[Hypnoman]

I've searched on this forum but can't find the answer to this question, I'm relatively new here so bear with me if this is a silly question... My new eGolf arrives 1st Sept, my smart meter to be installed sometime in Sept (tbc), then I'll change to Agile. My questions are how do I get the best out of my Ohme?
Does it do everything automatically? If its cheaper energy during the day, do I have to plug it in during the day? I was expecting to plug it in at night and let Ohme do its job, but don't know if Agile does that the way Go does... with that I would know exactly what to do because Octopus tells you the cheapest time during the night... but Agile could be cheaper during the day couldn't it? I'm so confused about what to do to get the lowest electricity bills but a car that's fully (to 80%) charged and pre-heated at the start of each day. I'd appreciate some advice in layman's terms would be appreciated. Thx everyone.

 

[dk6780]

Hmm, bear in mind that I don't own an Ohme.

My understanding is that you allow Ohme access to the e-Golf's API, set a departure time and a target SoC then plug it in and it does its' stuff. If for some reason it cannot read the SoC it assumes it has no charge and will attempt to provide the full requested percentage, not just the balance that is required.

Also, it can only work as far ahead as Octopus publish prices which is until 23:00, generally in the hour after 16:00 each day, so if you plug it in now it can only work on the best prices up until 23:00 today even if you only need it to be charged by tomorrow morning. The alternative is to specify a start time after 16:00 meaning that it will have the prices for tomorrow, but obviously you'll have missed the prices between now and then even if they are better.

There is an issue with arranging for the car to pre-heat from Mains power which is that you have to set a second schedule, and the car will potentially also charge at the same time so if 'leccy is expensive then means that you aren't buying at the best price.

@donald has been exploring the idiosyncrasies in his normal depth and will hopefully respond, but you can read the tribulations My oh my, my Ohme.

 

[donald]

I have developed a 'simple MO' but am charging so infrequently at the moment I've not yet fully 'road tested' it to make sure it is relatively fool proof.

I suspect most people will end up doing the same as I have started doing, just a case of fiddling away until you figure out what the 'high-maintenance' app demands from you!

 

[phproxy]

Hmm, bear in mind that I don't own an Ohme.

My understanding is that you allow Ohme access to the e-Golf's API, set a departure time and a target SoC then plug it in and it does its' stuff. If for some reason it cannot read the SoC it assumes it has no charge and will attempt to provide the full requested percentage, not just the balance that is required.

Also, it can only work as far ahead as Octopus publish prices which is until 23:00, generally in the hour after 16:00 each day, so if you plug it in now it can only work on the best prices up until 23:00 today even if you only need it to be charged by tomorrow morning. The alternative is to specify a start time after 16:00 meaning that it will have the prices for tomorrow, but obviously you'll have missed the prices between now and then even if they are better.

There is an issue with arranging for the car to pre-heat from Mains power which is that you have to set a second schedule, and the car will potentially also charge at the same time so if 'leccy is expensive then means that you aren't buying at the best price.

@donald has been exploring the idiosyncrasies in his normal depth and will hopefully respond, but you can read the tribulations My oh my, my Ohme.

Ohme can't access the VW API (AFAIK there isn't one), so doesn't ever know the real SoC..

 

[Hypnoman]

Hmm, bear in mind that I don't own an Ohme.

My understanding is that you allow Ohme access to the e-Golf's API, set a departure time and a target SoC then plug it in and it does its' stuff. If for some reason it cannot read the SoC it assumes it has no charge and will attempt to provide the full requested percentage, not just the balance that is required.

Also, it can only work as far ahead as Octopus publish prices which is until 23:00, generally in the hour after 16:00 each day, so if you plug it in now it can only work on the best prices up until 23:00 today even if you only need it to be charged by tomorrow morning. The alternative is to specify a start time after 16:00 meaning that it will have the prices for tomorrow, but obviously you'll have missed the prices between now and then even if they are better.

There is an issue with arranging for the car to pre-heat from Mains power which is that you have to set a second schedule, and the car will potentially also charge at the same time so if 'leccy is expensive then means that you aren't buying at the best price.

@donald has been exploring the idiosyncrasies in his normal depth and will hopefully respond, but you can read the tribulations My oh my, my Ohme.

What does SoC and API mean... I said I needed the suggestions in layman's terms. Cheers

 

[dk6780]

SoC = State of charge - how full your battery is
API = application programming interface = a way that Ohme can access data about your car although

Ohme can't access the VW API (AFAIK there isn't one), so doesn't ever know the real SoC..

so it is meaningless. It will always aim to add the total % that you ask for.

I have developed a 'simple MO' but am charging so infrequently at the moment I've not yet fully 'road tested' it to make sure it is relatively fool proof.

I suspect most people will end up doing the same as I have started doing, just a case of fiddling away until you figure out what the 'high-maintenance' app demands from you!

Please share! Why can things not be simple "out of the box"?

 

[phproxy]

SoC = State of charge - how full your battery is
API = application programming interface = a way that Ohme can access data about your car although

so it is meaningless. It will always aim to add the total % that you ask for.



Please share! Why can things not be simple "out of the box"?

Yes. It knows the battery size (from the choice of car you select) and will add as much as you tell it to %-wise, as cheaply as possible before the time you schedule on the Ohme app.

Again, that was my experience with the GTE. I had an e-golf for a weekend and it seemed to be setup exactly the same.

Car's listed in the Ohme App to connect to are:
BMW
Jag
Nissan
Renault
Tesla

 

[Hypnoman]

Yes. It knows the battery size (from the choice of car you select) and will add as much as you tell it to %-wise, as cheaply as possible before the time you schedule on the Ohme app.

Again, that was my experience with the GTE. I had an e-golf for a weekend and it seemed to be setup exactly the same.

Car's listed in the Ohme App to connect to are:
BMW
Jag
Nissan
Renault
Tesla

Would it just be simpler to go o to Octopus Go and charge between 12.30 and 4.30? Can you still charge beyond the 4.30 if your car doesn't have enough charge?

 

[james rogerson]

With both OCTOPUS AGILE and GO you can charge whenever you want, just the price is different, with AGILE it is better to avoid 16:00 to 19:00 hrs high tariff

 

[Hypnoman]

With both OCTOPUS AGILE and GO you can charge whenever you want, just the price is different, with AGILE it is better to avoid 14:00 to 19:00 hrs high tariff

Yes but I've checked today and the cheapest rate with agile was 7.5 as opposed to Go's rate of 5p between 12.30 and 4.30 so it's hard to know which is best or cheapest

 

[Jimlad]

Personally i just went with GO for guaranteed cheap charging. I have an egolf and set it to only charge off peak. Agile is too much hassle imo. I have a "Dumb" tethered charger though.

 

[phproxy]

Go + use the in-car scheduling is the simple way of doing things imo..

 

[Hypnoman]

Go + use the in-car scheduling is the simple way of doing things imo..

Yes but on Octopus Go do you only charge for the 4 cheap hours or do you keep charging beyond that to get more charge into the battery even though you're paying more per kWh?

 

[Jimlad]

Yes but on Octopus Go do you only charge for the 4 cheap hours or do you keep charging beyond that to get more charge into the battery even though you're paying more per kWh?

WHy would you need to charge more than 4 hours? Egolf has a 7kw charger and your never going to be completely flat

 

[RichardH]

Yes. It knows the battery size (from the choice of car you select) and will add as much as you tell it to %-wise, as cheaply as possible before the time you schedule on the Ohme app.

Again, that was my experience with the GTE. I had an e-golf for a weekend and it seemed to be setup exactly the same.

Car's listed in the Ohme App to connect to are:
BMW
Jag
Nissan
Renault
Tesla

Hyundai and Kia too. Annoying they don't offer it on PSA cars, as they do have an API.

 

[RichardH]

Can't they access SoC through the control pins like on a DC charger?

 

[Hypnoman]

WHy would you need to charge more than 4 hours? Egolf has a 7kw charger and your never going to be completely flat

Fair point

 

[MrW in a VW]

Hi, I have an eGolf, an Ohme charger and I’m on Octopus Agile, so here’s my general non-expert experience.

As stated earlier, the Ohme does not know exactly how full/empty the eGolf’s battery is so it is little bit up to you to think about how much power you want to put into your car. The thing I find a little frustrating is this means you have guess a little bit because when Ohme says it will add 10miles, that will be different to what the car thinks of when it says 10miles. As they say, your mileage may vary and the Ohme is working on a fairly conservative miles/kWh ratio.

I don’t find this much of a hassle, my typical round trip commute is 50miles and I think I’m pretty economical so I just tell it to add 30-45 miles depending how cheap the rate is. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t replenish the full 50miles because there’s no danger of me running out of power mid-commute and I’d prefer the battery wasn’t charged to 100% anyway (unless I was going on a long trip).

The integration between Ohme and Octopus Agile is great and it’s easy to check out the prices and then use the Ohme app to set the max price you want to charge at. The app shows a nice graph of when it will turn on, off, on again etc through to when it hits your target. One thing I’ve noticed is that it will often start charging as soon as I plug in, so I just get the app out and reset my target straight away.

The thing to be aware of is because there is no advanced API integration you have to let the Ohme control the charge schedule. Trying to use the car’s schedule as well is a minefield because the car basically just backtimes charging from the time set whereas the Ohme is trying to do multiple charging stints at “optimum times”. This can mean the golf won’t accept charging when the Ohme is trying to give, and vice versa.

That’s a fairly lengthy over-explanation but I hope it helps.

 

[dk6780]

Can't they access SoC through the control pins like on a DC charger?

No, there's no standard for that in AC charging.

 

[RichardH]

No, there's no standard for that in AC charging.

Hopefully one day.

I emailed Ohme today and asked about them adding PSA API access in the future, and they said they're working on it, so hopefully more cars will get better use soon.