then see if the Octopus generated schedule takes control?
I also had a problem in the beginning with IOG caused by not reading the app properly - the battery charging percentage is not the final amount of charge you want in the battery at the end of the period, but the percentage of charge to add to the battery.
So my EV failed to charge again overnight leaving me short for todays driving.
Once again the GE EVC charged for the first slot at 23:30 then failed to restart on the next slot.
I'm getting a bit hacked off with this now.
GE hasn't been particularly helpfull so I am now experimenting with settings.
I've selected the EVC to 'grid only' configuration to disregard battery inverter CT clamp and solar input and just make it as dumb as possible.
I've selected 'plug and charge' to off in case this is causing the problem.
My hunch is that the EVC doesn't like the Tesla calling for charge from the (Octo generated scedule) then pausing as per schedule rather than it controlling the charge from its own schedule. Maybe this is why Octopus haven't approved it for use with their smart EV tarrifs eh??
Any thoughts or advice would be most welcome. If this doesn't work I will revert to the fixed Octopus 23:30-05:30 schedule but this is not ideal for us.
John_Bennion it’s different if octopus controls the car rather than the charger. You set the target SoC in the octopus app that case, as octopus can get the car to tell them the SoC
[unknown]
I understand the car and Octopus side of things but why do you think the charger isn’t allowing electrons to flow when the car calls for it?
I’ve had a few messages on the Octopus app saying “we failed to control your device”
Turn the smarts off on the charger and let the Tesla do the controlling.
The Tesla integration works well with Intelligent Octopus.
Zakalwe that's been my experience thankfully too
I have the same setup as you @JamesFisher22 tesla controlled by Octopus, GivEnergy charger and AIO battery/gateway.
I have the charger dumbed down as much as possible so no schedules active in the givenergy app at all, plug-and-charge active, solar charging off, charge at max power on.
Apart from having to use the tesla app to stop charging when I initially plug it in (octopus are never quick enough to notice it's plugged in until 5-10 mins afterwards, so I'm just avoiding 10m of peak-rate) it's all left to it's own and octopus start/stop/start charging with their random schedule through the night, and often they sneak in a midday 30 min charge too if it's still plugged in.
I think as long as you control the on/off only in the tesla app, the GE charger is then offering power 24/7
Have you tried a combo of Grid only, no Plug and Go and a GivEnergy schedule commencing before 23:30 ? (You might have to stop it charging immediately but then let an Octopus schedule takeover).
[unknown]
I’ve had a few messages on the Octopus app saying “we failed to control your device”
Might be a red herring .. I have zappi integration, and get that message after every charge, yet it works fine.
Thanks all. I will try these suggestions and see if there's an increase in reliability.
Last night was successful. EV and home batteries charged properly. This was with Plug & Charge enabled, the EVC still in 'Stand Alone' grid only mode and stopping the initial charge through the Tesla app (which I was doing anyway). Lets see how the next few nights go.
I've got to say I swapped out a Zappi for the GE charger as they were being offered free with the sale of an AIO. Regret that decision tbh the Zappi is a better quality charger with a longer cable and just worked. I was a bit dissapointed when I started using the GE charger as the app control is clunky and I get multiple 'ground leakage' notifications, it also tells me occasionally that the cable is not secured when it is plus the 'don't discharge home battery to EV' function well doesn't! I've had to sign up to Wonder Watt to remote manage the battery to prevent this. I would say its poorly integrated into my dual AIO setup and the Zappi was a just a better product.
That's interesting re the "Prevent battery discharging to EV" not working. Has it never worked, or is the problem intermittent?
[unknown]
I'm pretty sure it's ever never worked for me. But I would add I've only used it with a parallel AIO setup so that may be the culprit as it's STILL in beta software as far as I'm aware. Maybe it works on a single AIO or other GE battery setup but not with dual AIO's and the GW controlling.
SteveClubley the charger
SteveClubley Have you tried a combo of Grid only, no Plug and Go and a GivEnergy schedule commencing before 23:30 ? (You might have to stop it charging immediately but then let an Octopus schedule takeover).
Well the GE charger crapped out AGAIN last night and failed to restart after the initial 1hr smart charge slot followed by a 1hr break. I'm going to try your suggestion Steve of setting a GE schedule as well to see if that keeps the charger 'awake' through the night.
I don't suppose anyone has any information about the progress of Octopus and Givenergy supporting the charger integration to facilitate intelligent Octopus?
I'm on dumb Go but looking to get a heat pump and so the rivals with cheaper tariffs might start to look appealing next winter.
I don't suppose anyone has any information about the progress of Octopus and Givenergy supporting the charger integration to facilitate intelligent Octopus?
I'm on dumb Go but looking to get a heat pump and so the rivals with cheaper tariffs might start to look appealing next winter.
If you’re looking at a heat pump and don’t do big miles you might be better off doing cost etc.
Personally the zappi integration works very well, the car ones less well for IoG. A neighbour is happy with the Tesla integration mind.
[unknown]
Is your EV supported by Intelligent Octopus Go? If so it doesn’t matter that the Giv EV charger isn’t and you should still be able to switch to the IOG tariff. It needs to be one or the other that is supported.
[unknown] no we've got an MG and they don't allow integration.
I made the assumption that because Givenergy and Octopus worked closely together with Intelligent Flux that it would only be a short while before they sorted out the EV charger.
Now it is 18 months later and how wrong I was!
Oh, I spoke to some Octopus and Givenergy people at Fully Charged (Everything Electric?) last year and both blamed the other party for the failure to integrate. I think that there might be complications because Octopus can't tell the difference between cars and home batteries or something like that.
[unknown] no we've got an MG and they don't allow integration.
I made the assumption that because Givenergy and Octopus worked closely together with Intelligent Flux that it would only be a short while before they sorted out the EV charger.
Now it is 18 months later and how wrong I was!
Oh, I spoke to some Octopus and Givenergy people at Fully Charged (Everything Electric?) last year and both blamed the other party for the failure to integrate. I think that there might be complications because Octopus can't tell the difference between cars and home batteries or something like that.
