Introduction
A home EV charging point is a dedicated wall unit, wired on its own circuit straight from your consumer unit, for charging an electric vehicle. We install them across Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Warrington and Wigan.
Overview
Most people ask us the same thing first, which is whether it is worth it when the car came with a lead that plugs into an ordinary socket. It is, and the reason is not really convenience, it is the socket.
A standard 13A socket will give you around 2.3kW. A dedicated charging point gives you 7kW, so a battery that took the best part of a day and a night off a plug fills overnight instead.
An ordinary socket and its circuit were never designed to be loaded to near their limit for eight hours at a stretch, night after night. We have been called out to scorched socket fronts and heat damaged back boxes where somebody has been doing exactly that.
What is involved in the installation?
A charging point is not simply screwed to the wall and plugged in.
- We check the incoming supply, the main fuse and the earthing arrangement before we quote anything.
- We run a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, protected in accordance with BS 7671 for electric vehicle charging.
- We deal with the earthing. Where the supply is PME (protective multiple earthing) the charge point must either have its own earth electrode or use a device that detects a broken supply neutral and disconnects.
- We test, certify and notify the work, and hand you the certificate.
Where the supply is already working hard, a load management device lets the charger back off when the shower and the oven are both on, rather than you needing a supply upgrade.
Useful information
Charge points are smart controlled, so you set them to draw power inside the cheap overnight window. Put that together with an EV tariff and the difference against daytime rates over a year is the part that actually pays for the unit.
Pricing
Every property is different, so we would not quote you a figure off a website. We provide FREE estimates, and we will tell you before we start whether the supply needs any work.
More information
For more information please contact us or telephone us directly on 01925 222197