How to set up your smart charger to use it with Charge Anytime

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Hey @BigDon 

BPLightlog has left some really helpful advice for you here already but I just wanted to pop on the thread with some other things that may be useful.

If you’re still having an issue when trying to set up Charge Anytime and you haven’t been able to find the answer you need on the Forum, please contact the team at chargeanytime@ovoenergy.com.

They’ll be able to help get you set up and running as soon as possible.🙂

Can I give a quick update on my experience which has thankfully been largely trouble free(so far). 
 

1. Picked the Indra charger from Ovo’s “Beyond” app offers. This was very quickly installed by ChargedEV on their behalf. The installer wanted me to download the Indra phone app. I refused as advised on this thread.
2. Contacted Indra who took my details and the charger MAC address(on lower left hand side of charger). They then emailed me a link to the Kaluza web app where I set a new password. You are prompted to update information. This I did, but could not enter a tariff as the option was not available. The Indra web app didn’t work and still doesn’t.
3. After receiving @BPLightlog ’s reassurance I enrolled for the charge anytime offer and gave Ovo my email and Kaluza password.
4. Almost instantly the Ovo app updated to show charge anytime, and when I went back to the Kaluza web app, it had already updated itself with the charge anytime tariff option.
5. Today I checked that my Bz4x didn’t have any schedules set, plugged it in at 13:25 and set a ready by time in the Kaluza web app of 21:30 as a test run.
6. It “thought” about it for ten minutes then started to charge at 7kw with the odd dip to zero. It put in 10kwh(shown on the Kaluza web app) before it entered peak period and reduced to an occasional 2kw. The Ovo app has already started to show the rebate due at the end of the month.
7. The charge continues, but it remains to be seen how much more will be added given the time of day.

@Tim_OVO My first inclination was to stick to night charging as being the most energy efficient. However, my experience so far is that Kaluza is using your charging to “balance” the system. So avoiding day charging is counterproductive from Ovo’s point of view. Is this the case? From another point of view what happens to the Ev battery when it is “dribble charged”. Is there any deterioration?

Hi @Taj , glad things are up and running. As far as I’m aware, the battery management system (BMS) on the vehicle will look after the battery condition whatever is charged/drawn .. think about the Toyota energy recovery systems where you can be charging and discharging between braking and accelerating very quickly. 
The pause on plug in is usually for the CA system to gauge the battery state. It will then look at your required ready by time and calculate what and when to charge. 
As for the greenest slots of power .. if you take today for example, the best slots are mid afternoon so it is best to let the system do its job. 
 

As an aside, I’m interested in what you think of the vehicle. I currently have a Toyota and have been looking at the bz4x as a future option. 

@Taj  a most useful summary, IMO.  Thanks.

@Tim_OVO I think your description of Kaluza ‘balancing’ the system is accurate, based on reading around the Indra site.  Secondly, I too have been wondering what the effect on my EV battery is from the many, many breaks in charging arising from:

1.  Kaluza allowing charging only when there’s cheap wholesale electric power available, and shutting off charging when it becomes more expensive, and
2. my faulty car charging control system (still to be investigated), which injects further breaks to charging on a random basis.

I will explore this question further with BMW, when I can get access to their technical support, and report back to this forum.  

H’mm.  I think I would describe this form of charging as “hiccup charging”, rather than “dribble . . “, but that’s just personal of course! 😉

I wasn’t happy with the way my Indra would start off charging at 7.4 kW/h but would frequently drop down to 1.4kW/h for no apparent reason. Charging at 1.4kW/h is not only slow, it’s very inefficient once the losses in the car’s charger are factored in, and I was concerned about possible consequential battery degradation.

I got into discussions with both OVO and Indra about who was actually responsible for this behaviour. Each initially ‘blamed’ the other, but I think the eventual culprit was found to be Kaluza, who were issuing ‘go slow’ commands to the charger, even though the charging was taking place in the middle of the night when it should not be subject to ‘load balancing’ considerations.

It appears that Kaluza can’t directly control the charge rate - ie it doesn’t tell the charger what rate to do, they can simply tell the charger to drop down to whatever slow rate it supports.

Eventually Indra came up with a workaround solution, which involved patching the charger’s software so that it would only drop to 7kW/h rate when receiving a go-slow command from Kaluza. It’s certainly solved my problem, and I’d suggest you ask Indra for the same fix for your charger too. 

Hi @MikeyB,

That’s a beneficial insight, and I’m glad to hear that Indra found a helpful workaround for you. It will go a long way to helping people in a similar position to you. 

Keep us updated on your progress.

@BPLightlog Bz4x (Motion grade)

Just a quick reply as I don’t want to clutter this thread. I’ve only had it a few days and arguably it is larger than I need. The smaller one due out shortly might have been better.
GOOD: However, it’s relaxing and a pleasure to drive, it bristles with extras, the large wheels laugh at potholes, and it’s surprisingly efficient for its size. Of special mention is the “all around view” and cross traffic warning which makes parking almost too easy. I like Toyotas version of one pedal driving, but the need to reset it every time I start is beginning to irritate. It’s early days, but based on yesterdays charge it’s giving about 3.7miles/kWh and that was predominantly on motorway. I am hopeful that summer economy should cross 4miles/kWh. Obviously this depends on your driving style.

NOT SO GOOD: There’s no full printed manual, you must go online, so acquainting yourself with all the finer points is an uphill struggle. I’ve still got a long way to go. As you would expect, the less said about the dealer the better!

Puts Forum Volunteer hat on

Please, by all means feel free to post a thread with a full review of your EV if you’d like to! :)

We love hearing these stories and it helps others out a lot too. Oh, and I’ve got a small present for you. Please keep an eye on your forum profile - I’ve put in a request to award you a new badge too.

Like you i started off only night charging my PHEV but on realising that it actually worlks “Anytime” I’m now plugging it in except at the Power Move peak times.  I’m using the Anytime app as I dont have a compatible charger and would like it to have an option to avoid time periods (like the Power Move peak).  If anyone agrees they could upvote my suggestion here link to forum.  I’ve only once not got a charge when I wanted since December.   (With a PHEV thats not a real issue)