Everything you need to know about getting a home EV charger
I’ve just had a dedicated electric vehicle (EV) charge point installed at my home. I found the options quite confusing, so this is a short post to share what I’ve learnt. I’m in the UK, so my comments are quite specific to that geography — I’m sure there will be different options and considerations in other countries.
❓ Why get a dedicated EV charger?
Firstly, it’s worth noting that an electric car can be charged with a simple 3-pin UK plug — just plug it in to charge, just as you do for your kettle. A dedicated EV charge point isn’t necessary.
So why did I get one?
There’s one big problem with the 3-pin plug solution (commonly referred to as a “granny cable” in the EV community): it’s very slow. Charging on a 3-pin plug is done at 2.3kw, which means it’ll take 21–36 hours to fully charge my car from empty. That’s quite slow, so a faster charger seems a good investment.
🔌 EV chargers
Dedicated EV charge points come in three “sizes” in the UK:
- 3.6kw — which would charge my id.3 from empty in 13–22 hours
- 7kw — which would charge my id.3 from empty in 7–12 hours
- 22kw — which would charge my id.3 from empty in 6–8 hours
Note: it would be very unusual for an EV battery to be fully empty when you reach home. That’s a bit like arriving at a petrol station with a completely empty petrol tank! As a result, actual charge times would in practice be shorter than the figures above.
Now, we can immediately rule out the 22kw option, as these require a 3-phase power supply that very few houses in the UK would have.
The 3.6kw option is only slightly cheaper than the 7kw one, so doesn’t really seem worth it. Everyone I know who’s had an EV charge point installed recently has gone for the 7kw variety. That makes it easy!
⚡️ EV charger suppliers
The second consideration is which supplier to go with.
There’s now quite a wide variety of options in the UK — big names include:
There are probably others I’ve missed. I found this list to be somewhat daunting and confusing.
I went with PodPoint and this is what it looks like…
🤔 How to choose
Having spent some time reviewing and comparing the options in detail, I have to say I’ve concluded that they all get the job done!
However, there are a few factors I found that are worth considering:
Tethered v Untethered
Chargers either come as tethered (have a cable permanently attached) or untethered (you use the cable in your car).
Everything I’ve heard suggests that tethered is more convenient and that getting the cable in and out of your car for an untethered option can become tiring.
Most suppliers, but not all, offer tethered options.
Conversely, you may prefer untethered if you want to charge both older EVs (which may use type-1 connectors) and newer EVs (which now all use type-2 connectors). Untethered would allow you to connect cars with both type-1 and type-2 connectors to the same charger. Untethered might be a good choice if you anticipate visitors needing to charge with a different connector to the one your car has.
Most tethered options can look a bit untidy, as you have a big cable looped around them. If your charger is very visible, tidiness might be a reason to go the untethered route. Untethered also gives you the option of getting a longer cable — so it’s more flexible, but slightly less convenient.
If you go tethered, check the cable length and make sure it’s long enough — some providers give you the option to get a longer cable if needed. Some of the tethered options I looked at only had a 5m cable, which might be a bit short in some situations.
Looks
Depending on the installation location you choose, looks may or may not be a consideration.
Without doubt the Andersen charger is the best looking device if this worries you — but it’s also the most expensive, by quite some margin.
Some other devices are quite small and more discreet, which might be a consideration for some. Those smaller devices tend to be untethered though, so that’s a consideration. My charge point is installed on the side of the house, so not that visible. I was fine with a more bulky tethered model.
Smartness
The Ohme device has some interesting “smart” features for those on the Octopus Go energy tariff. If you don’t plan to be on Octopus Go, this doesn’t matter.
Most chargers now include wifi or 3/4G connections in order to support various smart features and app connections. They should revert to ‘dumb’ chargers if the supplier goes bust and no longer supports the smart features, although that’s not been tested in practice yet. I’m not sure how important those smart features really are though — they sound a bit like all those extra programmes on the washing machine you never actually use!
Solar support
Some devices can do clever things to balance your EV charging times with when your solar panels are generating capacity. If you don’t have solar, this is clearly not a concern. If you do, it might be a major factor in your choice.
Earthing
Older houses can have varying levels of compliance with modern earthing standards. It used to be that a new earth rod might need to be installed to upgrade earthing, which brings additional costs.
Quite a few chargers now include a PEN fault device, which side-steps that need. My home is older and I thought this worth having so as to avoid the risk of needing additional work on my supply. It’s probably worth choosing an EV charger that includes a PEN fault device.
💰 Costs
At the time of writing there’s a government grant (OZEV) of £350 to subsidise the cost of a home EV charger for those with off-street parking. The grant is being withdrawn for homeowners with off-street parking in March 2022, after which it’s being repurposed to focus on apartment blocks and rental accommodation. You don’t need to worry about the grant application process — the installers do all this for you. You can only apply for the grant if you already own an EV or if you have proof that you have one on order — getting a sneaky installation now “just in case” you get an EV later isn’t an option.
With the grant applied, costs (supply and installation) are in the £500-£1200 range for those in England. If you’re reading this after March 2022, please add £350 to those figures. I went for one of the cheapest, PodPoint, which was £600 in tethered guise once the £350 grant had been applied. I don’t really see a need to pay any more than this.
For those in Scotland there’s additional grants: £250 and a further £100 for those in remote locations, bringing the total potential government contribution to £700. That means those in Scotland might need to pay only £250 for a PodPoint — Lucky Scotts!
🧨 Main fuse
The main fuse in your house is owned by your electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO). If it’s a lower sized fuse (eg 60 amps) it might be prudent to get it upgraded.
Some houses have the fuse size printed on the fuse cover. Mine didn’t, so there was no way for me to tell what size it was. My EV installer was able to pull the fuse and check it — it was a 100 amps, so I’m all good. If you want to check your fuse, your DNO will make a free site visit to pull the fuse, check its size and upgrade it if necessary. You can find out who your DNO is by using this website.
If your fuse is smaller, your EV charger should detect this and ramp down its power usage so that the fuse doesn’t blow (which would be a major inconvenience). Having a larger fuse means you’ll be able to take full advantage of the potential charging speed. Since a fuse upgrade is free, there’s no reason not to request it if you need to.
🎚 Fuse board
Your EV charger will need a dedicated circuit and fuse. It’s quite possible that your current fuse board doesn’t have a spare slot to put in a new fuse, or perhaps it’s an older model and it’s not easy to get the fuses. You could get the fuse board replaced, but that is going to be an additional cost and disruption.
I got my charger from PodPoint and they installed a new dedicated fuse board alongside my existing setup. This minimised both disruption and cost and was all included in their “one size fits all” quote, so this wasn’t something I needed to worry about or pay extra for.
Here’s the dedicated EV fuse and trip switch that was installed alongside my existing fuse board.
PodPoint were very insistent about getting photographs of my earthing setup prior to the site visit. I wasn’t able to provide a photograph of the earth bonding to my water supply, because I had a new plastic mains pipe installed a few years ago and there’s not much point earth bonding onto plastic! This didn’t seem to be an issue once I’d explained and the electrician confirmed with me at install time that my earthing setup was correct.
Finally, just to emphasise — a dedicated EV charge point isn’t required. A 3-pin “granny” charge cable will get the job done, albeit slowly. Or, perhaps you plan to use public charge points or don’t have the driveway space to charge at home.
Whether you think the ~£600 cost of a dedicated charger is worthwhile will come down to your need to charge at home at a quicker speed than the granny cable can support. For me, I plan for the EV to be my main car and I’d like to be confident of getting a full charge overnight, so it seemed a wise investment.
There are now quite a few different chargers on the market. I’ve outlined what I think are the major considerations above, but I honestly think any model will get the job done. Decide what your requirements are, pick one that matches and just do it. It’s not worth over thinking it!
