[Rickj]

New to this forum so apologies if most of this has been covered on previous posts.

We have two EV's (BMW IX and Mini electric) using Octopus Go Faster (5 hour tariff) and a 7kw Sync EV wall charger which is set to smart charge either car during cheap tariff. We also have solar and battery storage system where we load up to 10kw of cheap electric each night. Our current tariff ends in June and can see that we can either change to Octopus Go 4 hour tariff at 12p or Octopus Intelligent 6 hour at 10p. It looks as thought the Octopus Go faster is no longer available which is a shame as we use the earliest slot from 9.30pm which is great for manually putting on other appliances.

Just some questions on Octopus Intelligent if anyone can help

1. I can see that both the BMW and Mini are compatible with Intelligent. Does anyone else use Intelligent for either the BMW IX or Mini successfully?

2. The BMW is charged most days and the Mini only once per week. Intelligent says it's only compatible for 1 EV but I have read that other people are on this tariff with 2 EV's. Would we be able to nominate the BMW to pair with the app and but still charge our Mini during 11.30pm to 5.30am using our 7kw charger? I'm assuming we would just do this as we do at present by putting our Sync EV onto smart charge mode for the cheap tariff time and letting the Mini be controlled by our charger.

3. How often does the EV get charged outside of the fixed 6 hour period but still at the 10p rate?

4. How long does it take to change from Octopus Go to Intelligent. Is there any delay whilst test charges are done or can you pretty much start using it straight away.

 

[Odinias]

1. No, I don't have either.

2. Yes, you can charge your mini during the 6 hour off peak window. Any electricity used during this time will always be at the cheap rate regardless of whether you're charging your synced EV or not.

3. This is dependent on a lot of factors, such as the state of charge when you plug in, your departure time you've set in the Octopus app, the charger speed etc.

4. Provided you've done everything correctly, you should be switched over within the hour after the test charge. If not, call them up and they will manually push you on to the tariff, which is what I had to do as it failed to transfer me to Intelligent Octopus for some odd reason.

 

[raspy]

@Rickj Have been using my BMW iX with IO for a few months now. Works fine. I charge my car early in the morning, around 6am, and that gets me electricity at 10p for both car and house, until 11am or whenever before that I unplug.

 

[Ski Tron]

Pair the iX with IO. It is pretty common to have extra hours outside of the default 2330-0530. I often see charges starting at 2300 or earlier, and often ending later in the morning too.
As the BMW has a larger battery than can be charged in 6 hours, when it’s at a low state of charge you will get the extra hours needed to get it up to your target.
The mini can be plugged in overnight when the BMW isn’t, it’ll get the default 6 hours at cheap rate. If the mini is plugged in using the granny cable simultaneously with the BMW, then the mini will get the same cheap extra hours as the BMW, so will all your household use. You’ll need to set timers for charging the mini like you do with Go.
You need to use a quarter or more of your total energy consumption in the cheap period to offset the higher daytime rate.
the swap is very swift. once you’ve done a test charge, devices will appear in your octopus app, and you use that to control the BMW charging.