Licensed EV Charger Installers in Chatswood

The difference is straightforward. A tethered charger has a cable permanently attached to the unit, so you pick it up and plug it directly into your car each time. A socketed charger has a Type 2 outlet built into the unit instead, and you connect a separate cable each time you charge.

For day-to-day convenience, tethered is often preferred. There's no separate cable to manage and nothing to leave outdoors or forget to bring inside. If you drive the same EV for years, the simplicity is appealing.

Socketed chargers are a better fit if you might change vehicles in future and want flexibility in cable type, or if two different EV models share the same charger and each driver uses their own manufacturer-approved cable. For Chatswood apartment buildings and shared car parks, socketed units are often the right choice because they allow multiple users to bring their own cable, reducing wear on a single tethered lead.

For a single household on its own title, the decision often comes down to personal preference and how you park each day. We can talk through the specifics when we assess your property.

Most modern Level 2 home chargers support scheduled charging through a smartphone app or a built-in timer. The main reason to use scheduling is cost. Standard time-of-use tariffs in NSW include off-peak periods, typically late at night through to early morning, where electricity is cheaper than peak daytime rates.

For a 7.2kW charger running for six hours overnight on an off-peak tariff, the cost difference compared to charging at peak rates can be $5 to $8 per full charge. Across a full year of daily charging, that adds up to several hundred dollars.

Setup varies by charger. Basic units use a fixed timer you program once. Smart chargers connect to your home Wi-Fi and let you adjust schedules, set charge limits by percentage, and track energy use through an app. Some can integrate with your electricity account to automatically start charging when rates are lowest, though this depends on your retailer and tariff plan.

When we install a smart charger in Chatswood, we'll connect it to your network and walk you through the scheduling basics before we leave, so you can start taking advantage of off-peak rates straight away.

Technically yes. A hardwired EV charger can be uninstalled and reinstalled at a new property by a licensed electrician. The hardware is reusable. What you pay again at the new address is the installation labour, any cabling required, and the Certificate of Compliance for the new install.

In most cases, reinstallation cost is comparable to the original installation. If the new property has the switchboard close to the parking area and the cable run is short, it's a straightforward job. If a longer cable run or a switchboard upgrade is needed at the new address, the total cost can approach what you'd pay for a brand-new unit installed from scratch.

There's also a genuine case for leaving the charger behind. A hardwired EV charger is a real property asset that may add value at sale, particularly as EV ownership increases. Some sellers include it in the listing rather than uninstalling it, and buyers increasingly see it as a practical feature rather than a bonus.

If you're weighing this up before a move, we can give you an honest cost comparison between relocating and replacing, based on the specifics of both properties.

The circuit is sized to match the charger's maximum output with a safety margin built in. A 7.2kW charger draws around 32A continuously, so it runs on a dedicated 32A circuit protected by a 40A RCBO. An 11kW three-phase charger drawing roughly 16A per phase runs on a three-phase circuit with matching protection.

The circuit must be dedicated, meaning it connects directly from the switchboard to the charger and is not shared with any other load. This is a requirement under AS/NZS 3000, not a preference, because the sustained and consistent draw of EV charging isn't suited to a shared circuit.

On the protection side, the circuit requires a Type A RCD or RCBO rather than a standard RCD. EV charger electronics can produce pulsating DC fault currents that standard household RCDs aren't rated to detect, making the correct device type an important safety requirement.

For Chatswood apartments where the car park supply may come from a different distribution board to the main residential supply, circuit sizing and protection device placement need careful planning. We confirm all requirements during the site assessment based on your chosen charger and property setup.