New car arriving, or a car park full of drivers asking? Call 029 2068 9339
Service 04 / 06 EV charging
One charger on a driveway, a row of them in a staff car park, or communal parking at a block of flats. We are OZEV-authorised and NICEIC approved, we deal with the network operator on your behalf, and where a site needs several points we balance them against the supply you already have rather than selling you an upgrade you may not need.
Working to
01 Scope
Four kinds of job, from a single point on a drive to a car park that has to serve a fleet. Same engineers, same certificates, one number to ring — and the electrical work behind the charger done by an electrical contractor rather than a charger fitter.
Domestic · Commercial · Fleet · Communal
01
A single point at a house: a wall-mounted unit on the drive or in the garage, its own circuit back to the board, and the cable run planned so it is not stapled across the front of your house. Tethered lead or a socket, whichever suits how you park.
Electric car charger installation · South Wales
02
Several points across staff and visitor parking, or a bank of them for commercial vehicles that all have to be full by the morning. Bollard or wall-mounted, back-office access control where you want to know who charged what, and the containment run properly across the car park.
Commercial EV charging points · Wales
03
Blocks of flats and rented homes, where the parking is shared and the supply is not. We work out where the points can be fed from, who pays for what, and how residents are billed. This is also where the current OZEV chargepoint grant still applies.
EV charging for flats · Landlords · Managing agents
04
Several chargers made to share the supply the building already has. The system watches the incoming load and turns the chargers down together rather than tripping the main fuse — which is often the difference between adding points this month and paying for a supply upgrade first.
Load management · No supply upgrade needed
Brands we fit · Not tied to one make
01
A workhorse across domestic and commercial work, with wall-mounted and free-standing units and a back office for sites that need to see usage. We already fit Ratio on the commercial side of the business.
Home · Workplace · Fleet
02
A broad range covering single-phase home units through to three-phase and multi-socket commercial points, which makes it a sensible choice when one site needs several different things installed at once.
Single & three-phase · Commercial
03
We install the Hypervolt lineup. British-designed home chargers with app control, scheduling to cheap overnight rates and solar matching — a common choice where somebody wants the charger to look tidy on the front of the house and be simple to live with.
Home · App control · Off-peak scheduling
04
The design-led option. The cable and the socket hide inside the unit and the front panel comes in a range of finishes, so it reads as a piece of the house rather than a box on the wall. It costs more than the rest, and people who choose it know that.
Premium · Design-led · Cable hidden
05
The one that diverts surplus solar into the car. If you have panels, Zappi will use the electricity you are exporting for nothing to charge instead, or top up from the grid when there is not enough sun. It is the obvious choice where we are fitting solar and a charger together.
Solar diversion · Export used, not sold
06
If your specification names a manufacturer, or the block already has a make fitted and you want the next ones to match, we will fit that. Where the choice is open we will tell you what suits the parking, the supply and the way the vehicles are actually used.
Your specification · Or our recommendation
02 Who it's for
Half of this work is somebody who has just ordered their first electric car. The other half is a business that has worked out its vans have to charge overnight from now on. Both get the same engineers and the same certificates.
01
A single point on the drive or in the garage, fitted on its own circuit and certified. We will tell you honestly whether your existing board and supply can take it before you order the car, not after.
02
Points for staff and visitor parking, put in without closing the car park for a fortnight. Where the workplace qualifies for the Workplace Charging Scheme we handle that paperwork as an OZEV-authorised installer.
03
Vans and commercial vehicles that all plug in at the end of a shift and all have to be ready at six. That is a load management problem before it is a charger problem, and we would rather solve it at the survey than at handover.
04
Blocks of flats and rented property, where the parking is communal and the supply is not. Where the property qualifies for the OZEV chargepoint grant for flats and rental properties, we deal with the application.
05
Charging added to schemes that were built long before anyone planned for it. We already work for housing associations across South Wales on maintenance and compliance, so the surveys, RAMS and resident notice are the way we work anyway.
06
Points that customers use rather than staff, where somebody has to be able to see what has been used and bill for it. Installed out of hours where trading cannot stop.
Approval
Which is what lets a qualifying workplace or a block of flats claim the current grant at all — the schemes require an authorised installer.
Handled for you
We make the submission to the network operator on your behalf. You do not have to work out which form, which operator or when.
As standard
Risk assessments and method statements are produced as standard on commercial work, and issued to you before the first visit.
As standard
Our engineers are DBS checked, which matters when the work is on a driveway, in an occupied block or on a school or care site.
In-house
Our own directly employed engineers do the electrical work. Non-electrical trades such as groundworks may be brought in where a job needs them.
03 How it works
Five stages, and the first one costs you nothing. Nothing is ordered until you have a written price, and the network operator is dealt with by us at stage three whether it is a form or a full application.
01
We come out and look at what feeds the property before we talk about chargers. What the incoming supply is rated at, what the board has spare, how the earthing is arranged, where the car actually parks and how a cable would get there. On a commercial site we count the vehicles and ask when they need to be full. The visit is free.
02
You get it in writing: the unit, the circuit, the cable route, any board work, and where it applies the load management. If there is a cheaper way of doing it — sharing a supply instead of upgrading it, phasing a car park in two halves — that goes in the quote as an option rather than staying in our heads.
03
Chargers have to be declared to the company that owns the cables in the street. A single home point is usually a notification we send once the work is done; anything larger, three-phase or multiple usually needs the operator's agreement before it is connected. Either way we make the submission, chase it and tell you where it has got to.
04
Circuit run, protective device fitted, containment or duct where the cable crosses a car park, and the unit mounted where you can actually reach it with the lead. On an occupied site the work is phased so people can still park, and we tell residents or staff what is happening before we start.
05
The circuit is tested and the charger's own protective functions are proved, not assumed. Then we set it up with you: the app or the back office, the schedule for cheap overnight rates, solar matching if you have panels, and who can use it if it is a workplace. You get the electrical installation certificate for the file.
If you want a price for an installation
Home or commercial, one point or forty. We come out, look at the supply and the parking, and put a written price in front of you. No charge and no obligation, and we will tell you if the answer is that your supply will not take it.
If a charger has already stopped working
Fault-finding on an existing installation is chargeable, and we will say so before we come. Out-of-hours and 24-hour call-outs are available at our discretion — call 029 2068 9339 and we will do our best.
04 DNO applications
Some EV chargers have to be declared to the company that owns the cables in the street, and some need its permission before they can be connected at all. It is the part of an EV job that worries people most, and it is the part you never have to touch: we make the submission on your behalf.
01
Your Distribution Network Operator owns the cables, the poles and the substation in your street. It is not your electricity supplier — you cannot switch to a different one, and changing tariff does not change it. For most of South Wales it is National Grid Electricity Distribution.
Not your supplier · Owns the network
02
A single 7kW point at a house is usually a notification: it goes in after the work, telling the operator what has been added. Larger units, three-phase supplies and several points on one site usually need an application and the operator's agreement before anything is connected.
7kW single point · Usually notification only
03
We work out which route your job takes, gather what the operator asks for, submit it and follow it up. You are not sent a link and left to it. If the answer changes what is possible on the site, we tell you what the options are and what they cost.
Submitted by us · Chased by us
04
An installation that should have been approved and was not is a problem for whoever owns the building, not for the firm that fitted it and moved on. Doing it properly also gives the operator a true picture of the load, which is how the network gets reinforced where it needs to be.
Records straight · No surprises later
Where the operator says the supply cannot take what you want, that is usually the moment load management earns its money — several chargers sharing what is already there instead of a new supply. It is explained in plain terms further down this page. Load management explained
05 Solar + EV
If you generate your own electricity, the cheapest place to put it is in the car. We install solar and EV charging both, which means one firm designs the two together instead of two firms blaming each other afterwards.
01
On a bright day a house with panels generates more than it uses and exports the rest for a few pence. A charger that watches the meter can put that surplus into the car instead. Zappi is the obvious example, and Hypervolt's solar matching does the same job.
Solar diversion · Export used, not sold
02
Panels, inverter, battery and charger share the same board, the same earthing and the same supply. Designed together, that is straightforward. Designed by two firms who never spoke, it is where the arguments start — usually over what the incoming supply can take.
One contractor · One set of certificates
03
A battery lets the sun you caught at midday charge the car at midnight, or lets you fill up on a cheap overnight rate and use it the next day. We are MCS certified for solar PV and battery storage, so both sides are certificated properly.
MCS · Solar PV & battery storage
04
The same logic scales: a warehouse roof generating through the working day and a yard full of vans that plug in at the end of it. Solar reduces what the fleet draws from the network, which is often what makes the charging viable at all.
Workplace · Fleet · Rooftop generation
Most EV installers fit chargers and nothing else, so pairing a charger with generation is somebody else's problem. Ours is one job, one design and one set of certificates. There is more about the solar side, including MCS and battery storage, on our renewable energy pages. Solar & renewable energy
06 Plain English
EV charging comes with a lot of words that get used to sell things. Here is what they actually mean, starting with the one that decides whether a car park costs you five thousand pounds or fifty.
Every building has a limit on how much electricity it can draw at once. It is set by the incoming supply — the cable from the street and the fuse on the end of it — and it was decided years ago based on what the building was then. Add four 7kW chargers to a small commercial supply and the sums stop working: if all four ran flat out at the same time as the lighting, the heating and everything else, you would be over the limit and the main fuse would go.
The obvious answer is to buy a bigger supply. That means an application to the network operator, possibly a new cable, possibly a transformer, and a bill that runs well into five figures and a wait measured in months. It is sometimes the right answer. It is very often not.
Load management is the alternative. A controller measures what the whole building is drawing, in real time, and tells the chargers how much they are allowed between them. When the building is busy the chargers ease off. When the offices empty at six, they take what is left. Every car still charges; they simply share what is spare instead of each demanding a full 7kW the moment it is plugged in.
For a fleet it works even better, because the vehicles are usually plugged in all night and only need to be full by morning. There are ten or twelve hours to move the energy in, so the controller can feed them in turn without anybody noticing. The result is that a yard which "could not have chargers without a supply upgrade" very often can.
Load management is
A live measurement of what the building is using, and chargers that share whatever headroom is left. It protects the main fuse, it is designed round your actual supply, and it usually removes the need for a supply upgrade.
Load management is not
A slower charger. Nothing is throttled while there is capacity to spare, and overnight there almost always is. It is also not the same as an app that lets you set a timer — a timer knows nothing about the rest of the building.
We are an OZEV-authorised installer, which is what the current government chargepoint schemes require before a claim can be made at all. Two of them are relevant to the work on this page:
The EV chargepoint grant for flats and rental properties puts money towards sockets at a block of flats or a rented home — it is claimed by the landlord, the freeholder or the managing agent rather than the resident, and it is the reason communal parking installs are worth looking at now. The Workplace Charging Scheme does the same for a business installing sockets for staff and fleet at its own premises.
Where a property or a workplace qualifies, we handle the paperwork. We are not going to guess your eligibility on a web page: the rules and the amounts change, and both schemes are run to their own conditions. Tell us what the property is and we will tell you where you stand. For an owner-occupied house with its own driveway there is currently no chargepoint grant — we would rather say that plainly than let you find out later.
Nearly always, yes — but it is worth checking rather than assuming, and it takes us one visit. Three things decide it. First, the incoming supply: most modern houses have enough for a 7kW charger alongside a shower and an oven, and where it is tight the charger can be set to work within what is there. Second, the consumer unit, which needs a spare way and the right protective device; an older board sometimes needs replacing, and if it does we will price that separately rather than hiding it in the total. Third, the earthing arrangement, which is what the charger's own PEN fault protection is usually there to solve.
If the answer is that your board or supply needs work first, that is an electrical job in its own right, and it is set out on our electrical and data installations page.
An EV charge point is a new circuit, so the work is certificated like any other electrical installation: you get an electrical installation certificate covering the circuit and the test results behind it. With it come the manufacturer's documentation for the unit and, where it applies, the DNO notification reference. Keep all of it — an insurer, a buyer's surveyor or the next contractor will ask. On a commercial site the certificates and next due dates can sit in the CJS client portal alongside the rest of your compliance record, which is set out on our maintenance and compliance page.
07 Why CJS
A charge point is a permanent electrical installation bolted to your building, not an appliance. It is worth knowing that the firm fitting it was an electrical contractor long before electric cars turned up.
Approval
Authorised under the government's chargepoint schemes, which is what a qualifying workplace or block of flats needs before it can claim at all.
Accreditation
Assessed against BS 7671, the UK wiring regulations, by the leading certification body for the industry — on all our electrical work, not just the chargers.
Sign-off
Inspection and testing is signed off by a Qualified Supervisor. Your certificates carry a named, accountable signature.
Insurance
Cover of £10m public liability and £10m employer's liability. Certificates are available on request.
Track record
Over 38 years working across Wales — commercial, industrial, education, social housing and domestic. We were wiring these buildings long before they needed charging.
Labour
Our own directly employed engineers do the electrical work, and one point of contact who knows your site. No subcontracted fitter you never see again.
08 Questions
Sometimes, and we deal with it either way. Every charge point has to be declared to your Distribution Network Operator, which is the company that owns the cables and the substation in your street rather than the supplier you buy electricity from. For most of South Wales that is National Grid Electricity Distribution. A single 7kW point at a house is usually a notification, which goes in after the work is done. Larger units, three-phase supplies and several points on one site usually need an application and the operator's agreement before anything is connected. We work out which route your job takes, make the submission on your behalf and chase it, so it is not something you have to understand or organise.
Nearly always, and it takes one visit to be sure. Three things decide it. First the incoming supply: most modern houses have enough capacity for a 7kW charger alongside a shower and an oven, and where it is tight the charger can be set to work within whatever is actually there. Second the consumer unit, which needs a spare way and the right protective device; an older board sometimes has to be replaced, and if it does we price that separately rather than hiding it in the total. Third the earthing arrangement, which is what the charger's built-in PEN fault protection is usually there to deal with. The survey and the written quote are free, so you find out before you commit to anything.
Yes, and it is one of the jobs we are asked for most often now. The difficulty in a block is rarely the charger itself — it is working out where the points can be fed from, whose electricity they are using and how residents get billed for it. We survey the landlord's supply and the parking layout, and set out the options in writing: points fed from the landlord's supply with a way of recording use, or individual feeds where the layout allows. The current OZEV chargepoint grant for flats and rental properties applies to exactly this situation and is claimed by the landlord, freeholder or managing agent, and as an OZEV-authorised installer we handle that paperwork where the property qualifies.
Two schemes are open and relevant to the work we do. The EV chargepoint grant for flats and rental properties puts money towards sockets at a block of flats or a rented home, and is claimed by the landlord, freeholder or managing agent rather than by the resident. The Workplace Charging Scheme does the same for a business putting in sockets for staff and fleet at its own premises. Both require the work to be carried out by an OZEV-authorised installer, which we are, and where the property or workplace qualifies we handle the paperwork. For an owner-occupied house with its own driveway there is currently no chargepoint grant. The rules and the amounts change, so tell us what the property is and we will tell you where you stand rather than guessing on a web page.
Load management is a controller that measures what the whole building is drawing and tells the chargers how much they are allowed between them. When the building is busy they ease off; when it empties in the evening they take what is left. It matters because the alternative to sharing a supply is buying a bigger one, and a supply upgrade means an application to the network operator, possibly a new cable, a bill well into five figures and a wait measured in months. As for slowing you down: nothing is throttled while there is capacity spare, and a fleet plugged in overnight has ten or twelve hours to move the energy in, so in practice the vehicles are full in the morning either way. It is the part of a multi-charger job most installers gloss over, and it is usually where the money is saved.
Yes. A charger that watches your meter can divert the electricity you would otherwise export into the car instead, which is worth far more to you than the export rate. Zappi from myenergi is the best known unit for this and Hypervolt's solar matching does the same job. We install solar PV, battery storage and EV charging, and we are MCS certified for the generation side, so where you want both they are designed as one installation sharing one board, one earthing arrangement and one supply — rather than two firms arriving separately and disagreeing about what the incoming supply can take. Most EV installers cannot offer the generation side at all.
More than you probably think, and the honest answer needs a survey rather than a phone call. It depends on your incoming supply, what the building already draws at its busiest, whether the supply is three-phase, and how the vehicles are used — visitors turning up for an hour is a different problem from a fleet plugged in all night. We measure what is there, then design the points around it, using load management so they share the headroom instead of each demanding full power at once. Where the supply genuinely will not stretch we will say so and price the upgrade properly, including what the network operator's side of it involves. We would rather phase a car park in two halves than sell you a supply upgrade you did not need.
We install Ratio, Project EV, the Hypervolt lineup, Andersen EV and Zappi from myenergi, and we are not tied to any one of them. In broad terms: Ratio and Project EV cover domestic through to three-phase commercial work and suit sites needing several units; Hypervolt is a common choice at home for app control and off-peak scheduling; Andersen is the design-led option, with the cable hidden inside the unit and a choice of finishes, and it costs accordingly; Zappi is the one to pick if you have solar, because it will put your surplus generation into the car. If your specification names a manufacturer, or a block already has one make fitted and you want the next points to match, we will fit that instead.
09 Free quote
Tell us what you drive, or how many vehicles you have to keep charged, and we will reply within one working day. The site survey and the written quote cost you nothing, whether it is one point on a drive or forty in a car park.
We have your details and will reply within one working day to arrange the survey. If it is urgent, call the office on 029 2068 9339.