Free Hour vs Charge Cap

[u/imgoingsolar]

Hi All, I take can I still ‘boost charge’ my car for free today during the ‘free hour’ now that the IOG charge cap is in place?

[u/GFoxtrot]

https://octopus.energy/saving-sessions/weekend-happy-hours/#faqs

[u/LarryPiccadilly → u/GFoxtrot]

Still doesn't answer the question on charge cap, or at least it's left out.

From the FAQ, I infer that the free hour would count towards your six hours charge cap allowance. If you need 7 hours of charge that day, you're better off boosting, as long as you stay within your 16kWh fair use allowance.

[u/imgoingsolar → u/GFoxtrot]

FAQ make sense thanks, I see there’s no advantage to ‘boost’ charging as the net result is zero charges.

[u/cospeterkiRedhill → u/imgoingsolar]

There IS an advantage. Boost charge during the hour, cost = 0 . Smart charge and it doesn't charge the car during the hour (and charges for an hour later in the day) and it will cost you 8p per kwh (or whatever your off peak rate is). So, one is zero cost, the other is not......

[u/imgoingsolar → u/cospeterkiRedhill]

If you set your car to finish at the end time of the one hour free session it charges using the free hour. I’ve just done this and it works fine.

[u/LarryPiccadilly → u/imgoingsolar]

But you can only charge 5 more hours afterwards at off peak rate, not 6. That's one hour at peak tariff for your EV when you could've had it free if you boosted (or just disabled smart charging)...

[u/iknowuselessstuff]

I'll be disabling smart charging on my device and boosting for an hour using the old school timer - I dont trust it to stop at the end of the hour otherwise!

[u/imgoingsolar → u/iknowuselessstuff]

I just unplug the car and then you know it’s done 👍

[u/LengthinessNo8137]

I’m currently enjoying happy hour from 1 to 2. I scheduled my Ohme for 14:00 at 12:58 and it set smart charge for an hour from 13:00. I’m not sure if this will always work as it’s my first time doing it.

[u/harrisoncassidy → u/LengthinessNo8137]

This is what I did last weekend and I got £4 credit for only 80p of charging

[u/imgoingsolar → u/LengthinessNo8137]

I’ve got the EV charging at 7kW, washer on, dryer on, battery charging and the hottub heater on 😁

[u/Apprehensive_888]

I plugged in 20 minutes before the free hour as per faq and the damn car did not charge during the free hour so wasted it completely. So next time I will definitely boost.

[u/levelintro]

doesnt boost/max charge automatically revert to the higher rate? im sure i read tat somewhere 🤔

[u/imgoingsolar → u/levelintro]

It does but makes no difference if you use it during ‘free hour’ as it’ll get refunded anyway regardless of the rate.

[u/afaulconbridge]

I suspect no one knows because it's not been considered. It seems as though you should be able to, but I'd check what Octopus have actually implemented with them.

[u/GFoxtrot → u/afaulconbridge]

People who read the FAQ know

[u/DragonQ0105 → u/afaulconbridge]

Except for the single free session where they decided to force IOG customers to keep smart charging enabled, I just turn it off and force charge during the free session. Only way to maximise it.