Charging an EV at Home: Chargers, Costs & Setup

For anyone with off-street parking, home is the best place to charge: you plug in when you arrive, wake up full, and pay the lowest possible price. Around 80% of EV charging happens at home. Here's what you need to know to do it well.

Two ways to charge at home

You can charge from an ordinary socket or from a dedicated wall-mounted charger (a "wallbox"). They differ mainly in speed and convenience:

• Standard wall socket: the slowest option (around 2–2.4 kW). It adds roughly 10–15 km of range per hour — fine for short daily commutes and as a backup, but slow to fill a big battery.
• Home wallbox (7.4 kW single-phase, up to 11–22 kW three-phase): the recommended setup. A 7.4 kW unit adds about 40 km of range per hour and fully charges most cars overnight.

A wallbox isn't just about speed — it's safer for daily use than running a household socket at full load for hours, and it adds features like scheduling, load management and per-session tracking.

How long does a home charge take?

Estimate it with battery size ÷ charger power. A 60 kWh battery from near-empty at 7.4 kW takes roughly 8 hours — a full night. From your typical daily range (say 20–40% used), you're usually topping up in 2–4 hours.

What it costs — and how to make it cheap

Home charging cost is simply energy added (kWh) × your electricity rate. The biggest saving comes from charging overnight on an off-peak or EV tariff, where available: many drivers pay a fraction of the daytime rate by scheduling charging for the small hours.

Electrical requirements

A wallbox is a fixed appliance that should be installed by a qualified electrician. They'll check your supply capacity, fit the right protection, and — if needed — add load management so the charger eases off when the rest of the house is drawing power. Never rely on a long extension lead for daily charging.

No driveway? You still have options

If you can't charge at home, workplace charging, nearby public AC "destination" chargers (at malls, gyms, offices) and the occasional rapid charge cover most needs. Use ChargEV to find the closest reliable public option and check live availability before you go.