How do I charge with Intelligent Octopus Go?

Once you’ve completed setup, the next time you open the Ohme app you’ll see your tariff has updated to Intelligent Octopus Go automatically. You’ll then get off-peak rates for dynamic charging within your 6 hours of super cheap smart charging each day, whether that falls inside the 23:30–05:30 window, outside it, or a mix of both. Once those 6 hours are used, any further charging is billed at peak rates, even inside the 23:30–05:30 window.

With dynamic charging automatically switched on and price cap automatically switched off, there’s nothing else to configure, just choose whether to prioritise savings or your charge target to suit how you use your 6 hours.

Your next charge

To get the most out of the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff,  ‘Dynamic Charging’ is always on, and restrictions such as the price cap are always off.

All you need to do is set the amount of charge you wish to add, or the target you want to reach, a ‘Ready by’ time for the next morning, and whether to prioritise savings or your charge target.

To learn more about how to prioritise your charge, see Prioritise savings or your target with Intelligent Octopus Go

‘Ready by’ time

Please note: you’ll need to set your ready-by time between 4am-11am either on the hour or half-hour in line with Intelligent Octopus Go tariff requirements.

This helps Ohme and Octopus to find the cheapest and greenest times to charge your vehicle and allows us to balance the grid in our mission for energy flexibility!

For more information, please see the Octopus site here: Intelligent Octopus & Ohme FAQs | Octopus Energy

To ensure every session is a smart charge and recorded correctly, check your charger is online before plugin via the charger icon in the top right corner of the Charging screen. This makes sure Ohme can record your charging sessions and send the charging data to Octopus for billing purposes.

If you notice your charger is offline, follow this help centre article to restore connectivity: My charger is offline

Your smart charging schedule

After plugin, you’ll be able to see the timeslots Ohme plans to charge.

Depending on the time Ohme is scheduled to charge you may either see ‘Scheduled’ or ‘Smart charging’ in the status banner.

Please note: Ohme may schedule charging outside of the 11:30pm-05:30am window with the Price Cap disabled. This is so Octopus and Ohme can make use of additional off-peak slots throughout the day and evening. For more information, refer to the Octopus Energy Intelligent Octopus Go FAQs.

Estimated total cost

If you’re on Intelligent Octopus Go, your estimated cost may look higher than expected at first. That’s because Ohme initially estimates using the peak price, then updates it on your Usage page once the session ends and we’ve confirmed whether it was a Smart Charge or a Max Charge outside scheduled hours.

Ohme never bills you for electricity, these are estimates only. For billing questions, contact Octopus Energy directly.”

Max charging

A pink status banner with ‘Max Charging’ means a boost charge is happening, which is billed at the peak rate unless it’s between 11:30pm and 5:30am. Tap the ‘Smart Charge’ button to end the Max charge.

How to charge with Intelligent Octopus Go and Solar Batteries

At this time, Ohme cannot distinguish between power from solar power and power from your home battery. Therefore, if your battery is set to release energy when you plug in your car, the charger might use that instead of solar energy.
To keep your battery full for when you need it, here’s what you can do:

• Change the battery settings so it isn’t set to discharge while you’re charging your car.
• Schedule the battery (if it has this feature) to hold onto its charge during your usual car charging times.
• Switch off the battery manually when you plug in your car, and turn it back on after you unplug.

This way, you can save the stored energy for later and keep dynamically charging your car with the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff.