How EV Home Charger Installation Works: Four Photos, One Price, One Visit
No site visit, no estimate that grows on the day. Here is exactly what happens between your first message and a car that charges itself overnight.
The Site Visit We Stopped Doing
We used to drive out to look at every job. Half an hour each way across Christchurch to open a switchboard door, look at a wall and pace out a cable run, then drive back and write a quote. The customer waited a week for a number and paid for the petrol in the price. Then a Rolleston customer texted us photos of exactly those three things because she was at work, and we realised we could see everything we needed.
We have quoted from photos ever since. The price is just as fixed, because the photos show the same things the visit did: the age and state of the board, the mounting surface, the metres of cable. If something in the pictures is unclear, we phone and ask rather than guess. And if we get to a job and it is not what the photos showed, that is on us, not your invoice.
From First Message to Charged Car
- 1Send four photos
Photograph your switchboard with the door open, the wall where the charger will go, the path the cable will take between them, and your meter board. Send them through the form or by text with your suburb.
- 2Get a fixed written price
We read the board, measure the cable route from the photos and send one written figure covering the charger, dedicated circuit, labour, GST and Certificate of Compliance, usually the same working day.
- 3Choose a charger and a date
Accept the quote, pick a charger if you have not already, and choose any day of the week. If your charger needs ordering in, we book around its arrival.
- 4Installation, 3 to 5 hours
We fit a 32A RCBO at your board, run the cable in conduit or through the roof space, mount the isolator and charger, and clip a CT clamp to the mains if the charger has load management.
- 5Live test and app set-up
We plug in your car and watch it charge at full rate, then set up the app with you and load a schedule for your power plan's cheap window.
- 6Certificate of Compliance
Your CoC is emailed before we leave, along with the charger's warranty details. Keep it with the house papers.
What EV Home Charger Install Day Looks Like
We arrive with the charger, the cable, the conduit, the RCBO and the drop cloths. The power is off for the twenty minutes it takes to fit the new breaker and connect the cable at the board; the rest of the time your house runs as normal. Cable goes along the house in conduit, through the roof space or under the floor, whichever the photos showed was tidiest. The isolator goes on the wall beside the charger so it can be switched off without opening the board.
Then the part people enjoy: we plug in your car, watch the charger ramp up to its full rate, and sit down with you and the app. By the time we leave, the charger knows your power plan's cheap window and your car will fill itself that night. Drop cloths come up, offcuts leave with us, and the CoC is already in your inbox.
Three Things That Make Install Day Quicker
Have the car home
We need it for the live test and the app set-up at the end. The first few hours we only need access to the board and the garage.
Know your Wi-Fi password
The charger joins your network for the app. If the garage is a dead zone, tell us when you quote and we will suggest a 4G model or an extender.
Know your power plan
Tell us your cheap window (say 11pm to 7am) and we will load it into the charger so the saving starts that night.
Get Your Fixed EV Home Charger Price
Four photos are all we need: your switchboard with the door open, the spot where the charger will go, the path between them and your meter board. One written number comes back, usually the same day.