Hi,

From my understanding you can just plug in and charge once the schedules are set up. You don’t need to do anything else.

thank you Blastoise 186, I thought it may me that simple, why on earth do OVO not set it out like that.

As far as I can see you plug in your car to the charge point at home and if the wind is blowing hard the extra unused power can come to your car at 10p per KWh at any time of day but more likely in the early morning.

Why make things sound difficult, I am not the only old codger with an electric car.

Hi @Nick Challacombe, it’s great to hear you’re now on Charge Anytime. 

Your first question: you will need to set the ‘ready by’ time and the charge % so OVO/Kaluza knows when you want your EV to be ready and at what % charge. Then OVO will do the rest!

Just a heads up that the Charge Anytime app is used for direct to vehicle (D2V) control. Where a customer has an eligible vehicle but does not have an eligible charger, they should use the D2V app. Where a customer has an eligible charger (regardless of whether or not their vehicle is eligible), they should use the charger app. You use the charger app to confirm when you want the EV by and at what target charge, and it handles the rest. 

The difference between the two at the moment is that the D2V customer will see savings in their D2V app, whilst the charger customer can see savings in a page called “Your EV” in the My OVO account.

It’s a choice between complexity and simplicity and that affects reliability. It depends how you value reliability.

For Kaluza to work you need to program the app correctly, the app has to talk to the servers at Ovo that work out a charging pattern, these have to talk the car’s servers in whatever country they happen to be in (for Renault these are in Paris), these servers have to talk to the car via a local mobile phone signal and you have to have the car plugged in. If any part of that fails then you don’t get a charge.

My preferred solution is to just plug the car in (the timers in the car are already set to charge overnight). In two years this has never failed and that is important to me. My next step is to find an energy supplier (including Ovo) who will provide ‘time of use’ charging at a discount when this current energy crisis is over.

I’ve spent 50 years being a systems engineer and the one thing it has taught me is that a simpler solution is often more reliable and that is what I’ve always advised clients but it was always the client’s choice. One of the biggest failures that is almost always overlooked is the human in the loop. Did you forget to set the app or did you set it incorrectly?

Peter

I have the old set up now working. I cannot get the app to load fully om my iPhone or iPad as when you get to the serial number of the charger unit is will not recognise it. I have taken a ‘photograph of the numbers so I know they are correct, I have scanned the QR code, so this morning it seems I will have to spend a happy few hours trying to find someone at Indra/Ovo who can help.

I did plug in the charger last night and it did what it should have done. That works but it would be good to have the app. 

To cut a long story short.

I cannot finish the setting up of the app because it will not accept my Indra Charger MAC address, or recognise the QR code. It constantly “Devices: No Records Found”

The MAC address is 64:33:db:15:fe:47.

I will try and attach a photograph.

Everything is working on the old system the one with the blue background, charger worked OK last night but I do not know if I am on  the 10p per KWh or not. My OVO says I am.

Please help.

Thanks @Nick Challacombe,

We think you’re onboarded in the Indra (Kaluza) website correctly, but also trying to download the Indra native app. This won’t work as customers need to remain on the Indra (Kaluza) website to access Charge Anytime

We advise customers not to get the Indra native app if they want Charge Anytime. So if you’ve signed up and scanned the QR code and are using the app that looks like this, you need to contact Indra Support to request they change you:

Here’s a screenshot of a relevant FAQ:

Hi Tim,

no , the whole point of my email was to ask how to get my charger accepted on the app. After all that is what my OVO account asks you to do. I have been using the first app, not the Indra Native app since I set up the charger last year. It works fine except that it’s not really an app as such and I access it with a book mark.

I will delete the down load of the Indra native app that you show and keep using the one with the blue page background.

all very confusing for an old computer illiterate old git try to enter the 21st century.!

Thank you, this forum has been very helpful.

Hi Tim,

I have now read everything and think I am OK, perhaps , as it turns out it was a good thing that the Indra app did not recognise my charger as I would have had to go down the supper route. 
I had not seen the page you screen shot, thank you, and still do not see it on my iPad.

will keep searching when I have deleted the unfinished down load.

 Thanks again,

Nick

I am all sorted, the system seems faultless, using the old blue Kaluza app on my iPad, switching off all the car timings, using the Indra charger I now plug the car in at whatever time I return, day or night. The Kaluza has the required by time and that works faultlessly.

Simple is best, set time car required on the old type Kaluza app, plug in car with Indra or other approved charger and low and behold it works, car always ready when required.

Checked my last months OVO bill and all charging is at 10p per Kwh .

Thank you Tim, one months trouble free charging. Except the charger failed and Indra solved it remotely in minutes.

As some one said Keep It Simple, I was overthinking.