Home EV charger installation

The three chargers we fit

• Untethered 7kW, £850 + VAT (£1,020 inc VAT) fitted. Socket on the unit, you plug your own cable in. Smallest, tidiest box on the wall.
• Tethered 7kW, £950 + VAT (£1,140 inc VAT) fitted. Cable fixed to the unit and hung on it. Nothing to get out of the boot.
• Solar-diverting 7kW, £1,050 + VAT (£1,260 inc VAT) fitted. Charges the car off your spare solar. Puts spare solar into the car, not the grid.

Ryan fits the Zappi, made by myenergi in the UK, which is the unit in the photos on this site. It comes tethered or untethered and will divert spare solar into the car if you have panels. If you are weighing it against the other popular smart charger, there is a straight comparison in Zappi vs Ohme.

What a standard install covers

• The charger mounted where the car actually parks, not where the cable happens to reach
• Up to 10 metres of cable from your fuse board
• Its own circuit and protection at the board
• Earthing arrangements checked and made right for outdoor charging
• The network operator notified, which is a requirement and is done for you
• The app set up and a test charge done before we leave
• Testing, certificate, and building control notified

What changes the price

Four things, and the estimator prices each one separately rather than hiding them in a range. A run of 10 to 15 metres adds a little, and over 15 metres more again. Taking the cable across to the far side of the house adds to it, and out to a detached garage, in armoured cable buried to depth, is a bigger job than any of them. An old fuse box has to be replaced before a charger can go on it, which is a job in its own right, and it is the one thing that most often doubles an EV install.

No driveway?

Half the terraced streets in the Rhondda and Pontypridd park on the road, and a cable across the pavement is not allowed. What does work is a cross-pavement channel agreed with the council, and there is a government grant of up to £500 towards it. The rules, the grant and the order to do things in are set out in EV charging on a terraced street in Wales.

Survey first, order second

Nothing gets ordered before the job has been looked at. That is what keeps the price still: the board, the route, the earthing and the parking all get checked, and then the figure is confirmed in writing. Most installs are half a day. A board change, a long run or a detached garage makes it a full one.

Questions people ask

Can I charge faster than 7kW at home?

Not on a normal single-phase house supply. 7kW is what it gives, and it fills an average car overnight.

Do I have to use a smart charger?

Yes. New home chargepoints sold in Great Britain have had to be smart since 2022. Every unit we fit is.

Can you fit a charger I have bought myself?

Ask first. It has to be on the approved list and suitable for your supply, and the warranty usually depends on who installed it.

Am I eligible for a grant?

Only if you rent, own a flat, or park on the street and are fitting a cross-pavement channel. Homeowners with a driveway are not. The detail is in the cost guide.