If you are buying your first electric vehicle, you might be having trouble selecting the perfect home EV charger you need. And one of the most common questions is: how many amps do I need for the EV charger to provide? To solve that problem, we write this article to explain the basic terms you need to know about EV charging and what you should be looking for when purchasing the EV charger.
Basic EV Charging Terms
Onboard Charger: It's a built- in power electronics device to charge an electric vehicle's battery pack.
Level 1 Charging: 120-volt charging source, which can take you a long time to charge an electric vehicle.
Level 2 Charging: 240-volt charging source.
Level 3 Charging: The proper term is DC fast charging which is not available for home charging. So we won't talk about this any further in this article.
Volts: Volts means a measurement of the amount of force of the electricity.
Amps: Amps are the volume of electrons in the current. EV chargers are typically rated by the number of amps they can deliver, or accept ,respectively.
Kilowatt(kW): A kilowatt refers to how much power a charger can deliver as well as how much power your EV can accept.
There are 2 ways for you to check about the power that the EV charger outputs, as well as your onboard charger, can take in. One is in amps, and another is in kilowatts. To check the kilowatts, you need to multiply the amps and the volts. For example, you have a 240-volt circuit and a 40 amps charger and you should get 9.6 kilowatt which means you have a 40 amps EV charger or a 9.6 kilowatt EV charger. It also applies to the onboard charger.
Considerations
When it comes to selecting an EV home charger, you need to think about these factors.
Budget
You need to figure out what your budget is before buying an EV charger. Because that affects how much power you can use to charge your electric vehicle. Especially when some people just charge their cars all night.
Onboard Charger Amps
How much amps your onboard charger can accept decides how much power your electric vehicle can take in.
Daily Driving
How many miles you drive daily means how much power you need to charge your electric vehicle. To make the best of it with your daily budget, you need to take this into your consideration.
Available Power
We suggest you contact an electrician for the calculation if the power in your house is limited before you actually purchase an EV charger.
Above all are the basics and factors you need to figure out when you are considering buying an EV charger. We hope this article can answer your questions about how many amps you need for home EV charging.
