Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular these days and one of the big selling points is the possibility to charge the vehicle at home. To do that, though you will most likely need a suitable home car charger. In this article we will walk through the types that are available and the considerations that are needed when installing a car charger at home.
EV Charger types
Most cars will be provided with a cable which can simply plug in to any 3 pin socket at home. The main downside of this, simply due to the electrical supply from your home’s ring mains is that the charging rate is extremely slow and charging can take in excess of 20 hours, which for some is simply way too long.
Other than the 3-pin variety there are 4 other charger types:
- CHAdeMo which can take charging rates up to 100 kW DC. These tend to be found on Japanese and Korean cars
- CCS which can take up to 350 kW DC/AC charging rates. These are becoming much more common on most cars in the UK which are able to take superfast charging. You will almost certainly not be able to have one of these chargers at home simply because the charging rates are too high for any single phase home supply to take.
- Type 2 chargers which can take up to 43kW AC supply. These are the standard charger types found supplied with most modern EVs
- Tesla Type 2 which can take up to 250 kW DC. Most Teslas these days, though are totally compatible with normal CCS chargers so there is no need for a Tesla specific charger at home.
Most homes only have single phase electricity so the maximum charger capacity will likely be a 7 kW charger. Once you get into the realms of 11 kW chargers you will need to have a 16A three phase supply, which is very rare for home use, but it isn’t that difficult to upgrade your electrics to 3 phase if that is what you want. You will need to find a competent electrician to do this, though.
EV install considerations
The first thing to remember is that the installation of an EV charger at home must be carried out by a competent and accredited electrician and they will need to give you a Part P certificate once the system is installed.
Things to consider are:
- How far from the consumer unit, or the meter, is the parking space for your car? If you park right next to your meter then the installation will be relatively quick and easy. If you park on the other side of your house, for example then installation will require running a reasonably large length of armoured cable. This can be expensive.
- If you have no off-street parking, it is unlikely that a home charger would be suitable as you can’t really drape a charging cable over the public footpath
- Do you have spare sockets on your consumer unit? If not, then the electrician might have to either upgrade your unit or add a dedicated unit for the charger.
- Do you want a tethered or untethered charger? All this really means is do you want a charger with a cable permanently connected (tethered) or do you want to use the cable that comes with the car so the charger itself has no cable (untethered)
- Do you want a standard or a smart charger? A smart charger can connect to your home WiFi and then on to an app which allows you more control over the charger and the ability to monitor electricity usage carefully. A standard charger simply charges you car. Clearly a smart charger is more expensive but can also have features such as rapid charging or eco charging (from solar panels if you install them) for example.
- What brand and styling do you want? This is a very personal choice so take a look at this article from Auto Express to see their views on the best chargers on the market at the moment.
For normal home owners there no Government grants available to help finance the cost to install an EV charger at home, but there is still a grant available for those in rental properties. This is capped at £350 per installation and the property must have dedicated off-street parking. Getting an electric car is a good idea and is much more environmentally friendly and cost effective to run than a petrol or a diesel vehicle. The ability to charge at home is also a real plus. Take some time to research the market to see what charger might be right for you and make sure you understand what charger type you need. Installation is normally pretty quick and can be done in a few hours.
