EV charging
Home EV charging: a beginner's guide
Home charging means plugging in overnight on a cheap EV tariff and waking up full. The charger is the easy part, the tariff is where the saving actually comes from.
By KS Electrical, Uttoxeter · Updated 25 August 2026 · 7 min read
The mental model that makes it click
Stop thinking of it as refuelling. You aren't going somewhere to fill up; you're plugging in the way you plug in a phone. You leave in the morning with a full battery because it charged while you slept, and most of the time you never think about it.
That's why home charging changes the ownership experience more than the car does, and why public rapid charging, which is what everyone worries about before they buy, turns out to matter only on long journeys.
What a home charge point actually is
A wall-mounted unit on a dedicated circuit from your consumer unit, delivering up to 7.4kW, around 25 to 30 miles of range an hour. It talks to your car, controls the charge, and lets you schedule when it draws power.
All new domestic charge points sold in Great Britain have to be smart, under the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021. In practice that means scheduling, an app, and default off-peak charging windows are standard rather than an upgrade.
The tariff is where the money is
This is the single most important thing to understand, and it's the bit people skip.
Charging at the standard domestic rate is fine but unremarkable. Charging in a dedicated overnight EV window is dramatically cheaper per unit, and the difference between the two is far larger than the difference between any two charge points you might buy.
So: get on an EV tariff, set the charger's schedule to match its cheap window, and let it get on with it. Plug in when you get home; the charger decides when to actually pull power. Getting that set up on day one is worth more than any option on the unit.
Tethered or untethered?
- Tethered: the cable is permanently attached. Quicker day to day, because you get out, plug in and you are done.
- Untethered: a socket on the wall, and you use your own cable. Tidier, easier if two different cars share it, and a damaged cable is a cable replacement rather than a charger replacement.
Neither is wrong. Cable length matters more than the choice does, a lead that won't quite reach the far side of the car is a daily annoyance you'll never stop noticing.
If you have solar panels
Most current chargers can use surplus solar generation rather than importing, charging only from what the panels are exporting, or blending the two when there isn't enough sun.
It needs the right metering fitted at the consumer unit, so mention the panels when you enquire. Retrofitting it later means going back into the board.
What to sort before the car arrives
- Check you have somewhere off-street to park where a cable won't cross a footpath.
- Photograph your consumer unit and your meter. Those two pictures tell an installer most of what they need to know.
- Get a survey and a quote. Lead times on installations are real, and they're worse in the weeks either side of a new registration plate.
- Choose your tariff and switch, or at least start the process, switching isn't instant.
- Decide tethered or untethered, and be honest about which side of the car the port is on.
FAQs
Related questions
Can I just use the three-pin lead that came with the car?
Occasionally, yes, but not as your everyday method. It's roughly a third of the speed, and sustained near-maximum load on a domestic socket circuit night after night is a genuine risk on older wiring. It's a backup, not a solution.
Do I need to be at home for the car to charge?
No. You plug in when you arrive and the charger runs on its schedule, normally during the cheap overnight window. Most units also let you override and charge immediately from the app.
What happens in a power cut?
The charger stops and resumes when supply returns. The car is unaffected. Some units need the schedule checking afterwards, which the app will show you.
How much does it cost to charge at home?
It depends entirely on your tariff. Multiply your battery size in kWh by your off-peak unit rate for a rough full-charge figure, the pence-per-unit rate does far more to that number than anything about the charger itself.