Charging my electric car at home
You’re going to want a home charging point installation in or near to the area you park your electric car in. You can also use an EVSE supply cable for a 3 pin plug socket as an additional backup solution.
- It is a good idea to choose a dedicated home charging point as it has built-in safety features and is faster.
- A home charger can be permanently mounted to the wall and comes with a connected charging cable as well as a socket to plug in a portable charging cable, this is a weatherproof unit.
- A dedicated home charging points can be installed by qualified specialist installers like us at Avon Electrical Ltd.
What is the cost of installing a dedicated home charger?
There is often a government OLEV grant available to help towards the cost of the home charging point and once installed you simply pay for the electricity you use to charge the vehicle, depending on your electricity provider you may often receive a different rate through the night as it may be classed as off-peak.
How long does it take to charge my electric car?
Slow charging
Obviously, this method takes a longer time, some of the bigger Electric vehicles will require anywhere up to 24 hours to fill the batteries when charged in this way. The dainty Nissan Leaf with its 40kWh battery needs almost 12 hours to get it full.
These chargers will normally run at about 3kW, and this is the charger you would occasionally still find at the public charging points in service stations and town centres etc but more often will be the portable type with a three-pin plug used in a domestic electricity supply. The majority of electric cars on the market will receive one of these charging units as standard, but battery packs are getting bigger as the cars advance and most manufacturers only recommend using these chargers when there is no other charging method available. Slow charging is fine if you don’t cover many miles and it provides you with a quick easy way to boost your car’s cells through the night, and the slow charging method creates less heat in the battery, helping prolong life.
Fast charging
This has fast become the most popular charging method available, particularly for domestic users. This method runs at either 7kW or 22kW, the 22kw method is more often used for the public charging points. Most domestic wall boxes will run at the lower 7kW rate, halving the time it takes for a full charge compared with a slow charge.
Using this method you can expect a Nissan Leaf recharge to take about six hours, while a bigger Tesla with a 75kW battery will take approx 12 hours. 22kW needs a 3 phase electricity supply, and they are often a rare and expensive home charging solution, your Electric Vehicle also needs to accept Direct Current (DC) charging along with Alternating Current (AC) method and if so your charging times could be around half compared to the 7kW unit, meaning your Tesla will be fully charged in under six hours.
Getting an electric car charging point installed at home
An electric car charging point should be professionally installed by a certified charging provide.
- The process will involve fixing a wall mounting to an exterior wall or in the garage, close to where you park your electric car so it can be connected safely to the mains electricity supply.
- The installation will usually take around three hours to complete, this will depend on how complex of the installation is as well as the individual driver requirements.
- At Avon Electrical we are more than happy to discuss your options as well as provide free advice.
Cheaper energy
Electric Vehicle drivers are not only saving themselves money but are also doing their bit for the economy, ditching fossil fuels and choosing to power their cars with electricity, although this will have an impact on the home energy bill, there are lots of ways and solutions to help both understand and reduce the cost of electricity.
A number of smart home chargers will monitor home and EV energy usage providing the user with a clear understanding of the costs, helping you see what you are spending, as mentioned earlier in this article, charging overnight can often allow you to take advantage of cheaper tariffs.
Greener energy
Electric vehicle driving can be even more environmentally friendly if you can take advantage of renewable energy. The National grid is constantly getting greener while generating more and more renewable energy solutions such as wind power and there are a number of renewable energy providers that can help your home charging be even greener.
Managing load on home energy supply
The load on your electricity supply is increased by charging an electric car at home and this load could damage your main fuse depending on the charging rate of both your vehicle and chargepoint.
This can be avoided by using a home charger that will automatically balance the power used by your charging point with the rest of your home, making sure you never exceed the maximum supply available.