In this article, you will get a full guide to charging an electric car, its charging time, and its cost.
Summary
You can charge an electric car at home with the help of a home charger containing a standard 3-pin plug. An electric vehicle supply equipment cable should only be used as a last option.
- Electric car drivers prefer a home charging point to take advantage of faster charging speeds and develop safety features.
- Charging an electric car works the same as charging a mobile phone—plug in overnight and top up in the daytime.
- Certain electricity tariffs give much lower rates of electricity at particular periods, generally late at night, and scheduling to charge your car with the help of the Pod Point App or the car itself can save you money.
How do you charge an electric car on your own?
If you are charging an electric car at home, you should have a home charging point installed in the parking lot. You can use an EVSE supply cable for a 3-pin plug socket for backup.
- Drivers prefer a decent home charging point due to the fact that it’s faster and has built-in safety features.
- A home charger is a compact, weatherproof unit that is attached to a wall with a connected charging cable.
- Dedicated EV chargers for your home are installed by experienced installers like Pod Point.
Cost of introducing a home charger
A fully installed home charging point costs £999.
- Once it’s installed, you only have to pay for the electricity that is used to charge it.
- The electricity cost in the UK is 28 p per kWh*, while on Economy 7 tariffs, the overnight electricity price in the UK is 11 p per kWh**.
- By converting to an electricity tariff made particularly for Pod Point EV drivers, you could minimize this to just 8.49 pesos per kWh.
How long does it take to charge an electric car on its own?
- An electric car’s charging is measured in kilowatts.
- Home charging points charge your car at 3.6 kW, giving about 15–30 miles of range every hour of charging.
- Higher charging speeds are limited by your vehicle’s onboard charger. If your car allows up to 3.6 kW of charging, using a 7 kW charger will not damage the car.
How to get an electric car charging point installed at home
Electric car charging points are required to be installed professionally. A certified charging provider will carry installation costs into it.
- The home installation includes wall-mounting the chargepoint on an exterior wall near the parking lot and connecting it safely to the major electricity supply.
- An installation of a charging point should take around 3 hours to complete, depending on the individual needs of the driver and the difficulty of the installation.
- You can book installation directly, over the phone, or at car dealerships, with most providers happy to provide free advice and talk through the availability of options.
How much should you charge for an electric car at home?
You can charge your electric car at home as often as you need to. It can be utilized similarly to charging your mobile phone, fully charging overnight, and topping up during the day if necessary.
While there is no requirement to charge it regularly, many drivers plug it in each time they leave their car out of habit, giving them maximum flexibility should they have to make a comfortable journey.
- By charging overnight, electric car drivers can take advantage of cheap nighttime electricity rates and drive for as little as 2 p.m. per mile.
- Overnight charging also ensures that the car’s battery is full each morning for the day ahead. There is no need to unplug once the battery is full; charging will stop by itself with a dedicated home charger.
- Most drivers use charging facilities available at their workplace or public destinations to charge as a top-up.
Optimizing charging at home
Most people charge their electric cars at home; smart home chargers are an option to handle the new energy challenges that will arise for drivers and networks.
Cheaper energy
- While an EV driver is saving money overall by powering their car with electricity instead of fossil fuels, their home energy bill will be higher than it was prior. The best option is that, unlike fossil fuels, there are many things that can be done to analyze and minimize the cost of electricity to get future savings.
- By adjusting your charging schedule to take place at particular times, it is possible to take advantage of time to introduce tariffs that have particular periods when electricity is of low cost. It is possible to schedule when your car charges either via most electric cars or associated apps or via a smart home charger’s app.
- Most smart home chargers test home and EV energy usage so you can get a transparent understanding of cost per kWh, which helps you find how much you are spending and convert to cheaper tariffs.
Greener energy
Nowadays, electric cars are already greener than combustion engine vehicles, but charging with ever more renewable energy makes electric cars more eco-friendly.
The UK’s grid is regularly getting greener with maximum renewable energy generation,like wind power. While charging electric cars seems environmentally friendly, you can transfer to one of the many renewable energy providers to make charging at home even greener.
Managing loads on home energy supplies
Charging an electric car at home places an extra load on your electrical supply. Depending on the maximum charging rate of your chargepoint and vehicle, this load can be dangerous for your main fuse.
To reduce overloading your main fuse, many smart chargers automatically balance the power extracted by your charge-point with the rest of your home, making sure it never causes your total demand to exceed the maximum available supply.
Moreover, the benefit of this feature is that it has more than one chargepoint installed, so you can charge cars together without having to manually switch between them.
Managing loads on the grid
As electric cars are broadly accepted, the demand for power on the national grid will increase day by day. There is a tendency for a lot of charging to be started when drivers arrive home after work and peak around 20:00.
Smart home chargers will be able to react to and/or anticipate this and manage the rate of charge across thousands of vehicles to smooth out these peaks. Thankfully, this will be virtually unnoticeable for an individual driver (according to Pod Point data, EV drivers only use their chargers approximately 25% of the time they are plugged in overnight). The net effect will be that everyone gets a full charge over a fractionally longer time, but the grid will be protected.