EV CHARGERS: Everything You Need to Know to Choose the Right EV Charger for Your Home
Last Updated: 30th Apr 2024 By Finn Peacock, Chartered Electrical Engineer
Ninety percent of EV charging happens at home, so choosing the right EV charger and properly integrating it into your home is important.
This guide covers selecting and installing home EV chargers, plus integrating them with solar. I’ll also explain how your charger can work with home batteries and variable electricity tariffs when you can’t charge directly from solar.
But if you’re in a hurry and just want to know the best EV home chargers to buy in Australia, here are the details.
- Why Your Home EV Charger Matters
- Understanding kW And kWh And Why It Matters With EV Chargers
- How Home EV Chargers Work
- Choosing The Right EV Charger For Your Home
- EV Charger Costs: Hardware And Installation
- Technical Considerations
- Understanding EV Charger Warranties
- Integrating Your EV Charger With Solar And Home Batteries
- Optional vs Essential EV Charger Features
- EV Charger Brands Available In Australia
- Best EV Chargers On The Australian Market?
- EV Charger Location: Garage or Driveway?
- Bi-Directional EV Chargers
- Conclusion
- EV Charger Quotes
- Helpful Links
Why Your Home EV Charger Matters
A good EV charger does more than fill your car battery as fast as possible; it optimises your charging to automatically charge from solar and/or cheap overnight electricity, dodging peak electricity rates, which can be up to ten times more expensive.
Pro-Tip: For those with a home battery, a properly integrated EV charging station ensures your car is charged without draining the home battery’s stored energy needed to power your home through the night.
If you simply buy a cheap charger online and then ask your local sparky to install it – it won’t be configured to play nice with your electricity tariff, solar or home battery. This guide will show you how to choose the right EV charger and find an electrician who knows how to install it properly.
Understanding kW And kWh And Why It Matters With EV Chargers
In this guide, I’ll regularly use two key terms: power (kW) and energy (kWh). The little ‘h’ at the end changes the meaning completely.
In the realm of EV charging:
- Power (kW) indicates the charging speed for your EV’s battery, ranging from 2 kW to 22 kW for home setups.
- Energy (kWh) measures your battery’s storage capacity, with each kWh enabling approximately 6 km of driving.
The terms ‘Power’ and ‘Energy’ are not interchangeable when talking about EV charging.
An example: if your EV charger charges at a power (AKA speed) of:
- 7 kW
- for 2 hours
…you will get 14 kWh of energy into your car’s battery.
How Home EV Chargers Work
EV chargers use either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) to charge your car’s battery.
Almost all home EV chargers use AC. They convert AC power from the grid to DC power, which is compatible with the EV battery.
That sets home EV chargers apart from the fastest public chargers, which operate on DC electricity and can charge up to 50 times faster than a typical home charger.
Nerd Fact: Can you install a DC fast charger at home? Yes, if you have deep pockets. You can get compact, wall-mounted 22kW DC chargers. Expect to pay over $10,000 for the charger, and you’ll likely need to spend more upgrading the supply to your home. For this reason, DC charging at home is rare.
A Home EV Charger Is Not An ‘EV Charger‘
Although the device on your wall is commonly referred to as an EV charger, the actual charging system—responsible for converting your home’s AC electricity into DC electricity and safely feeding it into the battery is built into your car, and looks something like this:
Onboard EV charger power ranges from 2 kW to 22 kW, depending on the car model.
The charging station on your wall is technically called an EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment). It works like this:
- the charger inside your car tells the EVSE how much power (kW) it can take
- then, the EVSE supplies power to the car’s charger, but only up to that limit
Choosing The Right EV Charger For Your Home
Slow Trickle Chargers (Level 1 EV Chargers)
Trickle chargers come for free with most cars, except Teslas. They start at $350 when bought separately (Tesla’s ‘Mobile Connector’ costs $550). Because they plug into a standard power point, they don’t require installation (unless you need to install a new power point where you park the car).
Pro-Tip: Extension Cords. Be careful using an extension cord to power your EV. Consider investing in a dedicated power point close to the car for regular charging. If you must use an extension cord – please read our in-house electrician’s advice on the safer way to charge with an extension cord.
A standard power point is limited to providing 10A of current.
10A x 230V = 2.3 kW.
That means trickle chargers charge at about 2 kW.
If your car has a small 60 kWh battery (e.g. Tesla Model 3 RWD), that’s 30 hours to fully charge.
Trickle charging limitations
Trickle chargers are painfully slow unless you have a small battery or don’t drive much. The charge rate is equivalent to adding 10 km of range every hour.
If you’re using a trickle charger for your car, you might keep it plugged in at home all the time to get as much charge as possible. But, there are downsides:
- Costly Timing: Charging in the evening peak, between 4pm and 10pm, can hit your wallet hard. This is when electricity prices soar because almost everyone’s pulling from the grid. If you’re on a standard rate, you might not notice. But those on a time-of-use rate will. You could set a timer to charge in off-peak hours (10pm-5am), but then you’re only getting a limited charge, about 14 kWh, which might not be enough.
- Solar Challenges: Depending on your solar setup and the time of year, there might only be a short window of 3-4 hours daily when you’ve got enough surplus solar to charge the car. Your mobile connector will pull electricity the grid outside of these hours, which can be 10x more expensive per kWh.
- Safety Risks: Standard power points can be vulnerable to the long, high-amperage draw that car charging demands. Using one at a constant 10 amps will expose any wiring issues in your home, from tripping breakers to more serious hazards like overheating plugs. While some advanced mobile chargers can sense temperature and dial back power to prevent overheating, not all have this feature. If you regularly charge from a power point, please read this advice from our in-house electrician, Anthony, to stay safe.
Investing in faster home charging
I recommend investing in a proper hard-wired charger at home and leaving your mobile charger in the boot for emergencies. If you’ve invested thousands in an EV, invest a little more in proper charging for your home.
Tesla Tip: Tesla’s mobile charger has interchangeable plugs, and can charge at 7 kW, with a third-party 32A plug. I don’t know of any other car-manufacturer-supplied mobile connectors with this feature.
Fast Hard-Wired Home Chargers (Level 2 Home EV Chargers)
Pro-Tip: Compare hard-wired home EV Chargers with my constantly updated EV Charger Comparison Table
A hard-wired EV charger designed for household use can charge at 7 kW to 22 kW. That’s between 3 and 10 times faster than a regular mobile connector. To achieve these charging speeds, a dedicated cable is installed back to your switchboard.
The speed of your home EV charger depends on two things:
- Whether your charger is 3-phase or single-phase (3-phase is up to 3x faster)
- The maximum AC charge rate of your car model (e.g. BYDs are 7 kW max, modern Teslas are 11 kW max)
Dumb EV Chargers
A Dumb home charger charges as fast as possible every time you plug in. The car tells the charger the maximum power it will accept (via one of the wires in the EV charging cable), and a dumb charger simply matches that power.
Smart EV Chargers
However, with a smart charger, you gain control. In essence, it can decide whether to charge or not and may adjust the charging speed based on:
- Time of day
- Variable Electricity tariffs
- Excess solar power
- Home battery levels
- Commands from your electricity retailer (if you sign up for such a plan)
- Commands from your local electricity network (this doesn’t happen now but is likely in the future to prevent grid overload)
EV Charger Costs: Hardware and Installation
Hardware Cost
Since the internal electronics of an EV charger are relatively simple, many cheap options exist. However, the cheapest single-phase EV charger I would comfortably recommend is the Tesla Wall Connector. This one goes for $800 for single or 3-phase supplies. You can buy it directly from Tesla, but I’d recommend buying from the installation company. Then, they are responsible for both the hardware and installation warranty.
While the Tesla Wall Connector is compatible with most modern EVs, it is considered a ‘dumb’ charger with no native smart solar charging capabilities unless you own the entire Tesla ecosystem, i.e., a Powerwall home battery and Tesla car.
Nerd Fact: Why are Tesla’s home EV chargers so dumb? Elon Musk’s philosophy, “The best part is no part,” sheds some light. Adding smart features increases costs, and Tesla cars are already designed to be the smarts of the operation. Within the Tesla ecosystem, this “dumb” charger is all you need, keeping things simpler. However, the simplicity becomes a limitation when charging non-Tesla EVs, resulting in dumb charging only.
The most expensive home charger I know of in Australia is the Keba KeContact P30 x-series, which costs an eye-watering $3,300.
Most home EV chargers with a good feature set cost about $1,500.
The cheapest OCPP-compatible charger I know of is the ZJ Beny at around $750, but I wouldn’t recommend it. A friend bought one and had so much trouble with it that he swapped it for a Tesla Wall Connector.
Installation Cost
EV Charger installation can cost as little as $300 for a single-phase charger right next to your switchboard, and up to many thousands if you need to run a long power cable, dig trenches, or even upgrade your supply and/or switchboard to handle the extra power requirements.
But most people will pay $1000 – $1,500 for the installation on top of the hardware cost.
- Cable cost would go for $10 – $15 per meter.
- Standard single-phase switchboard overhauls might range between $1200 – $2000
- The cheapest DNSP supply upgrade would be $600 plus consumer mains cabling on the customer’s property, but if new power poles or transformer upgrades are required, this could expand to $60,000!
Technical Considerations
Selecting the Correct Plug for Your EV Charger
If you are buying a Home EV Charger, what connector/plug should it have to be compatible with your car?
This one is easy. Unless you drive an EV more than 5 years old (pre-2020) or have a special import, you need a ‘Type 2’ plug (also known as a Mennekes or CCS2), which looks like this:
You can confirm by looking at the charging socket on your car it should look like this.
You may have noticed that the socket is a different shape from the plug! Don’t worry. The bottom part of the socket is for fast DC chargers to use. I’ll explain why later.
If you have an older EV you may need an adaptor to go from a modern EV charger’s Type 2 plug to fit your car’s vintage socket.
Single-Phase vs Three-Phase Chargers: What You Need to Know
All modern EVs can charge at 7 kW (~ 40 km added per hour) with a single-phase hard-wired EV charger.
If your home has a 3-phase supply, and you buy a 3-phase EV charger, each phase is capable of a maximum 7.3 kW. This way, your charger can charge at 22 kW (~ 125 km added per hour).
Pro-Tip: If you have a 3-phase supply, buy a 3-phase charger. The hardware costs either the same or about a hundred bucks more for 3-phase, and the installation costs a couple hundred bucks more. But, you’ll enjoy the faster charging when you are in a hurry, and even if your current car can’t charge at 3-phase speeds, you’ve future-proofed your EV charging setup.
EV Charger Speed Is Limited By Your Car’s AC Charging Rate
Some EVs can charge faster on 3-phase, while others can’t. For example, BYDs cannot charge quicker than 7 kW on single or three-phase AC. Tesla’s Model 3 and Y can charge at 7 kW on single-phase and 11 kW on 3-phase.
Onboard charging at a full 22 kW on 3-phase AC is only available on the Porsche Taycan and the Audi e-Tron (GT) as an option in Australia. The Renault Zoe can charge at 22 kW too, but it has been discontinued in Australia.
Understanding EV Charger Warranties
Most people only use their hard-wired EV chargers for a couple of hours a day and their electronics are relatively simple. The longest EV charger warranties I’m aware of are only 5 years and most are only 2 or 3.
The main reason warranties are so short is EV chargers are still new technology. Once manufacturers are confident they can go the distance, they’ll hopefully lengthen the warranties. Those that can’t go the distance will either be improved or disappear from the market.
But the warranties don’t just have a problem with length. The protection they provide can be very limited. Ideally, you’ll want a warranty that…
- fully covers the full cost of replacing a failed unit — including labour and transport. Watch out for warranties that only compensate with an undefined “market price” or only offer credit on the company’s products.
- covers all components without exclusions, including the charging cable if it comes with one.
- doesn’t exclude “wear and tear” as a cause for a warranty claim. If normal use can wear out an EV charger within its warranty period, then it’s a lousy product.
- is backed up by an office in Australia. If the manufacturer doesn’t have an Australian office, then the importer is responsible for the manufacturer’s warranty.
Australian Consumer Law
Few EV charger warranties meet all the points above. But the good news is Australian Consumer Guarantees will still protect you. These apply no matter what a written warranty says and can still provide protection even after the warranty period. However, having a warranty that doesn’t force you to rely on Consumer Guarantees is always better. If something goes wrong, you’re less likely to need a fight to get the service you’re entitled to.
To ensure the best possible consumer protection, I recommend paying an installer to both provide and install your EV charger. This way, if there’s a problem, the installer is responsible for ensuring your system functions as it should. If your installer is no longer around you can contact the manufacturer directly.
But if you purchase an EV charger online and then pay an installer to put it in, the installer is not responsible for the hardware warranty. You might get caught in the middle between manufacturer and installer, one blaming the other for problems.
Integrating Your EV Charger with Solar and Home Batteries
Solar Smart EV Chargers
If you have a large enough solar array, then one of the best features to look for in a home EV charger is smart solar charging.
This feature, when enabled, will monitor how much excess solar is available and divert that solar electricity into your car battery. That way, you are filling your car with the cheapest electricity in the world: behind-the-meter Australian solar.
This feature can be achieved in 3 ways:
- The EV charger has its own current sensor (CT), which goes around the cable from the street. When it senses electricity being exported it ramps up the car charging power to suit.
- The EV charger digitally communicates with the smart meter on your solar inverter instead of relying on its own sensor.
- An external app such as ChargeHQ talks to your EV charger and solar inverter via OCPP and controls your charger to achieve the same. The difference is that the smarts are in the app, not in the charger.
If you have a Tesla car, then there is a fourth way to achieve this. An external app like ChargeHQ talks to your solar inverter and car (not the EV charger) and commands the car to only charge on surplus solar (even if you have a dumb EV charger). Tesla owners in the USA can also do this using the Tesla app if they have a Powerwall to measure the solar. I expect this feature to be available to Tesla owners in Australia soon.
Note: if you have a small solar array – this feature will likely just frustrate you as your car can charge very slowly or not at all depending on how sunny it is. It is one reason new EV owners often upgrade their solar array to 10-20 kW.
Integrating with a Home Battery
If you have a home battery, it’s usually best to save the energy in the battery for your home, not to empty it into your car. Do you want to prevent this from happening? The foolproof way to do it is with this simple wiring change.
If your EV charger is the same brand as your home battery or hybrid inverter, then you should be able to achieve the same outcome with software. As they can all talk to each other, this gives you more flexibility.
Optional vs Essential EV Charger Features
Smart EV chargers can include several smart charging features. But I’d say the most important feature is a weird acronym: OCPP.
Essential Feature: OCPP – The One Feature To Rule Them All
The most forward-thinking feature of an EV charger is its compatibility with the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). This facilitates communication with other OCPP devices and integration with third-party services for optimised charging strategies, including cost-saving tariffs linked to energy market prices.
If you have OCPP, most of the following features can be added with software:
Optional Feature #1: Multiple Charger Load Management
This feature allows for coordinating multiple chargers to distribute electrical load evenly. This ensures the household’s main circuit breaker isn’t overwhelmed.
Optional Feature #2: Household Loads Demand Management
For homes with high power demands (e.g., electric floor heating), enhanced load balancing adjusts the power distribution to prevent circuit overload while charging EVs.
Optional Feature #3: Extra Cable Length
Ensure your cable is long enough to work any way you park. Pick an untethered charger and grab a lengthy ‘Type 2 to Type 2’ cable. This way, you can easily charge two cars, no matter how they’re parked, without the hassle of moving them around.
Optional Feature #4: Timers
Using a timer to benefit from time-of-use tariffs for cheaper off-peak charging makes sense, especially when solar production is insufficient. Every EV I’ve ever sat in can also be configured to charge on a timer – but I find it easier to rely on the charger than the car, especially if you have multiple EVs.
Optional Feature #5: Secure Access
Implementing a PIN code restricts charger access and ensures that only authorised users can initiate charging, providing peace of mind.
Optional Feature #6: Individual Car Electricity Use Tracking
Can the charger identify each user or vehicle and log their electricity consumption? This helps manage expenses among multiple drivers. This can be done through automatic detection or unique identifiers like codes or RFID cards.
Best EV Chargers On The Australian Market?
I asked over 500 Aussie electricians what home EV charger they would put on their own homes if money were no object. The clear winner was the Fronius Wattpilot. The Wattpilot is expensive at $1800, and very well made. It integrates natively with Fronius inverters. If you have a Fronius inverter, it’s the best choice.
I also asked what home charger they would put on their own homes if they were on a tight budget and the winner was Tesla’s Wall Connector. It is a high-quality charger compatible with any modern EV, but lacks many smart functions. Its low price makes it the best ‘dumb charger’ in Australia.
The Tesla Wall Connector can be smart – but only when paired with a Tesla Powerwall battery and Tesla car.
The Delta AC Max Smart which I own, only got two votes from our installers! The Delta brand is not well-known amongst Aussie residential electricians, but I know it well from my days working on Nuclear Power Stations. I know Delta gear to be well made and well supported, and can recommend their car chargers.
Pro-Tip: Stay in the inverter ecosystem. If you already have solar, then buying your electric car charger from the brand that makes your solar inverter or battery is a smart move to avoid compatibility issues when trying to coordinate your solar and battery with your charging. Fronius, Goodwe, SolarEdge and Sungrow all make EV chargers that should work seamlessly with their inverter/batteries.
Some EV Charger Brands Available In Australia
| Brand | My verdict |
|---|---|
 | ABB is a multi-billion dollar industrial giant from Switzerland. So its EV chargers should be well-made and well-backed. |
 | Delta Electronics is another giant industrial company, this time from Taiwan. They make inverters for Tesla and other EV companies. Their residential EV chargers, although fiddly to set up, are good quality and reliable but frustratingly have a miserly 2-year warranty. |
 | Evnex are a relatively new company based in NZ. On paper their car chargers look excellent value. I’ve yet to see one in the flesh, though. |
 | EO is a British manufacturer of teeny-tiny EV wall chargers. |
 | Amazing Fronius quality, OCPP and easy integration into the Fronius ecosystem make a Fronius Wattpilot EV charger a no-brainer for those with a Fronius inverter. |
 | FIMER is a solar inverter manufacturer that also makes electric vehicle chargers for home. Only worth considering if you already have a FIMER inverter. |
 | Hypervolt is another UK crowd making nice-looking, good-value chargers. |
 | JET Charge is an Aussie startup company providing good support. Their electric car home charger is a little pricey, though. |
 | KEBA makes high-quality, if somewhat ugly, Austrian EV chargers. |
 | MyEnergi is a longstanding manufacturer out of the UK. They pioneered the ‘smart-solar’ charger many years ago. Their early models were pretty crap IMO, but the latest model – finally with Wi-Fi and OCPP – is worth considering. |
 | Ocular is a Chinese company making well-regarded home chargers under $1,000. |
 | SMA make great quality, reassuringly expensive gear. Unfortunately, they have told us that due to market demand in the EU, they have discontinued their EV charger in Australia. Meanies. |
 | Schneider is a huge company with industrial roots. I used their gear in factories in my engineering days, so they should be reliable. But I can’t recommend them because – for their price – their warranty is just too short. |
 | SolarEdge is a big company in the solar world. If you’ve got a SolarEdge inverter, get a SolarEdge EV Charger. It’s a no-brainer. They can talk to each other out of the box, making everyones life easier. |
 | Tesla’s Wall Connector EV charger is good quality and great value at $800 for the hardware. It will charge any brand of recent EV in Australia. But there’s a big problem. It’s dumb. Unlike most other home EV chargers, it can’t be set up to only charge off excess solar without a Tesla Powerwall. So, if you want a reliable, cheap, dumb charger for any EV – it’s a great choice. If you want smarts, look elsewhere. (Tesla car owners can make it smart without buying a Powerwall by using the ChargeHQ app, which controls the charging by talking to the Tesla car, not the Tesla charger – but that has an ongoing monthly subscription fee). |
 | Wallbox is one of the original EV charger manufacturers and has a good reputation for quality, support and all the features you need. I’d be happy with a Wallbox EV charger on my wall. |
EV Charger Location: Garage or Driveway?
According to EV FireSafe, an EV has a 1 in 83,000 chance of catching fire1.
Even with those odds, I prefer to charge on a shaded driveway. My logic is that, although extremely unlikely, if my EV does catch fire, it’s less likely to burn the house down. So, my EV charger is installed outside.
But that’s just me. If you are happy to store a petrol car in your garage, charging an EV in there should be acceptable to you, too, as an EV is about 80 times less likely to catch fire than a petrol or diesel car.
EV chargers in the driveway can be mounted on a wall or a post. Charging cable length will determine whether you need to park a certain way around to reach the charge point – especially if you have more than one car.
Sidebar: Don’t have a driveway for an EV Charger? Solutions to EV charging on the street are explored here.
Bi-Directional EV Chargers
Not only can you drive EVs, but they can also power household appliances (V2L), feed energy back to the grid (V2G), or supply electricity to homes (V2H), acting as mobile batteries.
V2L allows EVs to directly power devices during outages. This is useful in emergencies but is limited compared to dedicated home batteries.
V2G offers potential earnings for EV owners by selling power back to the grid during peak demand.
However, it doesn’t supply home power during blackouts. V2H stands out by enabling EVs to function as home battery systems, potentially replacing the need for separate batteries, especially for homes with solar panels. This technology can keep operating during grid failures, with solar panels charging the EV.
Bi-directional chargers, necessary for V2H and V2G, are expensive and scarce in Australia, with regulatory and standardisation efforts ongoing. V2H has promise and investing in solar panels to prepare for its wider adoption is a wise choice. For more information, look at our in-depth article about V2L, V2H and V2G.
Cars that offer V2L, V2G, V2H
| EV model | V2L | V2G | V2H |
|---|---|---|---|
| BYD Atto 3, Dolphin, Seal | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Cupra Born* | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Genesis GV60, GV70, G80 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Hyundai Iconiq 5 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Kia EV6, EV9, Niro EV | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MG ZS EV | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| MG4 | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| GWM Ora | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Nissan Leaf | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
* requires ‘Wallbox Qasar 2’ bi-directional inverter, which hasn’t been released yet – so we can’t confirm that Cupra’s claimed V2G/V2H works
Currently, the Nissan Leaf is the only fully electric car with V2G and V2H capabilities. However, you can convert your V2L vehicle to run parts of your house.
For example, Home Open Energy Manager (HOEM) has a V2L controller you can install in your home. It enables V2H-like functionality from EVs with only V2L capabilities. When your V2L car is connected to the HOEM system, it can power select house circuits during grid outages or peak times.
Tesla Powershare
‘Tesla Powershare’ is Tesla’s answer to Vehicle to Home (V2H) and is only available in the USA at time of writing. Americans can use Tesla Powershare if they have a Powerwall 3, a Tesla Wall Connector and a Cybertruck.
Check our blog post on Tesla’s Powerwall 3 for more information on how it works.
EV Charger Cables
Which cable do I need for my EV charger? How long of a cable do I need? Is an adaptor necessary? How much will a cable cost me? Find out the answers in my EV Charging Cables guide.
Public EV Chargers
When you can’t charge at home, you’ll need to charge at public EV chargers. I break down everything you need to know about charging on the road in my Public EV Charging guide.
Conclusion
If you are buying an EV and looking to invest in a home charger, I recommend the following:
- Invest in a hard-wired, Level 2 EV charger that can charge your EV from empty overnight. Leave your mobile charger in the boot for emergencies.
- If you have a 3-phase supply, install a 3-phase charger.
- If you have an EV, you’ll get great benefits from a large solar system. If you have a large solar system (10 kW+), you’ve likely got enough spare solar to make smart solar charging worthwhile. A smart solar charger can be configured to only charge from solar. That’s the cheapest ‘fuel’ you can get.
- Only use the fast DC public chargers on road trips. They are about 10 times more expensive than charging from solar at home.
EV Charger Quotes
If you’re ready to buy an EV charger, I can help you get quotes for quality home charging systems from pre-vetted installers quickly and easily:
Helpful Links
- EV Firesafe estimates 0.0012 % chance of EV car catching fire and 0.1% chance of ICE car catching fire ↩︎