Intelligent Octopus Flux

I switched to Intelligent Octopus Flux at the start of the summer and it seems to have done us pretty well. However, I have noticed over the last couple of weeks that Octopus are no longer charging my battery before the start of the 'peak period', and it means that I am pulling from the grid during 'peak' rate times. So I am wondering if a switch back or ordinary Flux is the way to go, and if so what settings would be recommended on the GivEnergy app (because I really don't want to go back to manually switching my battering charge/discharge!). We don't have an EV, just a battering and 8 solar panels. I'm also not sure that I have the brain space to take on something like predbat! TIA!

@claire have a look at MyEnergyOptimiser it is App or PC control, no extra hardware, and help readily available.

[unknown] Interesting question... I've not used either of the Fluxes myself. It probably very much depends on your battery size relative to your daily consumption. And I guess how much solar you might reasonably expect to generate over the winter months.
Rates in my area: flux = (16.34, 27.24, 38.14) iof = (22.48, 29.97)
So peak rate on IOF isn't very much more than day rate on standard flux - averaged over the day, probably still a lot lower.

But if you can charge battery overnight and cover most consumption from that, and shift things like washing to overnight, flux should be a winner. Even better if you can store solar and export it mostly during the peak rate (29p) - export at other times is a rather miserly 10p here.

The other tariff to look at if you don’t have an EV or heat pump is Economy 7. Again depends on your battery size and typical house load, but if your battery can last you through the day (or most of the day), E7 might be the best option.
You’ll only get the 15p export rate on Octopus, but likely you won’t be exporting much if anything in the winter anyway.

When you move off IOF then go into the givenergy portal, account settings, security, and delete the API key/token that Octopus have. Octopus have been known to hold onto access after you leave IOF and by deleting the API token it stops this

If you go to Flux and can't get the GivEnergy Smart Tariff plugin to work you could try WonderWatt.
It is cloud based and you can create more than 1 charge schedule and put conditions on them so they don't charge if SOC is high enough, etc. There is a free trial period so you can see if it can work for you or not.

Another option is the Android Inverter Monitor App which you can use to set up charge schedules.

Claire It might be a problem with settings as Oct seems to have changed how they control certain GE kit. Try sending a reset to defaults from the GE phone app (if it will let you!) and see if that corrects the problem. My neighbours issue was that the AC charge Upper % limit had been left at 20%. You can see this via the remote control (cog) section of the web portal but you are locked out of changing it from there.

Hope that helps

alan_johnston You can also do this with Home Assistant for free. I started learning HA from scratch, using a spare laptop to run it on with Docker Desktop.

I have now managed to get Automations to watch for Octopus doing weird stuff, I can pre-program free sessions and again stop OIF messing around with those, keep SOC at 100% and 4% pretty much anything OIF has started to screw up lately. Problem is, you are going to fight OIF, and the battery is going to get hit with API commands pretty much every 10 minutes.

In addition, as many other users have experienced, OIF has now locked my battery:

I have recently changed to Cosy due to my Heat Pump, and bad weather and my battery still remains locked, same as it has for the other users that have changed tariff and revoked the API access. So I have no created more HA Automations to combat OIF completely messing up the Cosy times.

Anyhow, bottom line is that OIF has become more and more random, and adjusted so it doesn't benefit the users as much as it used to be, however it still remains the best tariff for Summer and anyone that doesn't have electric heating or EV during Winter.

Switching to OIF in the summer is not available if you are on Cosy Fix.

However, if you could use OIF in the summer, are there generally clear periods when you could get a cheap rate for hot water. For instance, is there a couple of hours each day before 0600 when OIF is always low?

[unknown] However, if you could use OIF in the summer, are there generally clear periods when you could get a cheap rate for hot water. For instance, is there a couple of hours each day before 0600 when OIF is always low?

Not as far as I know: IOF has exactly two prices - one for 4pm to 7pm, and one for the rest of the day. Ordinary Flux has a third rate overnight (2am to 5am), but IOF does not.

DD correct, only a day rate and peak rate on OIF

Roy124 not sure why you couldn't swap from Cosy Fixed to OIF for the summer. I am Cosy Fixed but plan to change before next summer, and I'll just pay the £25 exit fee. Given my winter heat pump consumption, Cosy Fixed + exit fee is still cheaper than Cosy variable.

I can't go to OIF as Octopus can't cope with me having two inverters on one account. The enrolment process fails.
Not sure I'd like the lack of control either, but I tried, and can't get OIF

geoffreycoan I could pay the fine, just thought that would wipe out any saving.

What are typical low charges on IOF?

I guess paying the £25 would be about 17p/d. On this seasons usage about 1.4kW.