Just Bought an Electric Car in Lea Village? A Local Home Charging Guide

Buying an electric car is the easy part. Working out what you need bolted to the wall at home is where most new owners stall, usually because every website they read is trying to sell them a specific unit.

We fit charge points across this corner of east Birmingham, so this is written around the housing here rather than a generic national guide.

Much of Lea Village is inter-war and post-war semis with front gardens converted to hardstanding. If that describes your house, a home charge point is straightforward and the run from the board is usually short.

There is little point relying on public charging when you have your own parking — the cost difference over a year of ordinary commuting is substantial.

A three-pin lead is fine for the occasional top-up and poor as a daily routine — slow, and hard work for a socket that was designed for a kettle rather than a car. A charge point on its own circuit fixes both problems.

We install BG SyncEV and Ohme. Both charge any plug-in car sold in the UK, so the question is which suits your house and your tariff rather than which suits your badge.

For the typical Lea Village house, a BG SyncEV on the front elevation does the job neatly. If you have solar or an overnight EV tariff, mention it when you ring — that changes the recommendation.

There is a full side-by-side here: BG SyncEV vs Ohme.

On the semis around Lea Village, with a short run from the hall board to a front driveway, BG SyncEV is our usual recommendation. It is straightforward, we fit it constantly, and it keeps a properly done installation affordable.

It is a recommendation, not a rule. If your tariff or your parking makes Ohme the smarter choice, that is the advice you will get.

More about the unit: BG SyncEV home chargers.

If you have solar, or you are on an overnight EV tariff, mention it when you ring — that is the point at which Ohme becomes worth the extra consideration rather than a default.

More about the unit: Ohme home chargers.

Yes. These houses are single-phase, so 7kW is the sensible fit, and Type 2 is the connector every plug-in car in the UK uses for AC charging.

The rate your car accepts is set by its own hardware. A larger unit cannot force more into it, which is why we do not sell anyone capability they cannot use.

Yes, normally. What we need is the vehicle details and enough information about the property to establish what the job involves.

Getting it done in advance means no juggling public chargers in your first fortnight of ownership.

• Assessing the incoming supply, earthing and board
• Choosing a solid mounting position and a safe cable route
• Running the dedicated protected circuit
• Fitting, connecting and commissioning
• Testing, certification and a walk-through before we go

The consumer unit in these houses is commonly in the hall or under the stairs, which usually means a short run through the front wall to a driveway unit.

Where a drive has been widened over an old front garden, we check the cable route and the mounting point for something solid rather than fixing to loose render.

We price the property, not a template. A short front-of-house run with a modern board is the cheapest way to do this properly; anything else we will explain before starting.

Straightforward fronts keep the cost at the lower end. Boards that predate modern protection requirements are the usual reason a quote comes back higher, and we will explain exactly why if that applies to you.

Full breakdown: what affects the cost of a home charger installation.

Lea Village is a couple of minutes from us, which makes it easy to come and look at the job properly before quoting rather than pricing it off a phone description.

If you are ready for a quote rather than a read, our Lea Village EV charger installation page has the detail.

We cover the surrounding area from the same base, including Shard End, Kitts Green, Stechford, Tile Cross, Garretts Green.