Intelligent Octopus and Ohme Home Pro

[Dad]

Looking for some advice please in regards to how to set this up to charge.

We’ve moved from EoN Next to Intelligent Octopus this week. Already had a smart meter so the whole process took two days and the connection to IO was straight forward, no errors for us. As others advised you connect the IO app to the Ohme Pro charger, not to the car. Easy.

The Octopus app now shows we are on the IO tariff as does the Ohme app. The car is plugged in.

On the Ohme app I have turned all the schedules off and created one new schedule that I have named ‘Octopus’. I’ve set it to charge by 50% and I’ve selected seven days a week. I’ve set the target time to 05:00am. We are not heavy users so normally just need 150 - 200 miles per week.

I can’t see a start time and I can’t see a price cap option.

So how does this work? Will IO control things from here and start the charge at 23:30 automatically? This is the bit I’m confused about. Obviously I only want it charging the car at 7.5p and not slipping into the 30p rate but not sure how this is controlled really!

Thanks

[snalbansed]

Edit: comment below suggests that this isn't how it works with an Ohme charger!

--------------------------

Perhaps someone with an Ohme charger can comment, but I think you would want to set it up like this:

• remove all schedules in the car and the charger - set to charge immediately

• in the Octopus app indicate the SoC you want to have by the morning (if it above 80% you'll probably need to do the same in the car - Octopus won't override the car max SoC setting)

• set the time "required by" in the Octopus app

• plug the car in

• after a short time the charging should be stopped by Octopus - you can stop the charge using the button on the car touch screen or the Skoda app if you wish

• after about ten minutes the Octopus app will inform you that it has planned that nights charge. It will take into account how much you need to charge to get to your required SoC, how long it will take, and when the grid will be greenest

• go to bed

• wake up with a charged car

[Dad]

Thanks. I think this is what we have done broadly speaking. I did find the price cap in the Ohme app so I’ve disabled that.

Will see what happens tonight.

[livingforever]

Perhaps someone with an Ohme charger can comment, but I think you would want to set it up like this:

• remove all schedules in the car and the charger - set to charge immediately

• in the Octopus app indicate the SoC you want to have by the morning (if it above 80% you'll probably need to do the same in the car - Octopus won't override the car max SoC setting)

• set the time "required by" in the Octopus app

• plug the car in

• after a short time the charging should be stopped by Octopus - you can stop the charge using the button on the car touch screen or the Skoda app if you wish

• after about ten minutes the Octopus app will inform you that it has planned that nights charge. It will take into account how much you need to charge to get to your required SoC, how long it will take, and when the grid will be greenest

• go to bed

• wake up with a charged car

Interesting - I guess this would work if you set IO up with the Enyaq not the Ohme Charger, but if you set it up with the Ohme like people here usually suggest, then you can’t do anything in the Octopus app, only the Ohme one.

Now wondering whether I should try again setting it up to the car… the Ohme app isn’t great given that it can’t read the car’s battery level!

[snalbansed]

Interesting - I guess this would work if you set IO up with the Enyaq not the Ohme Charger, but if you set it up with the Ohme like people here usually suggest, then you can’t do anything in the Octopus app, only the Ohme one.

Now wondering whether I should try again setting it up to the car… the Ohme app isn’t great given that it can’t read the car’s battery level!

I see - ignore everything I said then @Dad! I assumed it would be the same as when you set up with the car, including assuming that the Ohme could read state of charge.

[ComicGeek]

Perhaps someone with an Ohme charger can comment, but I think you would want to set it up like this:

• remove all schedules in the car and the charger - set to charge immediately

• in the Octopus app indicate the SoC you want to have by the morning (if it above 80% you'll probably need to do the same in the car - Octopus won't override the car max SoC setting)

• set the time "required by" in the Octopus app

• plug the car in

• after a short time the charging should be stopped by Octopus - you can stop the charge using the button on the car touch screen or the Skoda app if you wish

• after about ten minutes the Octopus app will inform you that it has planned that nights charge. It will take into account how much you need to charge to get to your required SoC, how long it will take, and when the grid will be greenest

• go to bed

• wake up with a charged car

Interesting - I guess this would work if you set IO up with the Enyaq not the Ohme Charger, but if you set it up with the Ohme like people here usually suggest, then you can’t do anything in the Octopus app, only the Ohme one.

Now wondering whether I should try again setting it up to the car… the Ohme app isn’t great given that it can’t read the car’s battery level!

The Ohme app does read the battery level for the Enyaq, you just have to sign in with your Skoda account details when selecting the car within the Ohme app.

If you're not expecting to need more than 6 hrs charge each night, then just set the % battery level and finish time within the Ohme app, set the price cap within the Ohme app, and don't put any schedules on in the car.

You don't control anything in the Octopus app, it's all done through Ohme.

[Dad]

Thanks

[livingforever]

The Ohme app does read the battery level for the Enyaq, you just have to sign in with your Skoda account details when selecting the car within the Ohme app.

Oh that’s good. Unfortunately I’ve just tried taking the car off and then adding it again whilst signing into Skoda account at the same time but it absolutely does not want to recognise my username and password despite the fact that I am using the exact same ones copy/pasted to log out and back into the Skoda app itself.

Any ideas?

[Dad]

Ok update from first attempt last night. The charge basically didn’t start on the car side of the equation. At midnight the Ohme app appeared to be triggered and had a message saying Smart Charging - session specific rule. The “miles” counter started to increase on the Ohme app but the Skoda app was saying Start Charge. So the issue appeared to be that the car wasn’t starting the charge for whatever reason.

At around 1am I pressed the Start Charge on the Skoda app and everything worked fine. It estimated about four hours to charge to 80% (at 6 KWh) and that was successful. However I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t need to press the Start Charging on the Skoda app?

This morning Ohme shows around 27 KW added last night for £2. A bit of an anomaly on the Skoda app is showing the range as 513 miles! whereas the dashboard in the car correctly shows 216 miles range (at 80%).

To recap my set up:-
IO set up and confirmed in Octopus app and Ohme Pro app.
Octopus connected to Ohme (not directly to the car).
Ohme charger status is online.
One charging schedule in the Ohme app with price cap enabled, 50% target charge by 5am. Car set to 80% max charge.

Anything else I can check? I read references to ensure your charging schedules in the car are disabled but I’m not sure what this means as I can’t see any schedules in the car.

To be clear here.. I’m absolutely delighted with the IO tariff and starting the charge at 11:30pm is not a hardship at all so I’m not overly bothered but just curious/determined to set this up.

[Ken3966]

Schedules are set under the location option. They then work whenever you are at that location. You can also set preference charging times at that location.
However once accepted by octopus if you use this it ignores the schedule set by Octopus and just charges at that time if set to charge at preferred time at home location.
May cause issues as you get message that octopus can’t control the car.