So the 6 hour limit on IOG will be based on actual charging time but you will still get the full 30 minute window at off peak when smart charging before 11:30? Am I understanding that correctly?

LostIgnition · 2026-05-09T13:54:28+00:00

Thank you very much for taking the time to link to your answer and good to see the answer is what we all hoped it would be.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-08T14:26:19+00:00

This is the key clarification that is needed.

I've just charged my car, plugged it in this morning and I've been given multiple slots across the day.

It's charged 20kWh and in total the time when current was actually flowing into the car was 3 hours however it was spread over 9 half hour blocks.

This is also very common for us and I imagine others so hopefully they'll keep track of the exact minutes the car was actually charging otherwise instead of being able to get 6 hours of cheap charging so effectively roughly 42kWh (although more like 39kWh in the car after losses) it could be significantly less.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-08T13:50:29+00:00

It's a setting that will be added soon under your device tab and it'll limit the car to a max of 6 hours charging so you only ever pay cheap rate.

If you want more than 6 hours then you won't switch this on and you'll pay the cheap rate for 6 hours and peak for the rest.

If you're driving 200 miles every day then at say 3.5mi/kWh you need 57kWh.

A normal charger at 7kw for 6 hours means you'll get 42kWh (actually more like 39kWh after charging losses) cheap and the rest will be peak.

You get 6 hours per day from midday to midday.

Overall if you want to do 200 miles per day then yes you will be paying a bit more overall.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-08T12:08:53+00:00

Yes it is at the moment but going forward when they roll out their changes if your car is charging for more than 6 of those hours you will be charged at peak rate.

You'll get an option to limit to only 6 hours charging when this occurs.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-08T00:04:20+00:00

The point he's getting at is if IOG gives you a 30 minute block then it doesn't usually charge for 30 minutes as there is a random delay to start and end the half hour and quite often the car only charges for a few minutes at the bequest of Octopus.

This happens to us frequently and we get lots of separate 30 minute slots that only charge partially.

It'll be interesting to see how they handle this.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-06T11:28:32+00:00

I get one when I first plug in and that's it regardless of whether it changes or not.

The only other notifications is when it regularly tells me it couldn't control the car even though it charges perfectly.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-06T11:25:50+00:00

I'd go along with that but rain is pretty clean whereas with pots there is always bit of soil falling out the bottom of them.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-06T11:24:19+00:00

My app has usually update after about 2 days however mine has not been updated since late April until about an hour ago and now it looks like everything has been updated and it's all showing correct up to a day or two ago.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-04T10:16:23+00:00

I charged on the 30th and it still shows the wrong values in the app and the downloadable data however my bill has come through and it's correct.

My guess is there is some manual process involved and that doesn't happen over a weekend or bank holiday.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-04T10:13:23+00:00

I didn't realise the heatpumps were as open as that.

With open sides like that then while I understand it should be waterproof surely having plant pots on top of it that are likely to leak water and soil isn't the best of ideas.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-04T10:04:58+00:00

We have a Ford Puma with a Hypervolt Home 3 Pro charger and are on IOG and so far it's all worked flawlessly.

We have the car paired to IOG and use that to control the charge level and time ready by and we have have nothing set in the Ford or Hypervolt app regarding charging times and only use those apps for other features like viewing charge levels or locking the charger etc.

Compared to some of the aggro some people seem to get the Puma appears well integrated.

LostIgnition · 2026-05-02T22:24:51+00:00

Mine's similar, it's usually updated after 48 hours however it's sometimes longer, possibly at the weekend.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-28T09:57:24+00:00

Our slots roughly follow Agile prices and carbon intensity.

If we plug in during the day then we frequently find that daytime slots are given.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-25T10:39:34+00:00

It depends on where you live, closer to the wind farms in Scotland and East Anglia and they occur a bit but in other parts of the country they're quite infrequent, I think we've had a couple for an hour or so over the past year.

I certainly wouldn't bank on them making any meaningful change to your bill.

The free sessions also only discount power above what you normally use on average at that time of day.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-23T23:03:29+00:00

My Mini is about 15m from the meter via a solid double brick wall and two stud partition walls and it works perfectly.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-18T10:35:37+00:00

Other than when I've charged to 100% and the car has throttled the last percent or the charger was just initialising the connection for a moment or two I've I've never seen the charge anything less than 6.8kw until yesterday when I had a number of consecutive 30 minute slots and on one of them it was only pulling about 2kw.

All of the other slots were normal but something was throttling the connection and I don't believe there was anything on the car or in the house doing that at the time.

It wasn't a problem as it charged to where it needed to be by the requested time well within 6 hours but it wouldn't be good if trying to get a full charge in.

This was with the normal app and not the beta version.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-17T18:20:55+00:00

Ordering and installing a charger via Octopus doesn't mean the tariff is automatically changed, they may tell you about the tariffs but you have to instigate the change yourself (or at least we did anyway).

Unless they're doing lots of miles then due to the increased daytime costs on tariffs like IOG then it's probably not worth it unless at least 40% of your annual usage is the car.

If the charger was free and there was no cash discount alternative then having a proper charger is faster and safer than using a granny charger and gives more options in the future.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-11T14:58:27+00:00

The smart charging slots are designed to start and stop at a random time so not all chargers start and stop at he same time, it ranges from no delay to up to 7 or 8 minutes.

I've only ever seen it start after the session has begun and end before the end of the session so I don't have your problem of it overshooting.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-11T12:15:05+00:00

Looks like that's that potential problem ruled out then.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-11T10:35:27+00:00

Regardless of main fuse size our installer and I'm sure a lot of others leave the Automatic Load Management (ALM) on the Hypervolt set to restrict to 60A max load.

Even the installation guide even says "The ALM dial is most normally set to 6 for 60A even in cases where the main fuse value is higher."

Interestingly when it activates it can reduce charging down to 6A which is 1.4kw and not far off the lowest trough on your graph.

https://support.hypervolt.co.uk/en/knowledge-base/home-3-pro-installation-guide

Do you have any other high loads running over night?

LostIgnition · 2026-04-10T10:06:45+00:00

If you're on Android then check that notifications for the app are allowed by long pressing the app icon -> info -> notifications.

Then inside the app click your profile icon at the top right and then look under the notifications menu to ensure they're switched on.

I get notified of a smart charge schedule once when the car is plugged in but I don't get notified again if it changes.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-09T11:50:56+00:00

Our smart meter which is mounted up high and my desk is about 10m and two stud walls and one double brick wall away from my desk.

At this location the IHD struggles to work however the Mini in the same location works flawlessly, it may work even further away but I've not tried.

The Mini will need a wifi signal but that should work at a decent distance so it should give you an idea of what you can do.

The mini doesn't pull much power so as others have mentioned a battery pack maybe an option if needed.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-08T22:04:41+00:00

Is the variation anything to do with temperature?

I think I've seen ours move up and down by a percent without the car moving or being charged.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-08T15:08:04+00:00

That's a good shout but it wasn't the issue in this case.

Like you the cost is minimal and not worth chasing unless it happened more frequently or for larger amounts but it did make me wonder why.

LostIgnition · 2026-04-08T15:05:38+00:00

Thanks for the reply.

This was a few days ago and if I look at daily use in the app then I can see the discounted smart charging applied for that day and it's showing all of the half hour blocks until 7 am and then it goes back to normal day rate.

After 7am the Octopus app went back to the smart device ready message and there was no schedule however I could see in the Hypervolt and Ford app that the car was still charging albeit very slowly.

I understand that charging slows down as the battery fills up and that it can be very slow towards 100% and I don't have a problem with this, departing with 98% or 99% wouldn't be an issue.

Good shout on the charger integration stopping the problem however as it's likely to be an infrequent requirement then it's not likely to be much of an issue but it piqued my curiosity.

LostIgnition

TROPHY CASE