Choosing the best EV home charger : Full Guide
Charging your EV, as well as any other activity, doesn’t feel nice unless it’s done at your very own doorsteps. Choosing an EV charger and making sure it plays nicely with your electrical system at home can feel overwhelming. It might be tempting to grab the cheapest EV charger and call an installer to have it installed immediately. That’s a recipe for disaster. This article will link you to reads and pointers that’ll help you make the smartest choice for your EV home charger.
The output of the EV Home charger (kW)
This term is commonly used when talking about charging your EV vehicle. Similarly, it’s the speed at which your EV home charger can provide to your EV’s on-board charger. Simply said, it’s a measurement of the power of how fast your EV battery can charge. Speaking of charging speeds, the output numbers of the (kW) for EV chargers are as follows:
What are the capabilities of the on-board charger of your EV?
Hold your horses; despite the larger number being true for the speed at which the EV charger can output power, it’s still important to consider that your EV might not be able to make the most of it. An EV has an on-board charger that limits the (kW) received, a design choice made by the manufacturers to ensure that the battery lifespan is preserved. A calculation example is provided below for charging with a higher power output (kW).
DC chargers are faster than AC, so why not use them as an EV Home Charger?
In terms of possibility, DC chargers may be installed within your home. However, the convenience of charging fully under an hour isn’t worth the astronomical amount of money needed to splurge for the additional infrastructure to support the DCFC. Not to mention that it’s way more cost-effective to go out and use a public DCFC instead.
EV Home Chargers: Single Phase or 3-phase
EV chargers are split into categories that cater to single-phase or 3 phase charging. Your household power supply is what matters when choosing the correct EV charger best for your home. If you want a three-phase EV charger but your home only supplies through a single-phase configuration, fret not, as there are upgrades made available to turn it into a 3-phase power supply.
- 7kW – Single Phase EV charger
- 11kW / 22kW – Three-Phase EV charger
Your home’s power supply – single or three-phase?
The next question to ask is whether your home has the capacity to home the 3-phase chargers and how much leeway your single-phase power supply configuration at home can properly accommodate a 7kW charger atop of the usage of the existing electrical appliances at home. Things to note when talking about installing an EV charger when your home is a single-phase supply.
- Single-phase homes have greater risks as the consumption is all on the same incoming wire
- Judge and mandate changes according to the infrastructure your single-phase housing can accommodate
More info related to 3-phase or single-phase power supply costs can be found here, including the added costs of things to upgrade from a single to a 3-phase.
Type of cable connector and cable length
The cable length for most installed EV home chargers is usually given at 5 metres. However, there are some exceptions, like the Tesla Wall connector, which has a length of 7.3 metres. Extra costs can be incurred if you want to extend the length of the cable to facilitate easier access to charging.
Tethered and untethered chargers.
Throughout the list of EV chargers, there are some that provide the option to either have it tethered to the EV home charger or untethered.
Size of the EV Home charger
Do you have adequate space for the placement of the EV Home charger? Knowing the EV charger’s dimensions will help you better grasp allocating space for it around your home. There are instances where the EV home charger is bulkier than the other models and will require further planning to decide on installation.
The total budget for your EV Home charger
One of the most important factors that helps with deciding on an EV Home charger is the money that you’re willing to part with. As there are different ranges of EV Home chargers, so are their prices; the higher the price point, the more likely there are features packed into the EV Home charger. Here are compiled the top 10 EV chargers with prices to help you dictate the best purchase.
Factors that affect EV home charger budgeting
Optional vs Essential EV Home Charger Features
One of the essential features that are evident in providing an optimal charging experience from an EV Home charger is that it is capable of connecting your vehicle through applications that provide in-depth real-time charging statistics for you to understand better the charging behavior from your home. An EV Home charger can provide some essential features.
- Open charge points protocol (OCPP) compliant – able to consider how much excess power you are generating when especially connected to a solar panel system and communicate with the system
- Smart charging – able to manage and optimize charging with dynamic load balancing and scheduling charges.
- IP-Rated EV Home Charger – The home charger should be IP-rated to at least withstand the changing weather conditions outside of your home if it’s installed outdoors and getting jet-pressure by water.
- Connectivity – There are EV home chargers that are connected via Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. The convenience of having a Wi-Fi-connected EV home charger is that you’re always connected when at home since Wi-Fi is a staple for households nowadays.
- Optional: Compatibility with solar matching – able to match the charge rate of the EV to the amount of solar power being exported to the grid. Allowing users to consume their charging through solar power and pause when there is not enough solar power produced.
Ease of use when using the EV Home charger
Understanding the entirety of adopting a home EV charger is daunting enough, that sometimes all you want is just a “dumb charger” that is user-friendly at its core. There are features that help with understanding the status of your charging through LED indicator lights at a glance and applications that warrant ease of visualizing the data represented by the charging.
Safety design of the EV Home charger
EV charging should be safe to utilize under all manner of usage and should remain that way under similar circumstances of usage at home. There are some safety features that should be prioritized when deciding on your EV home charger, such as:
- Overcurrent protection – In case of an electrical fault, it’ll prevent damage to the charger and your EV by disabling current flow.
- Surge Protection – installed to detect and divert the significant increases in voltage to the earth instead of the charger itself.
- Ground Fault protection – isolating shock hazards from the user
- Temperature monitoring – Reducing the output power accordingly to ensure that the charger doesn’t overheat during operation.
Finding an Installer that can relocate your EV Charger
You may have purchased an EV charger for your home following the guidelines written above. However, it has come to the realization that you are about to move out. You call your EV charger provider who installed it for you, and they say they can’t do anything about it. This scenario would’ve been avoidable if your installer is Energi Elite, as they offer a free relocation service for any of their installed EV chargers within a 5 km of range from the original point of installation.
Conclusion
Relatively, there is a lot to take in when considering an EV charger for your home, but rest easy, as following the guidelines above will allow you to discover the best EV charger for your home. Installers will also always guide you on things related to the EV charger if you’re not entirely sure, but being able to present what you need and form a stronger basis of understanding what you want to ask will always be better for both the customer and installer.
About Energielite.
We specialize in EV charger installations across Malaysia catering to all types of property – be it landed homes or high rise residential. Our commitment is providing quality installation that spells safety to customers.
Let us save you the hassle. We prioritize safety over quantity and never compromise on the quality of equipments use, certified by SIRIM and Suruhanjaya Tenaga.
Never worry again for your Tesla, BYD, BMW, Kia EV, Mini Copper, Proton e.Mas and Audi chargers as we’ve done them all and won’t have a problem doing them again.
