EV Charger Installation Cornwall

3 kW or 7 kW: which home charger is right?

Almost every home install in Cornwall is a 7.4 kW unit — a dedicated 32 A single-phase circuit — and it is the right answer for most households. The comparison that matters is overnight range, not headline power. At 3.5 miles per kWh, typical for a mid-size EV in mixed driving, a 7.4 kW charger returns roughly 25 miles of range per hour on charge; a 3 kW unit returns around 10. Over a seven-hour off-peak window that is the difference between about 175 miles and about 70.

22 kW chargers need a three-phase supply. Three-phase is uncommon in Cornish housing stock outside farms, converted commercial buildings and some newer developments, and the DNO will not simply upgrade a domestic single-phase supply on request. If a quote offers you 22 kW at home, ask which phase arrangement your property actually has before you accept it.

Is there still a government grant for a home charger?

Yes, but probably not for you if you own a house with a driveway. The old Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme closed to homeowners of single-unit properties in March 2022. What remains, administered by OZEV, is £500 per socket — the rate for every OZEV chargepoint grant since 1 April 2026 — and it is aimed at:

• people who rent their home, and flat owner-occupiers;
• landlords fitting chargepoints at residential or commercial property;
• households without any off-street parking, through the on-street residential scheme run with your local authority;
• businesses, under the Workplace Charging Scheme — £500 per socket, up to 40 sockets.

Grant-funded work has to be carried out by an OZEV-authorised installer and claimed by the installer, not the customer. We handle the voucher paperwork where a property qualifies, and we will tell you plainly when it does not rather than quote a price that assumes a grant you cannot have.

Can any electrician install an EV charger?

Legally, domestic electrical work must comply with BS 7671 and be notified under Part P of the Building Regulations — so a competent registered electrician can fit a chargepoint. In practice an EV circuit has requirements a general electrician may not meet every week:

• Section 722 of BS 7671 governs EV charging installations, including earthing arrangements. On the PME supplies common across Cornwall, that normally means a chargepoint with integral open-PEN detection, or a separate earth electrode.
• The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations have required smart functionality on new home and workplace chargepoints since 2022, including default off-peak charging hours and a randomised start delay. A non-compliant unit cannot lawfully be sold for domestic installation.
• Load assessment. A 32 A charger on top of an electric shower, an immersion heater and an induction hob can exceed the main fuse. Either the design accounts for that with load management, or the house trips on a cold evening.
• Grant work requires OZEV authorisation, which a general electrician will not usually hold.

Charging from your own solar

If you already have panels, charger choice stops being about the socket and starts being about diversion. A Zappi can charge from surplus generation only, or top up from the grid when the sun is not covering it; an Ohme leans on tariff integration instead, pulling your car charge into the cheapest half-hourly slots. Which is better depends on whether you are optimising for self-consumption or for pence per kWh — and if you have a battery, on how you want the two to share the surplus. We will walk through your own generation figures rather than guess. See solar panel installation in Cornwall and battery storage for how the three fit together.

What we fit, and what it costs installed

A long or awkward cable run adds £100–£300. Every price includes the unit, a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, all wiring and the Part P certification.