Car charging point at home

DH9

DH9

Central Defender
Due to get a PHEV car next month, and plan to install a charging point at home.

Have no idea about charging cars, especially public chargers.

Can only really find specialised big companies wanting to do the installation and most seem around £1k.

Has anyone used a local company to install a charging point, and what was the cost?
 


A grand is about right.

What car? How big is the battery? Number wil be something like 40-80kWh
How many miles are you planning to do each day? i.e. how many kWh do you expect to need to push back into the battery each night?
 
Goat Eyes said:
A grand is about right.
Could do it via a 3 pin overnight easily if it’s say a 40kWh battery.
Save yourself a grand.
Click to expand...
That's what I was getting at.
3-pin plug gets you about 2kw to the car, so you can easily add 20kWh per night and you can get a discounted rate overnight if the numbers work for you

Less than £100 job to get a proper external socket fitted outside on a suitable circuit. This is exactly what I did, although I only tend to add about 5kWh per day on average
 
PTR said:
A grand is about right.

What car? How big is the battery? Number wil be something like 40-80kWh
How many miles are you planning to do each day? i.e. how many kWh do you expect to need to push back into the battery each night?
Click to expand...
With it being a hybrid the battery is only 13.8kw.
Miles can vary from 5 to 500 depending in where I have to go for work. That’s why I got a hybrid.

So am I right in thinking a 2kw 3 pin charger would charge it from 0% in 7 hours?
Problem is despite parking being right next to the meter there isn’t any sockets anywhere near it to create an external socket from, and don’t fancy running it off an extension cable from another socket.
We also have free charging points at Team Valley i could utilise.

With a charging point though can you not get preferential electricity rates for overnight charging?
 
Last edited:
Future installations.

Top lad Andy and very reasonable (even if he is a mag)

That’s probably about the going rate tbf.
 
We were really fortunate to get out 7kw on when there were still grants but a grand seems the going rate right now. Some are better than others in terms of integrating with Octopus/Ovo apps and best tariffs - Ohme I've seen I think does that.

Public charging is generally a total rip off but 3 pin charging will do if you're not using it much. One of our offices has chargers that only charge 10p/kw so not bad but we're lucky.
 
DH9 said:
With it being a hybrid the battery is only 13.8kw.
Miles can vary from 5 to 500 depending in where I have to go for work. That’s why I got a hybrid.

So am I right in thinking a 2kw 3 pin charger would charge it from 0% in 7 hours?
Problem is despite parking being right next to the meter there isn’t any sockets anywhere near it to create an external socket from, and don’t fancy running it off an extension cable from another socket.
We also have free charging points at Team Valley i could utilise.

With a charging point though can you not get preferential electricity rates for overnight charging?
Click to expand...
If it's a hybrid a 3 pin trickle might be just as good as others have said, not like you're trying to fill a 90kw battery.
You can get the cheap overnight rates even without a charger it's just certain hours.
I was lucky when I got mine as they just added a fiver a month onto the car and I swapped it after a year so my charger only cost me 60 quid really
 
Get one of these:
thirdrockenergy.co.uk

Third Rock Energy - Electric Vehicle Charging Cable Specialists

Third Rock Energy offer a wide range of EV charging cables at affordable prices. We believe that a great shopping experience should come as standard including: Free UK delivery, Free carry bag with all cables, A wide choice of cables from 3m to 15m, TUV/CE certified products and minimum 1 year...
thirdrockenergy.co.uk thirdrockenergy.co.uk
You can set the charge rate at various powers up to 3kW.

For such a small battery there's no point spending £1000 on a wall charger.
 
DH9 said:
With it being a hybrid the battery is only 13.8kw.
Miles can vary from 5 to 500 depending in where I have to go for work. That’s why I got a hybrid.

So am I right in thinking a 2kw 3 pin charger would charge it from 0% in 7 hours?
Problem is despite parking being right next to the meter there isn’t any sockets anywhere near it to create an external socket from, and don’t fancy running it off an extension cable from another socket.
We also have free charging points at Team Valley i could utilise.

With a charging point though can you not get preferential electricity rates for overnight charging?
Click to expand...
A 14kW battery will take around 7 hours to charge from scratch on a 3 pin.

The overnight tariff is then increase your daytime rate so for such a small battery you’re better off not changing your overnight rate. Obviously check this out with your supplier first.

You’ll notice the difference in all your small 5 mile journeys as you’ll never be fuelling up. On your 500 milers you’ll not even notice the difference. I e got an XC90 hybrid and it makes little difference on long journeys.

If you can work out getting a 3 pin outside (sure you’ll be able to if you can fit a wall box) that’s the most economical solution.
 
DH9 said:
With it being a hybrid the battery is only 13.8kw.
Miles can vary from 5 to 500 depending in where I have to go for work. That’s why I got a hybrid.

So am I right in thinking a 2kw 3 pin charger would charge it from 0% in 7 hours?
Problem is despite parking being right next to the meter there isn’t any sockets anywhere near it to create an external socket from, and don’t fancy running it off an extension cable from another socket.
We also have free charging points at Team Valley i could utilise.

With a charging point though can you not get preferential electricity rates for overnight charging?
Click to expand...
yeah, your usage is going to be very small - almost certainly no need for a proper charger and no use of a "cheap EV tarrif" either, as they almost always make the lecky during the day more expensive, or need a fancy charger.

Granny charger will push 2kw, so yeah, 7 hours, about a full charge, assuming its empty when you get home. It probably won't be.

However they were going to get the power to the proper charger, they can do the same to fit a proper external socket. Needs to be on a suitable circuit though as 2kw constant draw is no small load. Many people are against "the granny lead" because the infra it often gets plugged into is not up to the job. Spark will tell you though.

Mind is just a socket drilled straight through the back of an existing one that's on a new spur (for my recently converted garage), so I know its safe.
 
southstander said:
Aye but for your grand they put a feed and a breaker in sized for the job. If you use the granny charger it is the equivalent of keeping your toaster on all night.
Click to expand...
Worth a grand all day.

I run my 3 pin all the time from an outside socket that hasn’t been checked or updated and had no issues yet.
 

Back
Top