Old Chestnut, Charging Challenges

[DumfriesDik]

So what's going on then?

I would like to charge to 90% tonight using IOG. How hard can it be?!

I have changed the Octopus App to charge to 90%, I have gone out to the car, changed the charge limit to 90%, opened the Skoda App and tried to change the charge to 90% there and remove battery care.

It's all a big fat fail.

The car is now merrily charging at full price. Octopus thinks the car isn't plugged in. And the Skoda app has left the max charge at 80%.

So annoying, it really shouldn't be this hard to get the charge you would like. Grrrr.

Your starter for 10. Is it me or is there a wider VAG problem?

[DumfriesDik]

Car managed to connect and only 13kWh went in at full price, a tad annoying.

[Goaty]

To keep things simple and reliable, I tend to have my PodPoint set on a schedule to only deliver a charge from 12:30 am to 5:30 am (i.e. during my cheap rate). I can plug the car in at any time of the day, and it'll only start charging at 12:30 am. This worked flawlessly when I had an Enyaq, and again now I have a different EV.

[Dorsetandy]

I recall reading in earlier posts that later VAG cars are unable to communicate with IOG, although I’m not sure if this is still the case. If it is you need an Octopus approved charger which becomes the “intelligent” bit of the process, allowing multiple EVs to be charged on IOG. I don’t have such a charger, but I’m on my second Tesla which connects to IOG - when I want to charge my Enyaq I simply turn on the time schedule (11:30 to 05:30) for 6 hours charging. If I was starting today I would ensure I had an Octopus compatible charger to future proof my charging.

You don’t say what charger you have or whether you have tried connecting this first to IOG, if compatible.

[DumfriesDik]

It is an Ohme home pro. It usually works fine.

@Goaty the trouble with setting a fixed charge time is that IOG wouldn't work (I think). Octopus need to control the charging. I often have charge times outwith the six hours they advertise.

[CrowSysE243]

The Ts&Cs for IOG require periodic charging under Octopus control, but it does not have to be every time you charge, so you could turn off smart charging and use the timer to restrict the charging period for most charging, accepting that you will not get the benefit of additional off peak periods.

Assuming that you have successfully set up and are using the Enyaq integration with IOG, rather than just relying on an Ohme integration, the problem is likely to be due to communications between the car and the Skoda servers. Although the top level device display in the Octopus app shows that the car is not plugged in, at the next level down on my app it shows "Not plugged in at home". Neither of these change if the car is plugged in away from home. Octopus will report the car as not being plugged in at the top level, and not plugged in at home at the lower level, and will not interrupt charging and generate a charging plan if the car position is not available or incorrectly shows the location as not being at home. I have seen a few times. Each time it has been down to the car not communicating with the server for a period, either because of a server problem or because of a battery protection limit problem. If the car has been moved while there is a server problem then the indicated position can be that from the time before the server went down. It is worth checking that the car position is available and correct as shown in the MySkoda app. I have seen it shown as being parked 3 miles away from home! Provided that the server is now OK, I have resolved the problem by starting the car up for a few seconds and then switching off again.

To avoid a long period of peak rate charging before Octopus detects that the car is plugged in at home, I always leave the car door open while I plug in and then reach in and stop the charge on the infotainment screen. If I do not get a charging plan generated within 30 minutes then I will investigate further. I leave the car set to charge to 100%, including in all the charging locations and rely on Octopus to limit the %age. Although I do get a few messages that Octopus has been unable to control my device, these are infrequent and they have never resulted in a failed charge since I adopted this practice, although the final state of charge may be 1% over.

If there is a charging location limit set, the MySkoda app may not show the limit that is being applied in the car.

[Martin26]

If you are using Ohme Home Pro and IOG, use the Ohme to schedule your charges not IOG. If you use the Ohme "routines" you'll benefit from smart charging and get the 7p/kWh rate regardless of the hours the car actually charges.. No need to worry about starting/stopping at specific times, Ohme working with IOG works it all out for you.

Only thing to be aware of is that you won't be able to charge to a % amount, you' have to set the Ohme to ADD a certain %. So if you your goal is 90% and you're currently at 30% you need to set Ohme to add 60%.

You won't ever need to use the IOG app.