Home charger installation: what it needs and what drives the price
Short answer: if you drive up to 50 km a day, an ordinary socket is enough. A wallbox earns its place only when you need to put back more than half a battery in one night.
The charger itself is not the main cost. Running the cable from the meter to the parking space, and raising your supply capacity if it comes to that, often costs more than the unit. That is why a flat and a house are priced nothing alike.
Three real options
The choice comes in three levels and the only thing separating them is speed. Below is how long each takes to put 36 kWh into a 60 kWh battery, which is 20 to 80 percent.
| Connection | Power | 20 to 80 percent |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary household socket | 2.3 kW | about 16 hours |
| Heavy duty socket, the cable that came with the car | 3.5 kW | about 10 hours |
| Single phase wallbox | 7.4 kW | about 5 hours |
| Three phase wallbox | 11 kW | about 3 hours 20 minutes |
| Three phase wallbox | 22 kW | about 1 hour 40 minutes |
A night is eight hours. As the table shows, a 7 kW unit fills almost any battery in that window. That, and not the absence of anything stronger, is why 7.4 kW is the usual home choice.
How much your car can actually take
Before buying anything, check one number: how many kilowatts your car accepts on AC. That is a limit of its onboard charger and no wallbox can raise it.
Many models stop at 7.4 kW, some take 11, and 22 is rare. If your car stops at 7.4, a 22 kW wallbox will still give it 7.4. You would be paying for capacity you can never use.
The same goes for phases. A three phase charger needs a three phase supply. On a single phase supply it simply runs on one phase and gives you 7.4 kW.
A house and a flat are two different projects
In a house it is straightforward. The meter is yours, the parking is yours, the cable run is short and three phase is often already there. Installing a charger is ordinary electrical work.
In a flat there are three separate obstacles, each solved on its own.
- Who owns the parking. Yards and underground car parks are normally common property. Fixing a unit to the wall and running cable through shared space needs the owners' association to agree. That is the first step, not the last.
- Separate metering. Wired into a communal circuit, your charging appears on everyone's bill. You need a dedicated run from your own meter, or a separate meter for the charger.
- What the building can spare. Older blocks frequently have no headroom at the supply point at all. Then the job starts with a capacity increase, which is a formal service from the distribution company and begins with an application.
Of the three, the last is what stops most projects. So before choosing a unit, find out how many amps your meter is rated for and how much of that the flat already uses.
What to insist on from the electrician
A charger is the only appliance in a home that runs at full load for hours. Ordinary domestic wiring is not designed for that.
- A dedicated run from the meter. Not spliced into an existing socket circuit, not off the kitchen ring, not through an added outlet. Its own cable and its own breaker.
- Cable sized for the current. Two things set the cross section: the charger's current and the distance. A long run needs thicker cable for the same current. This is the worst possible place to economise.
- Residual current protection that sees DC. A standard RCD cannot detect a DC leakage fault, and a charger is exactly where one can appear. You need a type B device, or a charger with that protection built in.
- Real earthing. In older Tbilisi blocks the protective earth is often absent, or bonded to neutral. On such a supply a charger either refuses to start or starts and runs unprotected. Treat it as something to verify, not to assume.
- Adjustable current. A good charger lets you cap its maximum current in software. If the supply is weak, set a 7.4 kW unit to 3.7 and it will still fill the car overnight.
What drives the price
The bill splits into four parts, and their weights differ wildly.
- The charger itself. The most predictable line. A plain unit and a screened, app controlled one differ several times over while doing functionally the same job.
- Cable and the run. This is where the uncertainty hides. Five metres along a wall and forty metres across an underground car park are not the same work.
- Protective gear and the board. Breaker, residual current device, and a separate meter if you need one.
- Capacity increase. This line is either absent entirely or the largest one on the page, depending on what headroom your supply has.
We deliberately publish no figures. Hardware prices move, installation is quoted case by case, and the same charger can cost three times as much to fit in two different flats. What you do have is the four lines that should appear on the quote. If an electrician gives you a single number, ask for it broken down.
Do you even need one
This is the question asked least often. Driving 50 km a day uses roughly 9 kWh. An ordinary socket replaces that in four hours. In that case a wallbox buys speed you have no use for.
It starts to make sense above about 150 km a day, if the car is only home for a few hours at a time, or if there are two EVs in the household.
The money side is simple arithmetic. The median public AC tariff is 0.65 GEL per kWh and the median DC tariff is 0.78. Your home tariff is lower than both, and the exact figure belongs on your own bill, because it is tiered and an EV will usually push you into the top band. Multiply the difference per kWh by the kilowatt hours you use in a month and you have the saving.
What not to do
- Extension leads. An ordinary extension lead is not rated for 10 amps for hours on end, and it gets hot. If you charge from a socket, plug straight into it.
- A shared socket. Anything that also feeds a water heater or a fan heater is not a charging point.
- An unprotected outdoor socket. Connecting outside needs weather protection and a socket rated for it.
- Maximum current on old wiring. If the cable is old, turn the current down in the charger rather than hoping.
What AC and DC mean, and why slow charging takes as long as it does, is covered separately in AC or DC. Public tariffs are on the tariffs page.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to charge an EV from a household socket?
An ordinary socket delivers about 2.3 kW. Taking a 60 kWh battery from 20 to 80 percent takes roughly 16 hours on it. A normal day of driving, around 9 kWh, goes back in about four.
Can I install a charger at a flat?
You can, but three conditions have to be met: the owners’ association has to agree to the parking space, you need a dedicated run from your own meter, and the supply has to have spare capacity. All three are solvable, though the third is what stops most projects.
Is a three phase charger better than single phase?
Only if you actually have a three phase supply and a car that accepts 11 or 22 kW. On a single phase supply a three phase unit gives you the same 7.4 kW a single phase one would.
More guides
See also
Map and live status are in the app
This page shows which chargers exist and where. The map, exact locations, real-time availability and route planning live in the free app.