[legacy] Optimising your charge

All Ohme chargers are smart chargers. Smart charging refers to a charging system that optimises charging through data connections. Our smart chargers communicate with your car, our servers, and the National Grid to optimise your charging and maximise your savings.

Please note, Ohme requires a strong 3G/4G mobile phone signal to work as a smart charger. You’ll still be able to use your charger without mobile signal, but you won’t be able to benefit from Ohme’s smart charging capabilities.

• How do I save money?
• How do I use greener energy?
• How do I look after my battery?
• What if I just need to charge now?

How do I save money?

The best way to save money is to choose an electricity tariff with periods of cheaper electricity throughout the day or night. There are plenty of options out there, so do have a look at what your current provider has available or consider switching to a new provider to run your EV for as little as possible.

With a time-of-use tariff, electricity prices are lower at certain times of the day when fewer people are using electricity. This encourages customers to use electricity at off-peak times, helping to balance the electricity grid. These cheaper periods are typically overnight, making these tariffs popular with EV drivers who charge their cars while they sleep.

A type-of-use tariff offers electricity for lower prices when it’s used for certain purposes, like charging an EV. Type-of-use tariffs are popular with EV drivers as they allow them to top up at cheaper rates, any time of day or night.

The Ohme app uses your tariff information to work out the cheapest times for you to charge. Ohme can help you to save money in two slightly different ways:

Enabling a Price Cap

Enabling a Price Cap in the Ohme app limits your charging to a certain price. This means that your car will only start charging when the price drops below a certain price, and it will stop charging as soon as the price increases.

If you are on a tariff like Octopus Go, and you pay 7.5p per kWh between 00:30-04:30, you could set a Price Cap of 7.5p. This would mean that Ohme would only start charging at 00:30 and will stop charging at 04:30.

It’s important to note that limiting your charging with a Price Cap may result in you not achieving your charge target if there isn’t enough time to charge to your desired amount.

My Charger

You can enable a Price Cap by heading to the ‘My Charger’ section of the Ohme app and tapping on Price Cap.

Price Cap

Slide the toggle to the right to enable the Price Cap, and to the left to disable it.

Enable the Save Money setting

In the ‘My Charger’ section of the Ohme app, you’ll find Charge Schedules which houses three Charge Preferences; Save Money, Optimise for Battery Life, and Favour Green Energy. With ‘Save Money’ enabled, Ohme will use your selected tariff to charge as much as possible at the cheapest rates, but will charge outside of this if necessary to achieve your charge target.

My Charger

Navigate to the My Charger section of the Ohme app and tap Charge Schedules.

Charge Schedules

If you tap on the settings icon in the top right of the Charge Schedules screen, you’ll find your Charge Preferences.

Charge Preferences

These will be enabled by default when you create your Ohme app account, but you can disable/enable them by tapping the toggle.

How do I use the greenest energy?

The Ohme server communicates with the electricity grid which allows you to charge when carbon intensity is at its lowest. Just make sure you enable the ‘Favour Green Energy’ feature in your Charge Preferences.

The Ohme charger can adjust energy intake according to peaks and lows in electricity demand. When the sun is shining or the wind is blowing and lots of renewable energy is being generated, Ohme can start charging to fill up your car with that excess energy that can’t otherwise be stored on the grid. When lots of households and businesses are using electricity at the same time, Ohme can stop charging so that fossil fuel generators don’t need to be fired up to keep up with demand.

How do I look after my battery?

EV batteries are still pretty expensive, so you’ll want to make sure you take good care of your battery so that you can get the most out of it. Here are some of our top tips:

Don’t overcharge – Most manufacturers recommend that you let your battery run down to around 20% and charge up to 80% where possible. Keeping the battery within this range helps to maintain the battery for longer. You’ll rarely need to use the full range of your EV in your day-to-day driving anyway, so topping up to 80% should be sufficient. Worried about running out of charge? Find out more about range anxiety and how to beat it here.

Minimise rapid charging – Rapid chargers are really convenient when you’re out and about and need to top up quickly, but over time they can degrade your battery much faster than an AC home charger. Try to do the majority of your charging at home to keep your battery in good shape.

Use Ohme’s Optimise for Battery Life feature – If you’ve already downloaded the Ohme app, you might have noticed we have a battery optimisation feature. When enabled, this allows Ohme to charge at a slower rate (if there is plenty of time to achieve your target), and delay charging towards the end of your charge session so that the battery is sitting at a higher percentage for less time.

What if I just need to charge now?

If you simply need to plug in and charge right away, you can do so my switching to Max Charge. Max Charge temporarily disables all of Ohme’s smart features and charges your EV as quickly as possible until it is full (or you un-plug). To enable Max Charge, first you’ll need to plug in your EV. Then, click Change Target on the Dashboard of the Ohme app and slide the toggle next to ‘Switch to Max Charge’. You’ll be prompted to confirm your choice and then you’ll notice the Ohme dashboard switches from blue to red.