If you have off-street parking, a home charger represents the easiest and most affordable way to charge your car. Easy to use and straightforward to install, they can take advantage of cheap overnight energy rates to further reduce your running costs. Check out the latest home chargers on the market, selected for you by the Electrifying.com experts.
Charging times depend on three main factors: the size of your battery (measured in kWh), the speed of the charger (kW) and the speed at which your car can accept a charge (kW). If that sounds confusing, you’re not alone. Working out charging times is probably the biggest bit of mental maths you’ll have to do when switching to an electric car. But don’t worry, because it’s something that you soon get used to. If you want to have a general idea of charging times, use our charge time calculator below
One of the advantages of an electric car is that you can, in theory, recharge them wherever you can find a plug socket. Although it is perfectly true that you can charge an electric car via an adaptor (often referred to as a ‘Granny charger’), they place a significant load on a standard domestic socket.
They are also the slowest way to recharge your car with an output of 2.3kW. A purpose-made home charger will be able to deliver up to four times the power output (7.2kW) of a three-pin plug and is a much safer and faster way to charge your car.
This depends on two things; the size of your battery and the cost of your energy. If you know both, then it’s relatively easy to work this out. Let’s say your car has a 50kWh battery and you have cheap rate overnight energy (like Octopus Go) at 9p per kWh. To recharge your car from empty to full will cost 50 x 9 - so £4.50.
As your home charger takes its feed from the mains, the cost of the electricity used will go on your normal electricity bill. If you have a solar system, you only pay for the energy you draw from the grid.
Tethering refers to the cable that goes from the charger to your car. A tethered connection has the ‘charger end’ hard-wired to the unit. An untethered connection has a Type 2 socket on the charger into which you can plug a cable. Both work perfectly well and will charge your electric car in the same time. Some buyers prefer an untethered connection because they allow for different cable lengths to be attached to the charger. This is useful if you have to charge a second car that’s parked further away.
If you want to charge as cheaply as possible (and who doesn’t?), then yes. Although the energy crisis has seen a lot of deals disappear from the market, the situation is slowly improving. A cheap rate tariff like Octopus Go or OVO Charge Anytime allows you to draw power overnight at significantly reduced rates. You’ll need to prove that you’re an electric car owner and have a smart meter that works with the energy supplier you choose. For OVO, you'll also need to have a certain model of car and charger.
Plenty of car chargers work without apps, but if you want to fine-tune your charging regime and keep track of how much energy you’re using, an app is really handy. The apps ‘talk’ to the charger and can be used to set-up charging schedules – handy if you have cheap overnight energy. If your charger is linked to your solar system, an app is useful when it comes to monitoring energy flow.
Most houses in the UK can be fitted with a home charger, but as every house or flat is different, some installations are more complicated than others. Electric car chargers are wired on a separate circuit directly to the fusebox and draw a considerable amount of power. Your house / flat electrics will need to be up to the task. In rare instances (if your house is old or has been extended), your main fuse may need to be upgraded. Also, if your property is on a ‘looped’ connection where a mains feed is shared by two buildings, you may need to have a new main installed.
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