Help required re charging at home please

[stevem]

We recently bought a 2021 Skoda Enyaq iV 60 and are having trouble charging it beyond 80%. We think this might be because there are three different apps involved in controlling the charging process. We're looking for advice from someone with a similar setup.

Our current situation:

• The car's Battery Care mode is on, which normally limits charging to 80%.
  In the Skoda app, we've set the charge limit to 100%.
  Our energy supplier is Octopus, using their Intelligent Go Tariff.
  We have a Hypervolt 3 Pro charger.
  The Octopus app shows a charge target of 80% for our car, which we've now changed to 100% for testing.

We're unsure if we need to change settings in both the Skoda and Octopus apps to achieve a 100% charge. We'd appreciate advice on how to set up the apps so that:
Normal charges go to 80%
We can easily set it to charge to 100% via the skoda app when needed

If anyone has a similar setup and has successfully managed this, please share your app configurations and any tips you might have.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

[CrowSysE243]

If you have a home charging location set for the car then its charging limit will over-ride the normal charging limit set in the car but I find that it does not show up in the main battery charging display (obtained by selecting the battery range button on the car home screen in the app). You should be able to check the limit that the car is going to apply by looking at the information displayed on the infotainment display when leaving the car. If you are aiming for the car limit to be 100% with no car schedule so that the charging is controlled by Octopus then it should say "Charge immediately to 100%".
I normally have the car set to charge to charge to 100% by default and have the limit for the home location set to 100% and then control the amount of charge using the settings in the Octopus app. You can set the charge location limit on the infotainment system, charging screen, or in the app on the "home" Charging location screen in the charging settings below the preferred charging times

In order to minimise peak rate charging when plugging the cable in, I normally stop charging manually on the infotainment screen rather than waiting for Octopus to detect that the car has been connected and stopping charging. Typically this results in peak rate electricity cost <0.1p. You can check and adjust the charging limit applied by the car on this screen at the same time, if it is lower than you want. Octopus will not be able to charge the car to a higher state of charge than this screen shows.

[Martin26]

To charge beyond 80% you need to switch Battery Care mode off. (Wasn't completely sure from your description whether or not you had done that).

[stevem]

To charge beyond 80% you need to switch Battery Care mode off. (Wasn't completely sure from your description whether or not you had done that).

Thanks, I thought the idea of the "Battery care mode" was that when turned on it limited charge to 80% by default unless instructed otherwise as and when required for a single charge and after that it returned to the normal 80% default. As such it is something that could/should be left turned on.

[stevem]

If you have a home charging location set for the car then its charging limit will over-ride the normal charging limit set in the car but I find that it does not show up in the main battery charging display (obtained by selecting the battery range button on the car home screen in the app). You should be able to check the limit that the car is going to apply by looking at the information displayed on the infotainment display when leaving the car. If you are aiming for the car limit to be 100% with no car schedule so that the charging is controlled by Octopus then it should say "Charge immediately to 100%".
I normally have the car set to charge to charge to 100% by default and have the limit for the home location set to 100% and then control the amount of charge using the settings in the Octopus app. You can set the charge location limit on the infotainment system, charging screen, or in the app on the "home" Charging location screen in the charging settings below the preferred charging times

In order to minimise peak rate charging when plugging the cable in, I normally stop charging manually on the infotainment screen rather than waiting for Octopus to detect that the car has been connected and stopping charging. Typically this results in peak rate electricity cost <0.1p. You can check and adjust the charging limit applied by the car on this screen at the same time, if it is lower than you want. Octopus will not be able to charge the car to a higher state of charge than this screen shows.

Thanks for that, after doing some digging again last night I have now found the "Device" listed in the Octopus app which allows me to set the time I want the car and how much charge I need which all seems pretty straight forward. I think the issue has been that Octopus are setting an appropriate charge start time to suit the grid and demand whereas within the hypervolt app I have set it to start at 11:30pm - 5:30am and have expected it to start charging at 11:30 which it wasn't doing, possibly due to octopus delaying the start time.

My thinking now is, as you are doing, simply rely on octopus to charge the car as and when it wants to and simply keep it to 80% in the octopus app and change it as required for long journeys.

I am assuming that I then need to stop "scheduled charging" on the Hypervolt app and simply have that set to charge as soon as the car is plugged in and either allow octopus to detect the plugin and stop the charge or manually stop the charge on the Skoda App. Basically making two out of three of the intelligent devices "dumb" and allow both to be controlled by octopus. Do I need to add the hypervolt charger as a device in the octopus app as well as the car?

Thanks for your help.

[stevem]

Thanks for all the help, I think we have now got this sorted, it is possible that we added the car into the octopus app before we had the charger fitted, as such the "device" was listed as the car and not the charger, have removed the car from the app and re-added it and this time we were given the ability to add the charger at the same time. Now we have the Octopus element showing in the hypervolt app. According to Octopus, all we need to do is plug the car in each day and everything will be taken care of automatically. Fingers crosssed.

Thanks again for the help provided.

[CrowSysE243]

Thanks, I thought the idea of the "Battery care mode" was that when turned on it limited charge to 80% by default unless instructed otherwise as and when required for a single charge and after that it returned to the normal 80% default. As such it is something that could/should be left turned on.
[/quote]

That's how it works on my car, however I have found that turning the limit up in the app is not reliable. I adjust it on the infotainment charging screen before charging and that has worked every time. I now only set battery care mode on when going away, and leave the car set to 100% all the time when I am at home so there is one less thing to do when I want Octopus to charge above 80%.

I think the issue has been that Octopus are setting an appropriate charge start time to suit the grid and demand whereas within the hypervolt app I have set it to start at 11:30pm - 5:30am and have expected it to start charging at 11:30 which it wasn't doing, possibly due to octopus delaying the start time.

Setting a time schedule on the charger or the car will cause problems. Even when the charging required will fit easily within the standard off peak 6 hours Octopus will schedule slots outside this period if it appears better use of available grid capacity, leaving unused time within the standared hours. If there is a schedule in the charger then the car may not lock the cable and can appear to Octopus not to be plugged in until the start of the charger schedule. If your "ready time" is set to be after 05:30 then Octopus is likely to plan to charge after the charger schedule has finished so the required charging cannot be achieved because the charger prevents it. There should only be a single active charging schedule and that should be set by Octopus if you are using Intelligent Octopus Go Smart Charging, This has the advantage that any Octopus sheduled charging outside the standard 23:30 to 95:30 period will result in any domestic usage being at the off peak rate! With an 80/85 it takes about 6 hours to add 50% charge so any time you need more than this you will definitely get some additional low rate charging.

I think we have now got this sorted, it is possible that we added the car into the octopus app before we had the charger fitted, as such the "device" was listed as the car and not the charger, have removed the car from the app and re-added it and this time we were given the ability to add the charger at the same time. Now we have the Octopus element showing in the hypervolt app. According to Octopus, all we need to do is plug the car in each day and everything will be taken care of automatically. Fingers crossed.

Giving Octopus control of the charger and making sure that you only use the Octopus schedule, or using an incompatible charger, like mine, with no schedule set in it, and relying on the Octopus schedule should work well. If you do want to charge above 80% at any time and you normally have battery protection mode active, it is worth checking that the car has actually changed the limit, rather than just relying on what is displayed in the app. Any active limitations set in the car cannot be over-riden by Octopus (at least if the car functions are working properly - there is at least one thread where it is reported that Octopus has charged above the limit set in the car, however I cannot reproduce that behaviour).

[Aragorn]

Octopus or Hypervolt cannot override the car. If the car is set to 80%, eg by battery care mode, then 80% is all your going to get. Personally i leave battery care off, and just adjust the desired charge level as required.

In winter i leave the car set to 100%, and set 90% in octopus.
In summer i usually drop octopus to 80% or 85%

[Guitar George]

The issue with the octopus schedule and charging to 100% is that there will normally be gaps in the schedule. You can set the charging limit to 100% in the car to override the battery protection limit for a single charge, but that will reset after the first charging block.
So this is what happens:
Battery protection set on
Car limit set to 100%
Octopus schedule set up with three blocks of charging, each with a half hour gap between them.
After the first charging block, the car sees that it has charged and because the battery protection is set on, it resets the limit to 80%
The following two charging blocks will then see a limit of 80%