Electric avenue: How to get a car charger installed at home

With the increase in electric car popularity, more people are going to need to charge their cars at home. But how do you do it?

Yes, a three-pin plug can be used to charge up an EV, but it’s slow and a wall box can make the process a lot quicker and safer, capable of delivering a faster rate of charge and, because they tend to be weatherproof, they’re far safer overall. Many have built-in safety features, and won’t overload your house’s electricity supply, either.

With grants available to help with the costs of installing a charging point at home, it should cost from £279 to install a wallbox, inclusive of the government grant. There could be extra costs associated with the installation, however, if you’re trying to get a wallbox placed in a particularly tricky place or if more wiring than usual is required.

How much you’ll pay to charge your car will depend on the size of the car’s battery, how much charge you’ve got left in it and the rate you pay for electricity. However, as a guide, the typical rate for electricity is 14p per kwh, or 8p per kwh for overnight, economy charging. For an average electric car, with a 60kwh battery and around 200 miles worth of range, it’ll cost around £8.40 to charge fully. Charging something larger, like a Tesla Model S, will cost around £14 but, remember, the Tesla offers a much greater range at around 300 miles.

The time it takes to charge your vehicle is where the wallbox really comes into its own. Having one fitted gives you a charging rate of between 3.7kw and 7kw, which equates to around 15-30 miles of charge added per hour. It’s still not quick but it’s better than a three-pin charger, which can only deliver 2.3kw of power, or around eight miles of range per hour.

It can be tricky if you don’t have offstreet parking, though, as a wallbox will be placed on an external wall, either on the side of your house or on the side of a garage.

Connected to the mains electricity by a secure connection, it’ll be ideally located close to where you park.

Picture: PA. Grants are on offer to help with the cost of getting a wallbox installed at your home.