How to charge battery from the grid

Sorry if this has been covered already, but I'm wondering whether I can set my GE system to charge the battery from the grid at a time when the unit rate is low (if I switch to a smart tariff)?

If you are on intelligent tariff that will do all the control for you.
On a dumb tariff, using the pc portal go to My Inverter on LHS
go to Settings along the top
Use timed charge.

there may be some glitches with this depending on what kit you have and what firmware.
You could try Octopus Labs R&D scheduler
Wonderwatt
or Home Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi

SteveCook thanks!

SteveCook If you are on intelligent tariff that will do all the control for you.

Really? Surely you need to do something to enable active management?

I think there is a card on the GE portal dashboard where you can tell it which tariff you are on. I've not tried it myself, so I don't know exactly what it does, or how well it works. (Maybe this is what you meant by "Intelligent Tariff"?)

DD
Yes you have to be on an intelligent tariff and set it up and give control to AN Other, but I have no idea of the process when setting up the tariff

SteveCook Would it be useful to define your term "intelligent tariff" ? Octopus, for example, offer "smart" tariffs, though of course "intelligent go" is one such smart tariff. And the GE dashboard calls the card "smart tariff".

Sorry
I don't really know much about these intelligent tariffs as I use HA and predbat.
I believe Intelligent Flux takes control, as others have reported in other threads.
I don't know what the smart tariff does, as I do not use it

I think the term "intelligent tariff" means that when setting up with your energy supplier, you have to provide details (API?) of your kit, and they take control.

Octopus seem to call them Smart tariffs

SteveCook I believe Intelligent Flux takes control, as others have reported in other threads.
I don't know what the smart tariff does, as I do not use it

Ah... okay.

Yes, if you are on Intelligent Flux, Octopus take full control over your GE battery, and there's nothing for you to do. On Intelligent Go, however, while Octopus control the charging of your EV, you'll need to actively manage your GE battery charging yourself, potentially exploiting bonus charging slots.

OP was asking about Smart Tariffs generally, which would include things like Intelligent Go and Agile where there is not a fixed relationship between time of day and cost. (Whereas ordinary Octopus Go and Cosy, while still deemed Smart Tariffs, have fixed off-peak hours, and are relatively simple to manage.)

(Is there an Intelligent Cosy? Octopus app seems to invite me to add a Cosy Hub as a managed device. Not sure if there are any cost benefits in that.)

mands if I switch to a smart tariff

It depends on which specific tariff you had in mind...

The Android app works well for me.
On IOG:
Timed Charge 23.30 - 05.30
Timed Discharge 05.30 - 23.30 ( this stops the car draining the battery)
Depends if you want to hand over control to Octopus or manually programme it yourself.

DD (Is there an Intelligent Cosy? Octopus app seems to invite me to add a Cosy Hub as a managed device. Not sure if there are any cost benefits in that.)

I’m not aware that there is an intelligent Cosy tariff - yet - but would make sense for Octopus to introduce one.

Octopus call their heat pump range the Cosy, and looking at the Octopus app under Devices / Cosy it refers to the Cosy Hub which I take to be part of the Cosy heat pump.

The Octopus Cosy Heat pump has a remote API and its available via the BottleCapDave Octopus integration.

Which lays the ground work for Home Assistant automation of your heat pump operation or Octopus to introduce an Intellgent Cosy tariff

Update: Yes the Cosy hub is the device that integrates your Cosy heat pump and up to 4 Cosy Pod’s (Temperature and Humidity sensors you can place around the home) to Octopus https://octopus.energy/cosy-heat-pump/

mikes01666 On IOG:
Timed Charge 23.30 - 05.30
Timed Discharge 05.30 - 23.30 ( this stops the car draining the battery)

Shouldn't need both - battery discharge is inhibited during a timed charge.

Depends if you want to hand over control to Octopus or manually programme it yourself.

The spirit of the tariff is that you must hand over control to octopus - that's why they give you discount of the cost

DD I'll try turning off timed discharge as you shouldn't be able to charge and discharge simultaneously.
Thanks.