How to choose an EV charger for home?

If you are buying an electric car, we recommend a home EV charger to recharge the battery in the comfort of your home. Before buying your first electric car, you will need to think about where and how you will charge it, as electric cars need to recharge frequently.

For those with a driveway, garage, or any other form of off-street parking, the obvious solution is to charge at home, which currently most homeowners can do with a home EV charger. And while the public charging network in India is growing day by day and the government is taking steps for EVs, experts believe that most of the "charging events" will be placed in the future at owners' homes. The rapidly gaining popularity of electric vehicles is leaving behind their fossil-powered companions. 

Should special charging equipment be installed at home?

First of all, of course, the question arises: does the house need special equipment for charging an electric car, because there is an ordinary socket in our homes? We need a special charger for homes because of two significant reasons:

• For safety purposes- It should keep in mind that a prolonged maximum load on a household outlet causes overheating of the cables, and this can further cause a fire. Therefore, it would be prudent to invest in the purchase and installation of a charging system that is reliable, certified charging equipment with a dynamic load balancing function.

• The Charging speed- With the help of special equipment, you can increase the charging speed of an electric vehicle by ten times. To clarify, it takes about 20 hours to charge the 40 kWh battery of the world's best-selling electric vehicle Nissan Leaf from a regular household outlet (with a 2.3 kW load). This means that the battery takes some time to charge. Meanwhile, with the help of a small wall charger, the output power increases to 22 kW, which makes it possible to fully charge the battery of the same Nissan Leaf in 4-6 hours.

How to choose a Home EV charger?

When choosing a charger, consider the following aspects given below:

• The charging power-Find out how much AC power needs to be used to charge your electric vehicle. It should correspond to the maximum power of the vehicle's onboard charger. To charge most of the cars available in our market currently, a power of 3.7 or 7.4 kW has been used. However, before purchasing a charging station, you should find out these figures.
• Check load of the household power supply- It has determined that there are enough connection points in the power grid to ensure optimal charging of the electric vehicle, since, of course, the load on the network will increase significantly. For comparison, the load when charging an electric vehicle corresponds to the load of 4-5 microwave ovens when operating simultaneously. Be sure to invite a professional to calculate the allowable load. 
• Choose the correct plug for the charger-The plug of the charger needs to be selected in correspondence with the charging socket installed by the manufacturer. The Type 2 plug is suitable for European cars, Type 1 for Japanese cars and all. It is noted that all carmakers are gradually starting to install Type 2, which meets European standards.
• Safety-Make sure the charging equipment you choose has built-in DC detection and overload protection. If the charging equipment does not have DC leakage protection, then the facility must have a type B leakage current protection device, the cost of which varies from brand to brand. In addition, the site needs to be fitted with an appropriate fuse for the load and a standard RCD.
• The remote equipment control and payment options-To connect the charging equipment to any remote control system for equipment or payment system, for example, Electrum, or e-Mobi, the charging equipment must have a built-in OCPP communication protocol and the ability to connect an Ethernet cable or SIM card for data exchange. The integration process for untested hardware can be difficult but not impossible because hardware settings are customizable for successful integration. In addition, charging equipment must have a built-in MID-certified electricity meter.
• Communication with the car-The charger must comply with the MODE 3 communication mode, which, in simple terms, defines how the charging equipment communicates with the vehicle.

Top Home EV charging solution providers in India

• Delta Electronics 
• ABB India
• Exicom
• Kazam
• TATA Power
• EVQ Point

Wrapping Up

Many car and bike freaks started to give preference to electric vehicles over traditional ones. You don't have to look for the nearest station to charge an electric vehicle.Electric vehicles are just like any other electrical household appliances such as refrigerators, Television, and so on. It is also electrically controlled when AC power is supplied from the standard network in your home, but remember to charge an EV, conventional DC charging is required. 

An electric car can take up to 15 hours when you charge it at home. The charging time depends on a number of factors:

• Car model
• battery capacity
• Mains voltage.

Traditional sockets are not suitable for electric vehicles like EV cars, EV bikes, and all. It usually takes 5 hours to charge a car at each EV station. Installing a reinforced unit reduces the time to 30 minutes. But at home, you have to wait 10 to 15 hours. This is one of the main shortcomings of charging your EV through a conventional socket.

Need Assistance, Contact us!

At Kazam, you can find every possible assistance about Electric vehicles and their charging stations in India. We also take care of our EV buyers and give them customized EV solutions as per their needs. From battery and charging solutions to the range and cost of electric vehicles, this is the one-stop shop for every EV requirement. For more information, please visit Kazam EV at https://www.kazam.in/, or write to us your concerns on our social media handles Kazam EV, and we will try to respond to your queries at the earliest. Book an appointment today!