Not complaining. Asked if I was missing anything.
More asking if the intelligent deal has any hidden catch? Like it can fluctuate in price.
They told me the go was the best deal. I’ve no idea what the intelligent option entails as they are shut today…
I’ve never known go not the be the cheapest…
You have to have a car or charger that works with it.
OK
Both Go and Intelligent can fluctuate now. There rates are no longer fixed for 12 months. They can give 30 days notice of a change. There’s no penalty for moving off either tariff.
Essentially you let Octopus control the charge times. I’ll post the FAQ I wrote for the Tesla forums in a sec…
Intelligent FAQ (wrote this because the same questions and misconceptions about the tariff kept coming up over and over again)
Why write this post?
A lot of people are starting to get interested in IO. I don’t think Octopus do a very good job of spelling out the benefits in their website. They have some FAQs, but the same questions keep coming up over and over on the forums.
What is it?
In a nutshell, IO is a split tariff that gives you a cheap off-peak rate for charging your EV and other electrical items in the household, including home batteries.
Isn’t that the same as Octopus Go or Go Faster?
The principle is the same, but in exchange for some benefits which we’ll explain, you allow Octopus to control the timing of your EV charge, so they can choose low carbon intensity and/or cheap wholesale priced time slots.
So I’m not in control of my charge? I don’t like the sound of that!
Well yes…and no. You’re in control of how much to charge and when you want the car to be ready, just like you would be normally. Within those parameters, you’re allowing Octopus to control which half-hour slots the car chooses to get to that target % charge. And you can always override IO if you want to “bump charge” through the day.
OK, but what are the benefits you mentioned for this trade off?
First of all, you get a larger guaranteed off-peak window for using household appliances and charging home batteries, etc. It’s six hours between 23:30-05:30. Go, for example, is a fixed 4 hour window.
In addition , when IO schedules your EV charging slots it sometimes creates schedules that fall outside of the fixed, six hour window. If that happens your EV charging and all your household use in these extra-slots is also charged at off-peak rates.
I have frequently had schedules give me seven or more hours of off-peak rates. On one occasion, I had a total of ten hours of off-peak rates.
Am I eligible?
You need a smart meter and a compatible car and/or charger. Since you’re reading this here, I assume you’ve got or are thinking of getting a Tesla. IO works with the Tesla API to create the charging schedules. The advantage of this is that IO will work with any* home charger. If you have a charger with smart features, you need to disable them so that the charger acts as a dumb switch. IO will control everything via Tesla’s API to start and stop your charging.
*Even your granny charger - but you need to tell IO what the max throughput is when you go through setup so that it can work out your schedules properly.
Some of this sounds too good to be true.
Phantom drain caused by having smart charging enabled in the Octopus app has been fixed as of 30th August 2022. One small side effect appears to be that schedules sometimes take longer to appear in the app after plugging in.
Thanks. That’s more like it.
You still confuse the complaining bit. I may complain to them for not telling me about intelligent rates, but the ask here was for the info! They flipped my rates today and it seems there’s a better option.
That helps. It seems it’s a no brainer for me to swap.
Ah well, a couple of things there.
Yep, I love it. A tiny bit more faff but the benefits far outweigh Go.
I think I may have discovered part of the reason for our huge lecky costs.
I haven’t really looked or thought about the hot-tub since we moved in except to notice that it had a power light on. A few days after we got here, we (Ann and I) tried to lift the cover, but we failed because Ann didn’t have the strength to get her side up - it’s massive - deffo a two person job! We had so much unpacking to get on with, so I pretty much forgot about it.
Today Flo and I managed to get the cover lifted and found underneath probably the biggest jakuzzi I’ve ever seen, and it was full of warm water, ready to go.
We’ve had plenty of hot-tubs with holiday accommodation over the years, but none anywhere near as big as this one - it’s fecking huge!
I’ve looked on-line and the advice is not to switch off the power when not in use, because the water can stagnate quite quickly. They can be “winterised” but this is quite an elaborate process of emptying, flushing and cleaning.
Chris knows how much juice it drank during the cold snap 
Can you turn it into a listening room?
…no, a garage maybe 
Bring your budgie smugglers to the bake off lads! 
Turn it down to lowest temp setting and if the lid isn’t great add some insulation on top.
Chlorine it weekly at least.
Everybody loves a sexpond 
Bake off - every one jumps in - hot tub empty.
Water and power off
Done.
Had the sex-pond cleaned, emptied and switched off today. Pool guy said at that size, it would be costing about £150-£180 per month, more during a cold snap
We shall see how much it reduces the overall energy bill.
Also received the first quotation for a solar/battery installation. PerLight Delta monocrystalline panels and a GivEnergy battery.
New boiler coming tomorrow. Going to be strange going back to functioning radiators & the means to dry washing when it’s damp outside.
About 7 days ago I recieved my first FIT payment from SSE/OVO, covering from the purchase date of our new house (31/1/22) until middle of December approx. 10.5 months. It was for £677.06.
The house has been unoccupied so we haven’t used much of the electiricty generated this year. It’s a 4kw array.
I thought FIT was based on a deemed export of calculation of 50% of your production, regardless of your use. So if you have FIT then maximise self-use as you get the same payment anyway.
Not sure if that’s correct as I joined well after that scheme was scrapped.
Yup. That’s it. I will consdier a battery / Meenergy Eddi in due course.
Yep, unless you have an export meter.
The Octopus app has a switch for your phone’s torch on the screen where you input meter readings. Quite clever.