Charging an electric car at home (2026 update)
From installing a home charge point to keeping your electric bill under control, here's our guide to charging your electric car at home.
Words by: Andrew Woodhouse
Additional words by: Mark Nichol
Last updated on 26 August 2026 | 0 min read
If you’re fortunate enough to have off-street parking the most sensible, option for any electric car owner is to get a dedicated home charging point installed - usually known as a ‘wall box’. Having a home wall box means you can leave your car to charge overnight, which is not only convenient but frequently the cheapest way to keep the battery topped up.
Lots of energy providers offer specific EV charging tariffs with cheaper unit costs during off-peak hours. To get a home charging point, you’ll need to be able to park your car somewhere private off-road, like in a garage or on a driveway.
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What is a home charging point?
Electric car charging speeds (briefly) explained
Most home wall boxes offer 7kW charging, which is the maximum a typical single-phase household supply allows. Some commercial sites use three-phase power and can charge faster, but your car’s onboard charger also matters: many EVs these days can take up to 11kW or 22kW on an AC charger.
Some countries have the domestic infrastructure to support this but, in the UK, 7kW is usually the best you can expect on a home charger. Public rapid chargers of 50kW and above bypass the onboard charger to deliver faster DC charging.
Our article on electric car charging speeds gives you much more detail on this.
Installing a home charging point
You should get your home charging points installed by qualified specialists. If you own your home, installing a charging point shouldn’t be an issue – it’s your home, you can do what you like. That said, if your property is listed or you live in a conservation area, it's worth checking with your local planning department first. If you rent, you should get permission from your landlord. Some landlords are happy to have a charging point installed, as it makes the property more attractive in the future.
What to expect on installation day (approx. two to three hours):
- Positioning: The engineer will mount the unit near your off-street parking space.
- Wiring: They will connect the unit to your main electricity consumer unit (power will be off briefly).
- Connectivity: They will connect the wallbox to your home Wi-Fi (have your network password handy).
- Testing and Handover: The installer will run safety diagnostics, test the connection, and show you how to start a charge via the app.
If you’ve any specific questions, speak to the installation firm themselves. The more you know in advance, the more painless it should be to get an installation.
Cost of installing a home charging point
How much does it cost to charge my car at home?
You need to know the ‘usable’ capacity of your car’s battery, which is the amount of the battery dedicated to driving the wheels. For example, a Vauxhall Corsa Electric has a 50kWh battery, 46kWh of which is ‘usable’. (If you can’t find out the usable capacity, you can still use the total battery capacity to give you a good idea of costs).
Here is a quick way to work out a standard charge (e.g. a Vauxhall Corsa Electric with a 46kWh usable battery):
- Full charge (0–100 per cent): 46kWh x £0.25/kWh = £11.50
- Typical top-up (20–80 per cent): 46kWh x 0.60 = 27.6kWh
- Then, 27.6kWh x £0.25/kWh = £6.90
This sounds like a lot of work, but do it once, note the answers, and then you know roughly what “a tank” is costing you.
It’s important to understand ‘miles per kilowatt hour’, which is the EV equivalent of a miles per gallon efficiency rating. Like working out charging costs, you can do this manually by figuring out how many miles you’re getting between charges.
Using the figures above, let’s say you charge your Corsa fully then drive until the battery drops to 50 per cent. You’ve covered 80 miles, say. We therefore know that those 80 miles have used up 23kWh (half the usable battery capacity). So, 80 ÷ 23 = 3.5 miles per kilowatt hour, roughly. It follows that those 3.5 miles are costing you 20p in electricity alone, which means you’re paying just under 6 pence per mile.
As with petrol and diesel cars, efficiency varies a lot from one electric car to another. As a rough guide, you can expect anything from 2-4 miles per kilowatt hour.
Energy providers offer dedicated tariffs designed to suit electric car owners who need large doses of electricity most days. Such tariffs sometimes cost customers slightly more during the day (though some match the standard Ofgem cap), but slash the unit price during off-peak times, usually overnight.
Intelligent Octopus Go, for example, currently charges around 8p per kilowatt hour off-peak (between 11:30pm and 5:30am), compared to a day rate of around 33.75p (August 2026). Other providers, like British Gas and ScottishPower, offer overnight rates of 8.5p-9p but with daytime rates that match the lower Ofgem price cap of roughly 24.67p/kWh.
Options include Octopus, OVO, and ScottishPower, all of which offer dedicated smart-charging EV tariffs backed by green energy. Choosing a sustainable electricity supplier will decrease your carbon footprint, silencing critics of electric cars who ask where the electricity is sourced from.
Octopus, for example, invests heavily in solar power and also offers to buy any energy your property gathers via solar panels or battery storage. Ecotricity is also an option for certified green and vegan energy, though their specific EV tariff availability can vary.
How often should I charge an electric car from home?
Your electric car will occasionally need a full charge and doing so can prolong battery life and health. The general rule is to keep your daily charge between 20 per cent and 80 per cent. The only exception is if your car has an LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery, as manufacturers often recommend charging these to 100 per cent once a week to calibrate the battery system.
For the most part, you’ll just need to top your car battery up two or three times a week for a couple of hours at a time. In some electric cars, you can schedule when your car starts charging via the car’s smart scheduling features. Alternatively, some chargers come with smart apps that you can schedule your charging through.
Can I charge an electric car from the mains?
Technically you can charge your car from the mains, but we’d recommend this is only done as an emergency back-up.
The average three-pin socket has a maximum 3kW power rating and charging a car will have your socket running at 2.3kW (close to maximum). Doing this for hours at a time puts a lot of strain on your circuits and can be hazardous for both your EV’s computer and your wiring. It’ll also take a lot, lot longer to charge your car.
If you must use the mains for emergencies, make sure the extension lead you use is rated at 13amps and is properly insulated and unwound to reduce the risk of overheating.
Maintaining your home charging point
Home charging points don’t tend to require much maintenance, but some upkeep can go a long way.
- Store your charging cable safely to avoid damage or twisting
- Keep the charging point clean and free from dust and muck
- Keep your wallbox powered on and connected to Wi-Fi so it can receive automatic software updates and manage smart-charging schedules.
- Periodically check the cable and connector for cracks or wear.
- As they’re outside, they will be exposed to the elements, so may need an annual service to ensure everything still works properly. Ensure you pick a qualified engineer.
