EV Charger Installation

What we install

Wall-mounted AC chargers for garages and carports
Single-phase chargers up to 7kW
Three-phase chargers up to 22kW where the supply allows
Smart chargers with app control and scheduling
Dedicated circuits with RCD protection to suit the charger
Switchboard upgrades where the board has no spare capacity
Chargers for strata parking and small workplace fleets
Weatherproof outdoor installation

The first question is whether your board can carry it

An EV charger is one of the largest continuous loads a house will ever run. A 7kW single-phase charger pulls around 32 amps for hours at a stretch, which is more than many homes draw in total on an ordinary evening.

So before anything gets quoted, we check the supply and the switchboard: what the main switch and service cable are rated for, how much spare capacity is on the board, and what else is already on it. In a lot of the older housing around here there is no spare way and no room to add one, which means a switchboard upgrade comes first.

We will tell you that before you buy a charger, not after it is sitting in your garage.

Single phase, three phase, and what it means for charging

Most homes in the St George area are single phase, which caps a home charger at about 7kW. That adds roughly 40km of range an hour, so an overnight charge covers almost any normal week of driving.

Three-phase supply allows 11kW or 22kW. It is faster, but it is only worth the money if your car can actually accept it — plenty of EVs charge no quicker than 11kW on AC no matter what the charger is rated for. Upgrading to three phase is a network job as well as an electrical one, and it is rarely worth doing for charging alone.

Load management where the supply is tight

Where there is not enough headroom for a full-output charger, a smart charger with dynamic load management is usually the answer. It watches what the rest of the house is drawing and throttles the charge rate so the main switch never gets near tripping, then ramps back up once the oven and the air conditioner are off.

That is almost always cheaper than upgrading the supply, and for overnight charging the slower rate makes no practical difference.

Cable runs and where the charger goes

The run from the switchboard to the garage or carport is often the biggest part of the job, especially where the board is at the front of the house and the parking is at the back. We run it through the cavity or roof space where there is a route, and use surface ducting where there is not, run neatly and painted so it disappears.

A charger mounted outside needs to be rated for the position and placed so the cable reaches the car's port without lying across a path.

Where we work