Can my house have an EV charger?

Does my main fuse limit what I can install?

This is the one that catches people out. A 7kW charger draws around 32A on its own, on top of everything else in the house. If your main incoming fuse is 60A or 80A, which is common in properties built before the 1990s, that headroom may not be there on a cold evening with the oven and the shower going.

There are two honest answers when it is tight. Either your Distribution Network Operator upgrades the fuse, which is usually free or low cost but has to be applied for, or the charger is fitted with load curtailment so it automatically eases off when the rest of the house is busy. Load curtailment is built into most modern units and works well. It just means the car sometimes charges slightly slower.

The fuse is behind a sealed cover and only the network operator may break that seal. If anyone offers to change it, that is a serious red flag.

What is the earthing problem people mention?

Most UK homes use an earthing arrangement called PME, where the earth and the neutral are combined on the incoming supply. Indoors that is fine. Outdoors, with a car that a person is touching while it is connected, a rare supply fault could put a dangerous voltage on the metal bodywork.

BS 7671 deals with this, and there are two standard ways to satisfy it. The older method is an earth rod driven into the ground to give the charge point its own separate earth. The newer and now far more common method is a charger with built in PEN fault detection, which disconnects by itself if it senses the problem. Most current units have this, which is why earth rods are getting rarer.

None of this is optional or a way for an installer to pad a quote. It is the difference between a compliant installation and a dangerous one.

Will I need a new consumer unit?

Not usually, but sometimes. A charge point needs its own dedicated circuit with the right protective device, so there has to be a spare way in the board and the board has to be in good enough condition to take it.

Where it does come up is with older boards: a plastic enclosure, rewireable fuses, or no RCD protection at all. In that case the honest advice is that the board is due anyway and doing it at the same time as the charger saves a second visit and a second set of testing. We would rather tell you that at survey than surprise you on the day.

If you are weighing that up, our page on fuse board replacement explains what a modern board actually gives you.

Does where I park change the price?

More than anything else does. The single biggest variable in an EV charger quote is the run from the consumer unit to the charge point: how far, what it passes through, and whether it can be clipped along a wall or has to be dug in.

A board in the garage with the car parked outside it is a short, cheap job. A board under the stairs at the front of the house with parking at the back, across a block paved drive, is a different job entirely, because someone has to lift and relay that paving.

That is why we survey. It is also why a fixed price advertised online before anyone has seen your house should be read carefully for what it excludes.

What if I have no off street parking?

Then a home charge point is not on, and we will tell you so rather than sell you something that cannot be used. Running a cable across a public footpath is not something a reputable installer will do, because it creates a trip hazard you are liable for and most councils prohibit it.

The realistic options are workplace charging, public rapid chargers, or a council on street scheme if your area runs one. Milton Keynes has a reasonable public network compared with a lot of the country.

Flats are the exception worth knowing about. There is a government grant aimed specifically at flat owner occupiers and at landlords, which changes the sums where there is a car park with allocated spaces. If you are a landlord looking at this across a portfolio, that is the scheme to read.

Are there still grants?

Not for a homeowner in a house with a driveway. That scheme closed. The grants that remain are aimed at people who could not otherwise get a charger: flat owner occupiers, renters, and landlords fitting them for tenants.

The rules and the amounts change, so we would rather point you at the government page than print a figure here that goes stale. Whoever installs it has to be authorised for the scheme and the claim is made by the installer, not by you.

Questions we get asked about this