{"id":174,"date":"2025-12-07T08:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T08:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/?p=174"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:57:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:57:56","slug":"track-ev-charging-hours-through-home-assistant-for-intelligent-octopus-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/12\/07\/track-ev-charging-hours-through-home-assistant-for-intelligent-octopus-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Track EV Charging Hours Through Home Assistant for Intelligent Octopus Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Octopus Energy is updating the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff: from early 2026 they will enforce a hard limit of 6 hours per day<\/strong> for \u201csuper-cheap smart charging\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means if your EV continues charging beyond those 6 hours (even if the charger is still plugged in), any extra time gets billed at the standard \u201cBump\u201d rate \u2014 more expensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This guide shows how you can use Home Assistant<\/strong> to track exactly how many hours your car has been charging each day<\/strong> (no matter when), so you don\u2019t accidentally exceed the 6-hour limit and risk being charged at the higher rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It works for chargers like Hypervolt<\/strong>, Myenergi Zappi<\/strong>, and Ohme<\/strong>, or any charger that reports its own charge-current or power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this you get a simple dashboard showing charge-hours used \u2014 and you\u2019re in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u26a0\ufe0f Replace sensor.hypervolt_charger_current with the sensor from your<\/em> charger that shows power\/current when the car is charging.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Before you start\u2013 Find the sensor for your charger<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pick from this table:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charger<\/strong><\/td>Charging State Sensor <\/strong>
(default name)<\/td>		Status needed<\/strong>
(For Step 2)<\/td><\/tr>
Ohme<\/td>sensor.ohme_home_go_status<\/code><\/td>“charging”<\/td><\/tr>
Hypervolt<\/td>switch.hypervolt_charging<\/code><\/td>“on”<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No Match in the table? Create your own, You need the sensor that shows how much current\/power your charger is sending to the car<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zappi example<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Replace ADDYOURIDHERE with your own Zappi ID.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You can find these in Home Assistant under Developer Tools \u2192 States<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Step 1 (Optional) \u2013 Create the \u201cCar is charging\u201d binary sensor<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\u26a0\ufe0f You only need to do this if your charger does not have a sensor in Home-Assistant for charging status.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This turns on<\/strong> when the car is actually charging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Go to Settings \u2192 Devices & Services \u2192 Helpers<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Click Create helper<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Choose Template<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    1. Choose Binary sensor<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      FILL IN<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Name:<\/strong> Car is charging<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      State template:<\/strong> Paste the one that matches your charger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      Hypervolt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      {{ states('sensor.hypervolt_charger_current') | float(0) > 0.5 }}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Zappi:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      {{ states('sensor.myenergi_zappi_ADDYOURIDHERE_internal_load_ct1') | float(0) > 0.5 }}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Ohme:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
      {{ states('sensor.ohme_home_go_current') | float(0) > 0.5 }}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
      Click Create<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      You now have: binary_sensor.car_is_charging<\/p>\n\n\n\n
      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
      Step 2 \u2013 Create the \u201cEV charging hours today\u201d sensor<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      This counts how many hours your car has charged since 05:30<\/strong> today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      1. Go to Settings \u2192 Devices & Services \u2192 Helpers<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Click Create helper<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Choose History stats<\/strong>]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        FILL IN:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
        Name:<\/strong> EV charging hours today<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        Entity:<\/strong> “Pick the sensor for your charger in the table” or “Car is charging”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        State:<\/strong> “Pick the state for your sensor in the table above” or “on”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        Type:<\/strong> Time<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        Start:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
        {{ today_at() }}\n\nEnd:<\/strong><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
        {{ now() }}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
        Leave Duration<\/strong> empty and click Create<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
        You now have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        sensor.ev_charging_hours_today<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        This will show values like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • 1.0 = 1 hour<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • 2.5 = 2 hours 30 minutes<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • 3.75 = 3 hours 45 minutes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
          \n\n\n\n
          Step 3 \u2013 Add it to your dashboard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          1. Open your dashboard<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          2. Click the three dots \u2192 Edit dashboard<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
          3. Click Add card<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
          4. Choose Entities<\/strong> (or Gauge)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
            Add:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • sensor.ev_charging_hours_today<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • binary_sensor.car_is_charging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
              \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
              Now you can see how close you are to Octopus\u2019s 6-hour limit at a glance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
              Octopus Energy is updating the Intelligent Octopus Go tariff: from early 2026 they will enforce a hard limit of 6 hours per day for \u201csuper-cheap smart charging\u201d.  That means if your EV continues charging beyond those 6 hours (even if the charger is still plugged in), any extra time gets billed at the standard \u201cBump\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-assistant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thebowrings.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}