Every home EV charger installation Melbourne owners book with us comes down to three questions: where the car parks, what the car can accept, and what the switchboard can spare. Get those right and the charger itself is the easy part.
We are DUKE EV, the EV charging arm of DUKE Electrical Group, and our A-grade electricians work under REC 35838. We supply chargers or install one you already own, including a unit from your car dealer, after checking it suits the car, the circuit and the spot.
Garage, carport or driveway: picking the spot
The right spot has a sensible cable run from the switchboard, a solid wall or post to mount on, and a lead that reaches the charge port without crossing a path. So we start by asking which side of the car the port is on. It sounds trivial. It decides the wall.
Garages
An internal garage wall is the easiest home for a charger. It stays dry and shaded, and if the switchboard is nearby the new circuit is short and neat. In a double garage we also ask whether a second EV is coming, so the first install doesn’t box in the second.
Carports
A carport is half indoors. Rain blows in sideways and the afternoon sun reaches the unit, so we look for a wall or post that can carry the charger and its lead, and run the circuit in conduit where it could be knocked. On heritage properties the carport may sit well back: the City of Stonnington’s heritage guidance asks for carports to be set back 3 to 4 metres from the front of the house, which stretches the run from a meter box on the front wall.
Driveways
A driveway charger goes on an outside wall or on a pedestal beside the concrete. A wall mount is simpler; a pedestal usually means trenching, one of the biggest swings in what a driveway job costs. Heritage streets need one more check. Stonnington’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure policy says a private charger for private use “will not necessarily require advice or approval from Council”, but one visible from the street may affect heritage streetscapes, so we raise it before a charger goes on a front wall.
Single-phase 7 kW or three-phase: sizing the charger to your driving
On a single-phase supply, a 7 kW wall charger is the usual home choice: 230 volts at 32 amps is about 7.4 kW. Solar Victoria’s guide to charging levels puts a standard 10 amp power point at about 2.3 kW by comparison. Three-phase supply opens up about 11 kW (16 amps on each phase) or about 22 kW (32 amps on each phase), and CitiPower is upfront that 22 kW home chargers need three-phase power, “so are not suitable for all customers”.
| Charging option | Supply it needs | Approximate output | Range added per hour (CitiPower) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard power point (trickle) | Single-phase, 10 A socket | About 2.3 kW | 10 to 15 km |
| 7 kW wall charger | Single-phase, 32 A circuit | About 7 kW | 30 to 40 km |
| 22 kW wall charger | Three-phase, 32 A per phase | About 22 kW | 50 to 120 km |
Weekly distance is a better guide than the biggest number on the box. United Energy suggests trickle charging for up to 200 km a week, a dedicated wall unit for 200 to 500 km, and a higher-output point beyond that, and says a dedicated unit charges a modern EV in eight to 12 hours. For a car that is home overnight, we would rather fit a well-placed 7 kW charger on a sensible schedule than a 22 kW unit on a house that needs upgrading to feed it.
The Victorian Service and Installation Rules also advise that, in many installations, an individually switched load should not be connected between an active and the neutral if it is rated above 25 amps in a three-phase 400/230 volt supply area, or above 20 amps in a single-phase or single-wire earth return (SWER) area. A 32 A charger is over both figures, but this is advice, not a hard limit, which is why we check your network’s requirements before fitting a 32 A single-phase charger. Our page on three-phase power upgrades for EV charging covers the bigger option.
Choosing the charger: onboard limits, cables and smart features
The car’s onboard charger has the final say
A wall charger only offers power. The car decides how much it takes. Government EV guidance endorsed by every state and territory says you can safely charge with higher-powered equipment, “but the vehicle system will still only charge at the level it can handle”. If your car accepts single-phase AC only, a three-phase charger adds nothing, so we check the AC limit for your model and year in the manufacturer’s specifications first.
Think about the next car too. If a bigger-battery EV is likely soon, sizing the cable for a higher-output charger now saves paying for the labour twice.
Tethered or untethered
A tethered charger has its cable and connector permanently attached. An untethered one has a socket, and you plug in a separate cable each time. Both use Type 2, Australia’s standard plug for AC charging.
For a garage we usually suggest tethered: the lead lives on the wall and nobody digs a cable out of the boot on a wet night. Untethered suits an exposed wall or a heritage frontage, where a neat socket looks better and leaves nothing hanging around for someone to souvenir.
Smart features that earn their keep
- Off-peak scheduling. Solar Victoria puts the average home charge at 6 to 8 hours and suggests charging during off-peak rate times. A smart charger can be programmed around your retailer’s time-of-use tariff, usually from a phone app.
- Solar charging. With panels on the roof, the charger can follow your solar output. Our page on solar EV charger installation in Melbourne covers that set-up.
Home EV charger installation Melbourne: assessment to certificate
The steps are the same whether the charger is going into a Brighton garage or a Toorak carport.
- Assessment. The car, the parking spot, the switchboard, the supply and the cable route, plus the car’s AC charging limit.
- Quote and network check. A written scope listing the charger, the circuit and any switchboard work, and a check of what your distributor requires.
- Installation. A dedicated circuit from the switchboard, a safety switch suited to the charger, and mounting to the maker’s instructions.
- Testing. Energy Safe Victoria requires six tests plus a visual inspection: earthing continuity and earth resistance, insulation resistance, polarity, correct circuit connections, earth fault-loop impedance, and RCD operation.
- Set-up. We commission the charger, connect the app and set your first schedule with you.
- Certificate. You receive a Certificate of Electrical Safety, the legal record of the work.
Copies of the Certificate of Electrical Safety go to you, to Energy Safe Victoria and to other parties where the work requires it. Prescribed work, which includes the consumer mains, the main switchboard, the meter box and the main earthing system, must be inspected by an independent Licensed Electrical Inspector before it is switched on. If your board is full or lacks suitable protection, our page on switchboard upgrades for EV chargers explains what changes.
Terraces, tight blocks and long cable runs
Inner Melbourne makes home charging harder than the brochures suggest. Stonnington’s EV Charging Plan names South Yarra and Windsor, with their smaller lots and many multi-dwelling developments, as likely to be among the most common places where residents find it difficult to charge on their own property. At the 2021 Census, 27.4% of occupied dwellings in Windsor were semi-detached, row, terrace or townhouses.
Take a single-fronted terrace with the meter box on the front wall and a car space off the back. The circuit has to travel the length of the house, through the roof space or under the floor. And length changes the cable.
Cable is sized under AS/NZS 3008.1.1:2017, which weighs the load, the length of the run and how the cable is installed. A typical 32 A single-phase charger usually needs 6 mm² cable, and a long run can push that to 10 mm². Undersized cable runs hot, so this is not where we cut corners; we price the route we would be happy to look at again in ten years. Our page on EV charger installation in Windsor covers the local detail.
If the car lives on the street, we will say so when a home charger isn’t practical. CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy have announced a trial of 100 pole-mounted 22 kW chargers, prioritising locations with high EV uptake and limited off-street parking.
Weather, salt air and outdoor ratings
Carport and driveway chargers live outside, so we fit a unit its manufacturer rates for outdoor use in that location, ideally under an eave or carport roof and clear of sprinklers and reversing cars. Near the water we go further. Brighton and Beaumaris face Port Phillip Bay, and Portsea has Bass Strait surf on its ocean side. The National Construction Code’s corrosion table for structural steel grades exposure by distance from breaking surf and sheltered bays. It is not a charger rule, but it is a fair guide to how hard salt air works on metal, so we choose fixings, brackets and enclosures to suit. Our page on EV charger installation in Brighton has more bayside detail.
If you are trickle charging from an outdoor power point until the charger goes in, United Energy’s advice is clear: never use household adaptors between the charging equipment and the socket, avoid extension leads where you can (outdoor-rated if you must use one), and never daisy-chain them. Once the wall unit is in, a holster or hook keeps the lead off wet concrete and out from under the tyres.
Frequently asked questions about home EV chargers
Can you install a charger I already bought?
Yes, including units supplied by car dealers. We check the model suits your car, your supply and the mounting spot, then install, test and certify it like any charger we supply.
How long will my car take to charge at home?
It depends on the battery size, how empty it is and the car’s AC limit. As rough arithmetic, divide the kilowatt-hours you need by the charging rate in kilowatts, or use the home charging calculator in the federal Green Vehicle Guide.
Do I need council approval for a charger on the front of my house?
Sometimes. Stonnington’s policy points owners of street-visible chargers in heritage areas to its Statutory Planning Unit, and other councils have their own heritage controls. We check yours during the assessment.
Do I need to register the charger with my electricity network?
In United Energy’s area, covering Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula, wall and fast chargers must be installed by a registered electrical contractor and registered on its myEnergy portal, which we do for you. Elsewhere we confirm the current requirements in the quote.
What happens if my switchboard can’t take another circuit?
If the board has no room or lacks suitable protection, it needs work first. If the board is sound but the supply is short of headroom, load management can keep the charger from asking for more than the supply can give. We explain the options, with the trade-offs, before you commit.
If you know where the car parks and what model it is, you have most of what we need. Book a home charger assessment through our contact page, or call 1300 003 853, Monday to Saturday between 7am and 7pm, and we will scope the job before you commit to anything.