Read the gazetted heritage statements for Beaumaris houses and one word keeps turning up: carport. “Prominent integrated carport” at Tutt House on Reserve Road. “Flat roofs and prominent integrated carports” across the Bellaire Court Estate. A “prominent integrated carport with expressed timber beams” at Robin Boyd’s Stegley House on Dalgetty Road. When a house was designed around an open carport rather than a garage door, the first question about a charger is simply where it can live.
Every EV charger installation Beaumaris owners book with us starts with that question, and we answer it from 125 Charman Rd, inside the suburb. DUKE EV belongs to the wider DUKE Electrical Group, carries Victorian electrical contractor registration REC 35838, and sends A-grade electricians who supply and install chargers or fit the one that came with your car. Our home EV charger installations in Melbourne page covers the basics; this one is about Beaumaris.
EV charger installation Beaumaris: carport, garage or wall
A mid-century house usually offers three or four workable spots, and each one trades convenience against exposure or heritage fabric.
On the carport structure
A charger on a carport post or beam sits right where the car stops. The catch is weather, since an open carport lets wind-driven rain and sea air in from the sides. On a listed house there’s a second catch: the carport is often part of what the statement of significance protects, from the “expressed structural timber elements to the carport” at Gooch House to the “expressed structural steel elements at the carport” at 40 Anita Street. Drilling into those is the last thing we’d suggest.
On the house wall beside the carport
Broad eaves come up again and again in the same statements, and a wall tucked under them gives a charger decent shelter. Face brick takes a fixing well if we keep to the mortar joints. With the switchboard on that side, the cable run stays short.
In a garage or undercroft
Some Beaumaris houses put the car underneath the living areas. Atkins House at 53 Scott Street, designed by Ken Atkins in 1953 as his own home, lists “prominent undercroft carparking”, and the house at 166 Tramway Parade has a “centrally positioned and prominent undercroft carport”. Undercrofts and garages give the best protection; the cable route is the hard part, especially when the switchboard is a floor above.
| Mounting spot | Works well when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Carport post or beam | The structure isn’t listed and the board is close | Side-on rain, salt and heritage fabric |
| House wall under the eaves | The switchboard is on the same side of the house | Keeping the unit out of street view |
| Garage or undercroft | The car is fully under cover | A longer cable route from the board |
| Freestanding pedestal | Nothing on the house should be touched | Trenching across paving or garden |
Mid-century houses and the C192bays heritage listings
Amendment C192bays, from Bayside’s post-war modern residential heritage study, was gazetted on 9 October 2025. It applied the Heritage Overlay permanently to 50 individual places and one group listing, and 29 of the 51 statements of significance are for Beaumaris places. The Bellaire Court statement explains why the suburb dominates: Beaumaris “appealed to many architects, designers and homemakers who were drawn to settle on low-cost, but attractive land and the suburb became a centre of Modernist residential housing in the post-war period”. Builder Martin Sachs built the seven listed Bellaire Court houses between 1962 and 1968.
If your house is on the list, two things follow. Works under a Heritage Overlay can need a planning permit, and whether a charger counts is a question for Bayside’s planners rather than for us. And Bayside’s heritage policy wants ancillary services “concealed from the street”, which argues against the most obvious spot on many of these houses: the front post of a carport facing the road. The gazetted statements are published with the C192bays amendment on the Victorian planning schemes portal.
Our view, for what it’s worth: even where no permit turns out to be needed, a charger bolted to the front post of a listed carport is the wrong answer. A side wall or a slim pedestal does the same job without arguing with the architecture.
Sizing the supply for a two-car Beaumaris household
On the Census figures, Beaumaris is a two-car suburb. In 2021, 46.8 per cent of Beaumaris homes had two vehicles and 21.2 per cent kept three or more; the average was 2.0. Separate houses made up 78.9 per cent of homes, and the average dwelling had 3.4 bedrooms. Once the second car goes electric, the switchboard and supply have to cope with two cars charging, sometimes on the same night.
There are three common ways to handle it:
- Load management. One or two chargers share the available capacity and back off when the house is drawing heavily.
- Staggered schedules. Each car charges in its own overnight window, which suits drivers who don’t need a full battery every morning.
- Three-phase supply. United Energy’s 22 kW example needs a three-phase supply, and three phases spread a heavy load more evenly.
Three-phase only pays off if the cars can use it, because the onboard charger sets the AC limit. Take the Polestar 2: Polestar’s Australian spec sheet gives an “11 kW AC charging time (3-phase 16A AC)”, so a 22 kW wall box would never push it past 11 kW. And the Victorian Service and Installation Rules call for limiting devices when a property’s calculated maximum demand goes over 100 A per phase, so we do the sums and lodge any application before you buy hardware. Our guide to upgrading to three-phase power for EV charging walks through the process.
Bayside’s Charge while you shop project finished its Beaumaris fast-charger installation in June 2025. Handy when you forget to plug in; no substitute for charging at home.
United Energy and the Beaumaris zone substation
Beaumaris 3193 is on United Energy’s network, per CitiPower and Powercor’s postcode locator data, and the network’s December 2025 distribution annual planning report lists a Beaumaris zone substation (BR, 66/11 kV). For a charger, that mostly means registration. United Energy’s rule is that wall and fast chargers go in through a registered electrical contractor and get registered on its myEnergy portal. Smart chargers that “communicate with the grid to ramp charging up and down depending on network conditions” go through the same process.
If the house needs more supply than it has, that change goes through United Energy as well. Its page on new and upgraded supplies flags premises “requiring 170 amps or more” as typical cases for a negotiated connection. One 32 A charger is a fraction of that, but a big house adding three-phase, two chargers and a pool heater deserves the sums done first. Every job ends with a Certificate of Electrical Safety, a legal document recording what we did, which Energy Safe Victoria explains for householders.
Rooftop solar and a car that’s home during the day
If the car spends weekdays in the carport, rooftop solar can do much of the charging. Solar Victoria says home solar can cut the cost and carbon emissions of charging, or remove them altogether, with two caveats: solar that goes into the car isn’t there for evening use, and a smaller system may not refill a flat battery in one day, though it handles daily top-ups. A smart charger can follow the panels, starting when there’s surplus.
United Energy makes a similar case from the network side, encouraging daytime charging, when flexible time-of-use tariffs can work in your favour and renewable energy is at its most abundant. Add a home battery and the afternoon’s surplus can go into the car after dark. Our solar EV charger installation service matches the charger to your system.
Sea air at Ricketts Point and the open carport
Beaumaris meets Port Phillip Bay at Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, about 3.6 km by road from our premises, where Parks Victoria describes “offshore sandstone reefs and sea caves” off a beach patrolled by Beaumaris Life Saving Club. Streets near the water get the salt that comes with that view, and an open-sided carport takes the worst of it.
For a carport charger near the coast we pick a unit with an outdoor rating from its maker for that setting, mount it on the most sheltered face, use stainless fixings, and form a drip loop so water falls away before it reaches the cable gland. Away from the water it’s gentler, but we still face the enclosure away from the weather.
One more local wrinkle. Bayside’s planning scheme asks for significant vegetation to be retained, “particularly in Beaumaris and Black Rock”. When a cable has to reach a detached carport, we route it around established roots, or run it overhead along the structure, rather than trench straight through.
What moves the quote on a Beaumaris job
We quote after seeing the site, and we don’t publish prices. The variables are consistent, though:
- the distance from the switchboard to where the car parks, and whether the route crosses a slab, a garden or a heritage element
- whether the carport can carry the charger or a pedestal is needed
- switchboard space, and the RCD type the charger calls for
- whether the supply stays single-phase or moves to three-phase, with United Energy’s approval
- load management for a second car
- the charger itself, from its outdoor rating to its cable style and app features
If you already own the charger, cross off the last line.
Frequently asked questions from Beaumaris homeowners
Can a charger go on a heritage-listed carport?
Physically, often yes, but under C192bays the carport is frequently one of the listed elements, so check with Bayside’s planners first. We usually suggest a side wall, the garage or a pedestal instead.
Will a charger cope with an open carport through winter?
A charger built and rated by its maker for outdoor installation, mounted on the most sheltered face with sealed entries and a drip loop, is made for it. Near Ricketts Point we also use stainless fixings and check the seals at each service.
Do two EVs mean we need three-phase power?
Not always. Load management or staggered overnight schedules let two cars share a single-phase supply in many homes; three-phase earns its place when both cars accept faster AC charging.
What safety switch does an EV charger circuit need?
Not a Type AC: since 1 May 2023 those can’t be installed in new work anywhere in Australia. The Wiring Rules’ EV appendix, which is informative guidance, indicates Type B where the charger can’t detect DC fault currents and Type A where it can. We match the RCD to your charger.
Do you handle the United Energy side of the job?
Yes. As a registered electrical contractor we record the charger on myEnergy, lodge any supply application, and give you the Certificate of Electrical Safety once the work is done.
To talk through a carport, undercroft or garage install, book a site visit through our contact page or ring 1300 003 853 between 7am and 7pm on any day but Sunday. We’re at 125 Charman Rd, about 3.7 km by road from Black Rock. Further up the bay, our Brighton premises at 99 Bay St looks after Brighton, and if you also have a place down the Peninsula, see EV charging for Portsea holiday homes.