A few months back my wife tasked me with the challenge of replacing our old EV Charger unit after it unexpectedly stopped working. I wanted to write a brief overview of my experience to hopefully help others in a similar position. I will try to offer some clarity around the key variables for consideration and discuss what I believe to be the best option on the market to date.
The initial question I had when buying our first charger was do I even actually need a dedicated home charger or is the one supplied by Tesla sufficient? This really comes down to your personal preference and if you require a method to charge your electric vehicle faster. Due to the design of the charger supplied with my Tesla, it wasn’t charging quick enough to meet the mileage I was traveling per day. Many of the chargers supplied by vehicle manufacturers take as long as 4 days to fully charge from empty. The same charging can be achieved in 6-10 hours with a dedicated home EV Charger. Another benefit of having an EV Charger is the increased ease of use. Having an EV Charger that has been professionally installed in a location of your choosing makes the manual task of daily charging a breeze. No more unnecessary falls over charging cables or trying to find your EV charger amongst the other clutter in your boot or garage.
Look for in an Electric Vehicle Charger
So, you have decided to purchase a dedicated home EV charger, now what? With so many options on the market, it can be overwhelming to evaluate what option is best to meet your needs. Factors like hardware cost, functionality, installation cost, and how visually appealing the charger is are all things you will have to consider.
- Cost of Hardware:
The actual charger units themselves can vary widely in price from $600 for a basic unit to $2000 for the most advanced solutions on the market. Like most things in life the more you spend the better quality of the product you get and EV chargers are no different.
2.Features
The more advanced charging units enable you to connect to your solar panels, control your charging cycles, integrate with your home automation system, and even help you to save money further down the path by taking advantage of charging during times when energy tariffs are at their lowest. Initially by understanding what you want from your charger will help pick the best charger for your specific needs.
3.Cost of Install:
Installation costs vary depending on who you contract to do the work and your home’s electrical system. I personally paid $800 for our home install. The price for the install fluctuates depending on where you want to place the charger and if your fuse box has sufficient space for your new EV Charger. To avoid unexpected installation costs, it would be a good idea to first take a picture of your electrical box and share it with your electrical contractor. They should be able to tell you very quickly if you will need to upgrade your fuse box.
4.Aesthetics:
Personally, for me, this was one of the more important factors. I had just spent more than $100,000 on my new Tesla so I wasn’t about to cheap out and buy something that wasn’t visually appealing. The charger is also installed at the front of our property, so my wife’s opinion became a lot more important when making the discussion around ascetics! In the end, we went with the Hypervolt Home 2.0 Electric Vehicle Charger (Insert Hyperlink https://intelevi.com.au/products/ev-charger-hypervolt-home-2-0-electric-vehicle-charger) as in our option it was by far the best-looking unit on the market. We purchased the unit from Intelevi (Insert Hyperlink: https://intelevi.com.au/) and they had it installed in just a few days. The whole process of watching it come together was really exciting. Our decision to buy the Hypervolt EV Charger was not just because it’s a great-looking unit but these other few factors contributed to our discussion.
The Best Electric Vehicle Charger
Hypervolt Home 2.0 is currently the most advanced home charging unit on the market today. Its built-in computer enables it to connect via Wi-Fi to your phone and accept over-the-air updates from the team in the UK. The application that comes with the systems is extremely user-friendly and has helped us save money on our electricity bills since the install.
As we were mounting the charger outdoor the unit had to be waterproof. This is very common across all of the leading EV charger manufacturers, however, the Hypervolthad is an inbuilt fan that many other manufacturers don’t provide. Where we live in Australia it can get very hot in the summer so having a fan really gave us the peace of mind that we had that extra layer of temperature protection. Our last electric vehicle charger had stopped working in the height of the summer and we figured the heat was a contributing factor.
Our last charger also used to overload our electrical system and trip the breaker switch when the car was charging at the same time we were cooking dinner. Thankfully the Hypervolt comes with inbuilt load protection so we no longer need to make the discission if eating a warm dinner or charging our car takes priority.
Still today we are extremely happy with our Hypervolt Charger (Insert Hyperlink: https://intelevi.com.au/products/ev-charger-hypervolt-home-2-0-electric-vehicle-charger) and the team at Intelevi (Insert Hyperlink: https://intelevi.com.au/) made the whole process a seamless experience.
