We are encouraged to buy electric cars because they pollute less and have many more advantages over other cars, especially when it comes to awarding them an environmental label from the DGT. Many people considering buying an electric car are concerned about issues such as autonomy, charging time and where to charge it. And we have to think that if we buy an electric car we will probably have to install a charging point or wallbox in our house, that will cost us money, here we tell you how much and the options you have to charge the car at home.
Where to install the wallbox?
It is important to know where we are going to install the Wallbox type wall charger because depending on where it is done, the installation will cost more or less.
For example, if we have a single-family home, it is not necessary to install a wallbox, In fact, the option we have is cheaper. It’s about charging the car with a cable plugged into a household outlet. The problem with this is that the load is slow, because the plug does not supply much power, so it will take many hours to charge the car. Due to slow loading, many people prefer to install a wallbox.
We could ask ourselves if it is possible to install a wallbox in a community garage, the answer is yes. This facility welcomes the Horizontal Protection Law, specifically article 17.5 where it says that: “The installation of an electric vehicle recharging point for private use in the building’s car park, provided that it is located in an individual parking space, will only require prior communication to the community”. So, although not all the neighbors agree, we can install a charging point if we want, we just have to notify before installing it.
In the case of having to install the wallbox in a community garage, we will have to lay a cable from the meter of our house to our parking space. It is a good option since it is not necessary to register a new supply point, but it is also we may have to increase the power we have contracted to be able to charge the car without having power outages in our house.
If the garage and our house are not on the same block, things get a little more complicated because here we do have to ask the community of neighbors for permission and have them approve the installation at a meeting. If it is approved, we will have to install a meter linked to the supply point of the garage that the community has in the common areas and we will be subject to the rate they have contracted. If we want to be able to choose the rate that we want to apply to us, we will have to request that install a new supply point and the bill will come to us, the community will have nothing to do with it, of course this installation will be more expensive.
How much does it cost to install a wallbox at home?
Not everyone will have the same cost to install a wallbox at home, as there are several factors that make its installation cost more or less. For example, one of the things to keep in mind is how many meters of power cable do we need that goes from the counter to where we will install the Wallbox. In this case, it will not cost us the same to install it in a single-family home as if we installed it in a community garage.
Fortunately, the newly constructed buildings already have a pre-installation to be able to put charging points in the future, so if our building has this pre-installation, it will cost us less money to install the charging point.
will also influence the brand and model of wallbox that we want. The price will vary from one to another but we can buy one for 100-350 euros.
In addition, apart from wallbox we have to buy the charger which will vary in price depending on the connections they have, protection elements,the wiring as we have mentioned before and of course workforce. All this could go away from us 1,000 to 1,500 euros.
Is there any way I can get it cheaper?
We will not always have to pay such an amount of money since local administrations and car brands offer some help so that we don’t have to pay so much to install a wallbox.
In addition to that, we can also request the help of the Moves Plan that apart from giving aid when buying an electric car, it also gives them for the installation of charging points. this help may cover 70% or 80% of the cost of the installation, depending on the situation we have.
What power do I need to install a wallbox?
The most normal thing is that when we install a wallbox, use alternating current. Normally the wallbox works with several powers, from 3.7 kW to 22 kW.
If we have a power of 3.7 kW and 7.4 kW we can use single-phase chargers, that is, those that only have a single phase and a single alternating current. They usually have a voltage of 230 volts, and the cost of this energy is much cheaper than the triphasic but it will also take longer to recharge the car. This is the most common when it comes to housing. Is this enough power? One thing that can help us know is if we have many power outages at home because we exceed the contracted power, if that is the case, we will have to contract more power and switch to triphasic.
In the case of three-phase chargers, those with three phases and three alternating currents, are 11kW and 22kW, charging will be much faster. But that will also depend on the charger we have and the contracted power. These chargers are usually used by companies since they usually have a power equal to or greater than 11kW.
In many cases it is not necessary to increase the power that we already have because we usually charge the car at night, that is, when we sleep, there are usually not as many appliances working as during the day. So the power that we have contracted may be enough. Also, when charging it at night We do it in the off-peak hours (00:00-8:00) which are the cheapest hours, so the electricity bill will not increase as much.
The fact is that if you think about buying an electric car, you also have to think about installing a charging point, so take a good look at all the options you have so that you can get it as cheap as possible.
