EV grant changes

I need to get a charger installed at some point.  But I can't see how it benefits me to get a smart charger.  I would rather have a socket that charges the vehicle whenever I want it to.

Sorry this is a bit of a tangent from your post but I've been looking into smart chargers for a developer we work with, they are building a small number of houses and want to install electric car charging points, but every company I look at is geared up for providing the charging point under the grant scheme. I've tried emailing a few and no response. It's really confusing tbh, you must be able to just buy one of these off the shelf to install?

But I can't see how it benefits me to get a smart charger. I would rather have a socket that charges the vehicle whenever I want it to.

Depends if you want to pay full whack for the electricity - if so fine, but if you want to make use of off-peak tariffs or "free" locally generated electricity (e.g. PV) you'll need something a bit cleverer.

   - Andy.

I think the grant kept a grip on the regulatory aspect as well as insisting that the installer was a member of NICEIC or the like and had some basic training in EVSE. Removal of the grant will open it to T,D and H. Maybe I am being unfair to the electrical contracting fraternity serving the private dwelling sector but it might be that key issues like open Pen protection, load curtailment and main protective bonding as well as smarts are sidelined. 

In Ireland it is a legal requirement that the installer is registered with Safe Electric for domestic installs, grant or no grant.

The EV charger requires a new circuit, in England and Wales that is already notifiable work under Part P and requires a LABC notification.It is easy enough to keep track of what is being installed where and who by through the LABC notification system.


But there will be more installations without the DNO approval being sort.


I am all for scrapping the domestic EV charger grant and opening up the market, it just needs a few people who do a bad job and who don’t notify the work to the LABC to be fined to encourage people to to things by the book. That’s what Part P was supposed to do, so use it for its intended purpose.


The OLEV scheme has held many competent electricians back from getting involved with installing EV chargers because of the delays in the past of paying out the grants as well as all the extra administration work, if the electrician can get paid in full before leaving the customers premises it really will encourage the electricians to get involved.

Ah, good point Andy, I forgot about Part P! We dont have it here. You are probably right that the OLEV requirements were an impediment to some good contractors. I acknowledge that my comments would certainly be unfair to them. 

You are also right that DNO notification is important but I imagine that notified or not there is a Tsunami coming that the DNOs seem ill-prepared for.

Called in by a contractor to commission 3 new charge points in a small commercial building. No grant applied for as cheap dumb units preferred by client. No open Pen protection so contractor used building structural steel as electrode! As the demand increases and the attractiveness of the grant is diminished by cheap dumb chargers, I reckon blissful ignorance will be inevitable.

It’s the grant that has stopped me getting involved with installing EV charging points, even as a one man band if I started installing EV charging points as my main occupation I could easily be owed over £15k or more by OLEV at any one time. Then if there were any issues raised about paperwork payments could be withheld.


If I could be assured that I could take a deposit to cover the design and dealing with the DNO to get the supply upgraded if required, then collect payment in full of each individual customer upon completion of the work onsite I would pay to do the City and Guilds course, then get my self set up.


However I don’t feel there is sufficient incentive for electricians to get involved at this time, plus I rarely see a supply in a home that is suitable for installing an EV charger, so there’s enough work sorting things out with the DNO without the added work of dealing with OLEV only to have them delaying payment.

My experience has been that the grant doesn't really offer much, if any saving to the end user. The cost to buy an OLEV approved charger and have it installed by an improved installer is more than buying a basic charger and having it installed by A. N. Other electrician. The difference funnily enough is almost exactly the value of the grant. Nor do the approved chargers actually seem that smart, they don't all support obvious smart features like scheduling or remote control, and the logged usage data is not available to the user. The specific model I am thinking of also used the customer's WiFi as the backhaul, which will of course go dead as soon as they change their login details, etc. - they have zero motivation to maintain that connection because there are no features of value to them (rather than of value to OLEV) dependent on it.