Can you bring me up to speed on the current costs of getting a charger fitted to a house? We’re off the road so it can be fitted, but a neighbour tells me that the connection is done at the fuse board, and that’s at the far side of the house from the driveway. I’d say there would be 50 metres to travel to where we’d need the plug socket. Do you pay by the amount of cabling, or is it a fixed fee? And what’s the grant situation for a private buyer?
You’ve mentioned in the past about bidirectional power available from EVs: which ones have that right now and do all the modern chargers allow for that?
Again, a neighbour told me that I would need a switch fitted, similar to the one you have to get if you want to plug a generator into your house. Any idea what the final bill would be for a charger and the ability to tap the car battery for power in the event of a storm?
Final questions: Is there much of a waiting list to get a home charger fitted? And why don’t the car companies organise for this to be all part of the sale? – DB, in Dublin
RM Block
Right, let’s look at the cost of getting a charger fitted first. We spoke to the experts at Ohme chargers, who told us that they sell two chargers in the Irish market – an ‘untethered’ version, which means you need to use the charging cable that comes with the car, which costs €1,249; or a ‘tethered’ model, which has its own integrated cable, that costs €1,299. In both cases, standard installation is included in the price, and there’s a €300 grant for having a home charger fitted, which Ohme will claim on your behalf so there’s no extra paperwork, and that brings the charger plus fitting cost down to €949 or €999, depending on the model.
So that the charger installer can work out what you need, there are a couple of processes to go through. First off, you need to confirm that you own the house, or that you have the permission of the owner to go ahead with the fitting. Then you need to provide your MPRN number (that’s the number of your electricity meter) and provide more details of the property and the location, along with photos and preferably a short video starting at your meter box and showing the distance and topography of the journey that the cable will have to go on to get to where you park and charge your car.
Now, according to Ohme, 80 per cent of charger installations will fall into the standard category when it comes to costs, with around 20 per cent being called ‘non-standard’ – and it sounds as if your installation falls into that category.
The cable itself isn’t the issue – chargers come with 15 metres of cable as standard, and extra cable isn’t expensive in and of itself; it’s where you need to lay the cable.
If the cable has be laid across a stretch of garden or lawn, then it must be dug to a depth of 40cm for protection, and while that’s time consuming and will add to the cost, it won’t be disastrous. If, though, the cable has to cross tarmac or a paved area, where vehicles might be crossing or people will be walking, then the problems start to stack up – not only does the cable now have to be buried to 60cm depth for protection, you will also have the hassle of digging a trench through a solid surface, and then re-laying that surface when you’re done.
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According to Ohme, the average cost for a ‘non-standard’ installation is an extra €400, but obviously, if that’s the average, then the potential peak cost can be considerably higher.
Nevertheless, Ohme says that it encourages customers to count the cost or potential cost of a charger installation against the considerable savings that can be made compared to running a petrol or diesel car. Even with the higher electricity bills that come from charging at home, you’re still on course to save possibly hundreds of euro a month, depending on your mileage. Even an expensive ‘non-standard’ charger installation can be recouped within a couple of years.
As for bi-directional power, no you don’t need to have an extra switch fitted, as for an external generator. As long as the car is set up for vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging – and that is becoming increasingly common, with Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia, Polestar and many others offering V2L capability – then the charger itself will handle the rest, no switch needed. You will need a ‘smart’ electricity meter too, although that should be part of any EV owner’s pre-purchase thinking.
Waiting lists are variable, of course, but in general most people get their home charger fitted within a few weeks of ordering. The only major delays seem to occur if the house needs work on its own electrical circuits to allow for the extra load – that can lead to significant holdups, so it would be a good idea to get a survey done on your house before making any car purchasing decision.
On your final point, actually most car makers will at the very least offer a complete package at purchase time that includes the charger and fitting with the car, while several – including the likes of Peugeot and Hyundai – are currently offering a free home charging point with any new EV order, along with the potential for cheaper electricity bills overall if you switch to their preferred provider.
