Charging at home

Every electric car driver will need a dedicated smart charging point for their home, unless of course you live in an apartment complex but even so your building manager should be looking into installing a few for resident-use.

And one of the most common questions we get and drivers ask is: how long does it take to charge my car at home?

Fast Charging

If you are charging your car at home, you have two choices, generally speaking: 7.4kW (fast charging) or <3.7kW (slow charging). When you receive your electric vehicle, you can charge it with your home's wall socket, but this is limited to a maximum of 3.7kW (16A) and is often regarded as 'not-smart'. Or you can choose to install a smart charging point that offers fast charging.

This will cut the charging time of your vehicle by almost half and offer you a suite of features such as scheduled charging, charging session monitoring (and if you have a voltshare chargepoint you can even monetise it by sharing it out to your neighbours!).

How long will it take?

The exact time depends on your vehicle's battery capacity. Furthermore, charging from 0-80% will usually be at a maximum of 7.4kW (32A) which then drops significantly due to trickle-charging. Its primary purpose is to extend battery life.

If your vehicle's battery is 50kWh:

Time to charge with a 7.4kW smart charging point is about 5-7 hours*.
Time to charge with a wall-socket is about 10-14 hours.‍

*This number is an estimate as the actual charging current depends on the battery management system (BMS) of your vehicle. The BMS is a computer in your vehicle that tells the charging point how much electricity it wants to draw which all depends on smart, complex algorithms that extends the lifespan of your battery.

What does this mean?

This means that driving an electric car requires some planning and preparation. We recommend that drivers always top-up their car at their charging point whenever they can and by developing good habits, their car battery should never ever run out.

What Chargepoint should I buy?

There are plenty of options in the market and we have a few favourites ourselves. Here are the most important features we think are necessary in a home chargepoint:

1. Look for a 7.4kW fast chargepoint. Most homes are only single-phase and can support a maximum of 100A load. Furthermore, going with 22kW is unnecessary as most electric cars do not accept 22kW inputs! 
2. Choose a tethered (cabled) version. Charging will be a lot easier as the cable can simply be wrapped around the chargepoint after each session.
3. Type 2 connection. All electric cars in the U.K. have, by law, Type 2 charging ports. It is important to choose chargepoints that have Type 2 sockets or Type 2 charging cables.
4. Interactive display. Information is power: knowing what your chargepoint is doing and identifying any errors or faults will be essential, especially if you do not have your smartphone around to access the mobile app.
5. Works without an internet connection. The worst thing that can happen is your chargepoint becomes unusable when there is not network connectivity.
6. Works without a mobile app. Having an app to monitor your chargepoint can be useful but depending on it can be a recipe for disaster. This will also ensure your chargepoint will run for years to come.
7. Secure access. Prevent anyone else from using it (e.g. when you are away on holiday) with multiple authentication measures such as an RFID access card or via a mobile app.

With a voltshare chargepoint, not only are you getting these features, you will also be joining the voltshare charging network. Homeowners can rent and monetise their chargepoints like a public chargepoint! We have introduced several security features to ensure only authorised VShare app users can use it.