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What time does cheaper EV rate apply on Charge Anytime?

  • 25 January 2023
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Hi. I’ve just signed up for Charge Anytime and everything seems to be working correctly. I’m just not sure what times the lower rate is applied (for example is it between 11pm to 7am). Or is it applied whenever a schedule is active and urgent charge is not used? If I changed the schedule to ensure full charge was reached by say 4pm instead of the default 7am, would the lower rate apply? I can’t find this information anywhere and the call centre didn’t know either.

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Best answer by Blastoise186 25 January 2023, 13:17

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Blastoise186
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Hey @craig310 !

The Anytime Rates are applied 24/7/365 as long as you’re using Smart Charging. This doesn’t mean your EV will always charge 24/7/365, but using it this way will ensure you get the cheaper rates. There’s no set schedule for this to happen though as it’s dynamic. You schedule charging as part of Smart Charging, this too will get the cheaper rates.

Boost Charging will override and be charged at full rate, but will charge immediately regardless.

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Thanks for replying. I still don’t really understand why you would use the boost/immediate charge function at a higher rate. Surely you can just set the time you need the full charge to be reached for one,two,three..hours time and it will start charging immediately (at the lower rate).

BPLightlog
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I think the boost function is to be used in case your situation changes and you need a top up charge quickly. The timed function doesn’t necessarily switch on full immediately 

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juliamc
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I understood that the system will charge when electricity is low carbon/off peak - so it won’t necessarily start charging immediately as you suggest @craig310 

L
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It might be useful to know roughly when the “green” times would be, so that you could know when to plug in your car. If it’s going to be roughly after 10:00pm say, then you just need to remember to plug in before bedtime. If it’s going to be greener at 4:00pm, then you might need to plug in between daily journeys. Many of us would not just by default plug the car in after every journey, especially if you need to position the car in a particular place on your drive.

BPLightlog
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The thing is @lee_surrey the green ‘slots’ vary and so aren’t exactly the same. 
You can take a look at the forecasted green generation times from National Grid for a clue. 
https://www.nationalgrideso.com/electricity-explained/electricity-and-me/great-britains-monthly-electricity-stats

They feature on an app too

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Thanks for your answer @BPLightlog. I can see that it’s a little unpredictable as to when your car will charge. I suppose what I’m trying to work out is, what happens if there are no slots designated “green” in between you plugging in and the scheduled “charge by” time. For instance, if I plug in my car at 10:00pm to be charged by 8:00am the next morning, what will win out? a) My request to have my car fully charged, or b) the network’s need to be “green”. And if the answer is a), then would the car just get charged at normal household rates? And if it’s b), I would be pretty annoyed if there had been no green slots overnight and my car didn’t have enough charge to go to work.

It seems that, as the marketing blurb says “Charge Anytime, the clue’s in the name” what it’s really saying is that it’s not Charge Anytime you want, but Charge Anytime Ovo wants.

 

Thanks,Lee.

BPLightlog
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On the marketing ‘blurb’ you will see the note on ‘greenest’ times rather than green .. they say

4 Our smart tech aims to charge your car when the grid has more renewable energy in it, within the time you’ve set. Meaning it’s less likely your EV will be charged by energy from fossil fuels. 

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Tim_OVO
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For instance, if I plug in my car at 10:00pm to be charged by 8:00am the next morning, what will win out? a) My request to have my car fully charged, or b) the network’s need to be “green”. And if the answer is a), then would the car just get charged at normal household rates? And if it’s b), I would be pretty annoyed if there had been no green slots overnight and my car didn’t have enough charge to go to work.

 

@lee_surrey your scenario is always option a. If you set a ready by time, your EV will be charged by that ready by time at the discounted 10p per kWh. You don’t have to worry about the green slots, it’s all done for you. If there are none, your car will still charge and at the lower rate. The only time you will be charged the full rate is if you select ‘urgent charge’. 

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L
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Thanks guys. This is exactly the type of certainty I’m looking for. So basically, it will charge any time you want, at the 10p/kWh rate, as long as you put in a bit more effort and modify your “charge by” time for that day. It also gives you the choice to be “greener” too by setting a longer “charge by” window, like overnight, to allow the network to use greener power.

 

I just tested this theory and at 2:00pm I plugged my partially charger car in and told the app I needed the car by 2:30pm. After about 5 minutes, it started charging and continued even past 2:30pm. My Ovo app also reported about 50p increase in the amount I’d saved, proving it was using the correct 10p/kWh rate.

 

Thanks for all your help,
Lee.

Tim_OVO
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Nice @lee_surrey!

 

I am slightly surprised that the app allowed you to set a ready by time for 14:30 when you set it at 14:00. I’m curious to hear from other Charge Anytime customers on how it works:

 

@Dark, @FatOldSun is there usually a set amount of time in the future a ‘ready by’ time can be set?

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Nice @lee_surrey!

 

I am slightly surprised that the app allowed you to set a ready by time for 14:30 when you set it at 14:00. I’m curious to hear from other Charge Anytime customers on how it works:

 

@Dark, @FatOldSun is there usually a set amount of time in the future a ‘ready by’ time can be set?

If I want to start charging immediately, I set a ready by time which is sooner than the time it would take to fully charge the car. This generally works, although I’ve not tried during peak times e.g. 4-7pm.

Tim_OVO
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@lee_surrey do you get the option to set any ready by time, even if it’s an hour or half an hour in the future, and in the afternoon? 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
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Yes. As you can see from this pic, I just set (at 9:50) “ready by” to happen by 11:00 today.

 

 

L
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@Tim_OVO So at 10:15, I plugged the car in (battery at 94%) having told it I needed it by 11:00 as above. 5 minutes later, it’s now charging at the full 7kW rate.

 

 

Tim_OVO
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Good to know this, @lee_surrey - all thanks to Kaluza Flex technology!

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6

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