Hi all,

Just got my car and am quite confused about charging. I'm using Intelligent Octopus so have a discounted rate between 11.30pm and 5.30am - so naturally i want to charge the car during this period.

Everything seems setup in my Octopus app and it is showing me my "Smart charging schedule" to get to 80%.

My Ohme Home Pro is set, as requested, the charging schedule is set with no price cap.

My car is set to "Charge Immediately" and not exceed 80% - i believe that if everything is working, the charging functionality of the car itself is not required, it should all be handled by Ohme and Octopus ?

But nothing happened overnight, no charging at all.

Just wondered what other people's settings were in this scenario and how they have got it working ?

It feels like, overall (not sure what it's like with other manufacturers) that this is all overcomplicated. I can now charge 3 ways, using the Ohme, using Octopus, or using the car and none of them have a setting that says "charge my car only in-between these times".

 

I have an Ohme pro charger, there’s issue with their software talking g to the car at the minute,they’ve put me on a beta programme whilst they sort it. You can set a time slot in the bmw app under charge settings as below, I just then leave my charger set to charge immediately and the car controls everything

 

OK, so i'm not sure if you're also with Intelligent Octopus but if you are, what you've done you are missing out on the extra charge slots they offer at their discounted rate.

I think you also have to set a departure time the way you're doing it and there's a whole post on here how it will always charge outside of your selected timeslot in order to ensure your departure time percentage is met.

All the posts i've seen are about removing your car's charging features from this equation and letting the Octopus "control" the Ohme charging.

I've actually just gone and plugged my car in again and selected "change car" on the Ohme app - it now seems to be recognising the car "better", it didn't have this before :

I think my issue is that the Ohme app isn't recognizing that i'm on the Intelligent Octopus tariff - it just says "find out more" when i try and choose that tariff - at no point have i had to add my Ohme login details into the Octopus app, or vice versa....

 

OK, so i'm not sure if you're also with Intelligent Octopus but if you do what you've done you are missing out on the extra charge slots they offer at their discounted rate.

I've actually just gone and plugged my car in again and selected "change car" on the Ohme app - it now seems to be recognising the car "better", it didn't have this before :
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I think my issue is that the Ohme app isn't recognizing that i'm on the Intelligent Octopus tariff - it just says "find out more" when i try and choose that tariff - at no point have i had to add my Ohme login details into the Octopus app, or vice versa....

sorry should of said, I’m not with Octopus, potentially looking to move across to them. Probably worth an online chat with them as it does seem an integration issue and from memory when I was looking at Octopus they list the Ohme charger as compatible with their tariffs

 

I’m lost tbh! So you can either link Octopus directly to your car - in which case it gives you ‘charging slots’ which are normally between 23.30 - 05.30, but might be outside this but you still get charged 10p. Or you can link Octopus with your Ohme charger. But doing this doesn’t give you any ‘charging slots’ and it seems to just push all control to the Ohme app - you can’t do/set anything in the Octopus app. So I’ve no idea which one is better to use!

 

Definitely worth a chat with Octopus I reckon

 

So I have a Ohme pro, new e40 and just started the process to move to octopus..

its funny as when the car arrived I’m 100% sure I set the Ohme pro to only charge the car between 00:00 and 05:00 for the off peaktimes .. and the bmw would say ‘delayed start charging’ until it hit this time.. now I can’t find that option (only on the bmw) and it seems the Ohme has a problem communicating with the car sometimes 🤷 driving me crazy .. I’m supposedly getting 5000miles free charging with the car via octopus 🐙 but god knows how that’s going to be calculated 🤷..
aww well I’m not alone 👍👍

 

As I mentioned above, you need to move to the Ohme beta app whilst they sort the software issue. I messaged them and they sent me the details to download 👍

 

It’s a really odd setup tbh, so complicated.

Tried speaking to Octopus but getting through to someone knowledgeable is a different story.

It feels like the best way is to bypass the Ohme app - you give that one charge slot and disable the peak rate cap. You then link the Octopus app/tariff to your car. This then gives you timing slots as to when it will charge your car, these may be between 11.30pm-5.30am, but they may be outside, all slots are charged at 10p.

If you connect the Octopus app/tariff with your Ohme charger, you don’t see any of these slots, so I’ve no idea when (outside of the 11.30-5.30 time) I can benefit from cheaper rates!

 

They shouldn’t make it so complicated. Sounds like bypassing the Ohme app is your best option if that allows you to set a specific time slot 👍

 

I’ve got an i4, a Wallbox charger and am on Intelligent Octopus. First night I used it it worked perfectly but since then, Octopus is not communicating properly through the BMW app. I’ve reported it but have just shifted my charging schedule from 11:30-5:30 on the Wallbox app. Hoping they sort it soon but at least am not now paying peak rate to charge.

 

This is the thing….on the Ohme charger there is no way you can just say ‘start at time x and finish at time y and try to get to percentage z’ - which I just don’t understand, it would make it so much easier.

 

I have been through to hell and back on this having moved to intelligent octopus with my Kia e-Niro. I pick up my i4 tomorrow and have been talking to Ohme about switching between cars. All doable but a little more clunky than ideal but will be testing it later this week.

Axum reach out to Ohme directly - I posted to Octopus weeks ago and no luck at all, dreadful but reached to Ohme and they were a life saver. Email help@ohme-ev.com
Regards,
C.

 

Thanks for the tip…as you’ll have the exact same setup as me, and presumably want to achieve exactly the same thing, can you let me know what your setup is if/when you get it working ?

They (Ohme) gave me this link, which is handy, but what it doesn’t critically tell you is how to setup the Ohme part properly!!Octopus IO + Ohme Phase 1 Integration

 

Thanks for the tip…as you’ll have the exact same setup as me, and presumably want to achieve exactly the same thing, can you let me know what your setup is if/when you get it working ?

Sure no problem. I should be attempting charge next week or early week after. I am good at remembering stuff and following through but do feel free to nudge me.

 

My i4 won't let Intelligent Octopus connect so I can't get on the tariff. I have done everything asked but the test signal keeps failing. Has anyone else had any problems with the test signal?

 

Did you resolve this? I'm having the same problem. It's infuriating!

 

How often are you going to charge your car do you think ?

I'd consider not bothering and going onto their Tracker tariff, it works out cheaper for me in the long run and have moved from Intelligent.

In response to your actual question though - I had a similar issue, just try, try, try again is all i can see - it took probably at least 10-15 attempts for mine to connect, the app etc is flaky as hell....when it finally worked it actually threw an error saying it had failed but then magically it updated successfully.

 

OK. Thanks. I was going to use it until the summer. My house is Air Source Heat Pump heating, so I can really use the cheap rate in the colder months. You are not fixed to the tariff so I will switch between the two.

 

help@ohme-ev.com send ohme an email direct. My i4 works fine with the app and the ohme charger.

I typically deal with a chap called Joshua and be is really helpful.

 

I don’t think it’s the Ohme charger that’s the issue it’s the flaky Octopus app perhaps ? I say that because you integrate with Octopus, not the Ohme charger, via your BMW credentials.

Btw, you can’t chop and change from the tracker to Intelligent as there’s now a waiting list to get on the tracker…but considering your heating source, Intelligent might make more sense. Should be an easy price comparison by just looking at your usage.

 

Axum, you need to use the Ohme app not the Octopus app. Select you i4 and set up a charging schedule. You don’t touch anything Octopus side at all. It was very confusing when I shifted, initially using my Kia but Joshua helped me through that. Octopus were very unhelpful as they offered no help at all.

 

That’s one way of doing it yes, but if you have Intelligent Octopus then if you do it that way you have NO idea when the extra slots are they give you at the same 10p/kWh.

When you finally integrate with the Octopus app, it sets the charging plan. If you do this after 5pm it’ll set the plan and most likely give you extra slots outside of the standard times.

To make the most out of IO, the Ohme charger should be set to ‘dumb’ mode, no cap, no schedules, nothing.

 

I have intelligent octopus about 10p off peak. I have no requirement to book slots. If you are on the same package then just talk to Ohme.

 

That's my understanding to, I can't see anything about a requirement to let the Octopus control the charging - it's only need for the setup allowing you get on Octupus intelligent tariff..

Although I have a Hypervolt charger it was a bit of a faf with Octopus controlling (or scheduling) the charging... So in the Octopus app, I've turned the scheduling off and now I'm letting the car control the charging with the "Charge in slot" feature.. It as it should

 

As I said, you can do…no need to talk to anyone, just integrate the Ohme with your Octopus account.

I’ve done both and made full use of some of the extra slots you get via the Octopus-to-car integration.

Each to their own….but I’ve stopped using both and moved to the tracker as that was cheaper all-round for me. 6p for gas and 25p for electric all day long was too good to resist!

 

has anyone tried to set up the Octopus Energy intelligent tariff? I have a Project EV charger. I though that I had completed the set up but last night the flipping thing didnt charge. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I have been on the intelligent Octopus tariff since getting my car 3 weeks ago. On the whole it is good even though it was a bit of a pain getting it set up and transferred from the regular tariff to the intelligent one.

When things are running correctly when connecting the charge cable the car either charges for a minute then is stopped by octopus or doesn't charge at all until the allotted charge time slot set by octopus. However last night the car was charging for an hour outside the charging schedule set by octopus before I realised it hadn't stopped as I was busy watching football. I tried several times to stop the charging via the BMW app and in the end had to physically stop the charging on my Zappi charger and had to start it manually once the time for the charging slot arrived. Are there any settings I can change in the car to stop this happening again as I am effectively paying more to charge the car outside of the scheduled charging slot than I would on a standard tariff. I've tried looking on the Octopus website for help but its either not there or difficult to find.

 

My suspicion would fall on the Octopus App. I’ve heard that it makes schedule settings in the car in order to avoid it conflicting with the settings it makes - perhaps something fails along the way. I’ve not had great success with it using Intelligent Octopus - car always starts charging immediately and the app doesn’t set up a schedule to prevent it. How long it takes to do so, I don’t know but I give it a minute then pull the plug. I’ve suspended the smart charging feature on the app and now just have my PodPoint set to charge between 23:30 and 05:30.

I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think MyBMW app can do what you think it is. Be interesting to see feedback when you delete it though

Incidentally, if it is setting schedule outside the 23:30-05:30 window, aren’t you paying peak rate prices? Maybe needs must if you have to go from 30% to 85% though.

 

When charging outside of the 23.30 to 05.30 window you only pay the low rate per kWh if IO have mapped your charging, so last night I got cheap electricity from 20.00 until 06.30 but the car only charged for a couple of hours at the start. Ill try again tonight now I have deleted the BMW app.

 

Intelligent Octopus is a beta product and can go wrong, have you checked with them? Any time you let a third party have control, integration issues can crop up. BMW don’t design their product to work with IO, IO have to design their product to integrate with BMW.

I’ve seen other reports of it not playing nicely with BMW as it tells the car when to charge (or not). I know it’s possibly more expensive, but have you tried charging without IO having ‘control’?

 

FWIW I highly recommend getting an Ohme Go charging cable (or the Ohme Home charger if you haven’t got a hole charger yet) for use with Intelligent Octopus. You can get the Ohme cable for £199 if you’re an Octopus customer. It works really well and interfaces perfectly with IO. The Ohme gets the cheap times from Octopus and turns itself on and off at the appropriate times, bypassing the Octopus app completely.

Edit: the Ohme also can log on to the car’s account to control the maximum SOC as well.

 

So... because you've chosen to use an unsupported third-party product, the original app, which works perfectly fine without said third-party product, is a bad app?

I follow the logic, but not the conclusion.

 

So... because you've chosen to use an unsupported third-party product, the original app, which works perfectly fine without said third-party product, is a bad app?

I follow the logic, but not the conclusion.

Was that for me? Because that’s not what I said at all.

 

Well I have finally had enough of the BMW APP. It rarely works and when it does its not that useful or even needed. For the last 2 weeks it has caused me nothing but trouble when charging overnight. Last night (Friday) I plugged in at 20.00 into charge from 30% to 85% and all was well to begin with, Intelligent octopus mapped a charging plan for me from 8.00pm to 06.30am and the car started to charge. Thinking all was well I went to bed and when I woke up at 5.45 the car had stopped charging hours ago (approx. 22.00) and was only charged to 48% because the BMW app had created a charging time slot and departure time randomly which I had not set. I had the car and the app set to charge immediately but the app decided to do a 1 hour charging slot starting at 19.21 almost 24 hours after it started charging and set a departure time of 21.21 on Thursday so 6 days later. I have now deleted the app and will monitor what charging is like without it. How can a company build such great cars yet produce such crap apps etc?

I have been using the app for 2 years, firstly with my BMW i3 and now with my BMW i4 and have had minimal issues in that time. I have Octopus as my energy provider (not Intelligent) and I always use the app to manage my charges and time slots. I am sorry you are having issues, but your thread is out of step with my experience and frankly the title is insulting to BMW.
I hope you get a resolution to your charging issues