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Compatible Chargers and Cars for Octopus Intelligent go

4K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Pmholling  
#1 ·
I have just come off the phone to Octopus Energy to check if Hydravolt home 3 pro chargers are now compatiable with Octopus Inelligent go and informed that yes it is but the car needs to be compatible also. I was under the impression that although the charger is preferable to the car you do not require both. At the moment I am considering upgrading my car to the Renault Scenic e-tech 87 kwh which according to Octopus website is on the list of cars and passes the test to see if you are eligible.But I might change my mind at some point. Why is the information from Octopus Energy so conflicting to what is out there? There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice out there .
 
#2 ·
I was under the impression that although the charger is preferable to the car you do not require both.
This is correct. When they say the car also needs to be compatible, what they’re really saying is that the Hydravolt EVSE isn’t compatible in the sense of fully integrated, only in the “you can use it as a dumb charger” sense.
 
#3 ·
Just for clarity, do you have a Hydra EVSE or a Hypervolt EVSE. I cannot find the Hydravolt Home 3 Pro anywhere. The Hypervolt Home 3 Pro is a fully IO Go compatible, this means that it doesn't need any compatibility for the vehicle. One note of warning, if you do upgrade to the Renault you may want to use vehicle integration, even if you have a compatible charger, as it looks like the Renault's have a feature that puts the car into deep sleep if the charger isn't sending a PWM signal for a while. This results in IO Go via charger integration failing on a semi-regular basis.
 
#6 ·
Certainly my Zoe has that issue - the chargers that Renault used to supply had special firmware which supplied power even when the charger was outside the timed periods (I've never used the timer on the charger and actually I think the portal is broken/not communicating for quite a while now).

On the plus side, the Renault IOG integration is pretty good, and it looks official (works through a Mobilize app). I don't think it will randomly break like some of the other vehicle integrations have. I wrote a thread about it which may help @davebaxt55
 
#4 · (Edited)
The only charge points that are fully - and reliably - compatible with OIG at the moment seem to be the Ohme, Zappi and Wallbox, if posts on the forum are anything to go by. (Edit: I say 'reliably' only in terms of the posts on the forum indicating that there are plenty of people who have them and seem OK with them (albeit there are still some posts around issues). I don't mean to say that other prducts on the integration list are inferior.)

Even if your current EV was integrated with OIG there's an argument for still getting one of these charge point in case you add or replace the car with another model that's not integrated. Whether you think this is worth the premium on a non-integrated charge point is your decision.
 
#5 ·
The only charge points that are fully - and reliably - compatible with OIG at the moment seem to be the Ohme, Zappi and Wallbox, if posts on the forum are anything to go by.

Even if your current EV was integrated with OIG there's an argument for still getting one of these charge point in case you add or replace the car with another model that's not integrated. Whether you think this is worth the premium on a non-integrated charge point is your decision.
Yes, technically the hyperbole integration is still in testing, but from Octopus, for an otherwise incompatible car:
Great news: Your Home 3 Pro (7.0kW) charger should work with Intelligent Octopus Go – you can get 7p/kWh smart charging and 6 hours of off peak rates for your whole house every night.
[\QUOTE]
 
#9 · (Edited)
This is correct. When they say the car also needs to be compatible, what they’re really saying is that the Hydravolt EVSE isn’t compatible in the sense of fully integrated, only in the “you can use it as a dumb charger” sense.
Just for clarity, do you have a Hydra EVSE or a Hypervolt EVSE. I cannot find the Hydravolt Home 3 Pro anywhere. The Hypervolt Home 3 Pro is a fully IO Go compatible, this means that it doesn't need any compatibility for the vehicle. One note of warning, if you do upgrade to the Renault you may want to use vehicle integration, even if you have a compatible charger, as it looks like the Renault's have a feature that puts the car into deep sleep if the charger isn't sending a PWM signal for a while. This results in IO Go via charger integration failing on a semi-regular basis.
it informs you that you are good to go . So if I used Hypervolt on a non intergrade car then it would not work
 
#10 ·
Thank you everyone for their replies and helping me out and forgive me for any confusion and inconvenience. I meant to say Hypervolt and not Hydravolt. I do apologise. Good to here that the Hypervolt is fully integrated with IOG but worried that there are issues with this charging. Do you think they are anything to do with loosing the WiFi signal or something else? It is my intention to run a ethernet cable to the Hypervolt so would hopefully eliminate any connection issues. What is a PWM sinal? Best regards Dave
 
#11 ·
I don't know the specifics on where issue with the Hypervolt integration arise. IO Go requires two-way comms to the charger/car. One direction to set the charge the other to confirm that it has happened. This can breakdown. Though charger integration generally more reliable than vehicle.

AC EVSEs tell the onboard charger how much current is available by putting out a pulse over the Control Pilot pin. Depending on the duty cycle that will indicated that anywhere between 6A and something like 60A per phase are available. A lot of EVSEs set the PWM duty cycle to 0% when the vehicle is plugged in but it is outside the the scheduled charge time. While this is not strictly necessary, as I think 6A is at something like 46% duty cycle, there are reasons not to always put out a live PWM. It seems that the OBC control software on some cars uses the presence, or lack thereof of a PWM singnal to decide whether or not to sleep. This seems to be the issue with at least some Renault implementations, where it seems to affect newer cars. If there is no PWM for a given amount of time the car goes to sleep and will not recognised when the PWM duty cycle goes above 0, unless some other intervention occurs, eg unlocking/locking the car. This is all over many Renault forums, for the Megan and now Scenic. I don't know how universal it is by model and how many chargers fall afoul; however, I have seen Ohme and Zappi called out along with some public AC sites.