EV Charger Installation FAQs for Poole & Bournemouth
Updated: Oct 4
We fit a lot of home EV chargers across Poole and Bournemouth these days, and the questions we get asked before the job are remarkably consistent. What will it cost? Will my old fuse board cope? Can you get the cable to the front of the house when the meter's at the back? So rather than answer them one email at a time, here are the honest answers we give on site, with prices that reflect what we're actually charging in September 2026.
One thing before we start: every figure below assumes a proper survey first. We never quote an EV charger from a photo, because the cable route and the state of your electrics decide the price far more than the charger itself.
How much does a home EV charger cost in Poole or Bournemouth?
For a standard 7kW smart charger on a straightforward run from the consumer unit to an outside wall, our fully installed price is typically £1,050 to £1,600. That includes the charger unit, all cabling up to about 15 metres, a dedicated circuit with its own protection, testing, and the Electrical Installation Certificate you'll need for your records and your insurer.
Roughly speaking, that splits into:
Charger unit: £540 to £900, depending on brand, whether it's tethered or untethered, and features like solar integration.
Installation labour and materials: £480 to £720 for a typical day's work on a simple route.
Extras where needed: long or underground cable runs, a new consumer unit, or earthing work (more on those below).
We price to a fixed figure after the survey, so the number on the quote is the number on the invoice. If we open up a wall and find something unexpected we'll talk to you before we touch it.
Will my fuse board need upgrading first?
Sometimes, and it's the single biggest reason two neighbours in Broadstone can get quotes £600 apart. A 7kW charger draws about 32 amps continuously, which is a lot to add to a house that's already running an electric shower, an induction hob and a tumble dryer. We look at three things on the survey:
Whether your consumer unit has a spare way and the right RCD protection for an EV circuit.
The rating of your main fuse. Plenty of older Bournemouth and Poole homes are still on a 60A cut-out, and we may need to ask SSEN (the local network operator) to upgrade it to 80A or 100A. That part is usually free, but it adds a couple of weeks.
Your earthing arrangement. Most homes round here are on a PME supply, which means the charger needs built-in PEN fault protection or a separate earth rod. Good modern chargers handle this internally; cheap ones don't.
If the board does need replacing, a new RCBO consumer unit fitted alongside the charger runs to £600 to £1,200 on top, and we'd normally do both on the same visit. Our electrical team handles the whole thing, so there's no juggling separate trades.
The meter's at the back and I park at the front. Can you still do it?
Yes, and this is genuinely the most common layout we see in the 1930s semis around Ensbury Park, Winton and Parkstone. The consumer unit sits under the stairs or in the kitchen, the drive is at the front, and the cable has to get from one to the other somehow.
There are three ways we tackle it. Clipping the cable neatly along an external wall is cheapest. Running it through the loft or under floors keeps it hidden but takes longer. Where the cable has to cross a garden or go under a driveway we use armoured cable in a trench, which is a proper bit of groundwork. As a guide, a long or buried run of 20 to 25 metres adds around £360 to £600 to the standard price. We'll always show you the route before we start so there are no surprises about where the cable ends up.
One honest caveat: if you're in a terrace with no off-street parking, we can't legally run a cable across the pavement, and a charger on the front wall won't help much. Worth knowing before you spend anything.
Can I get the £500 government grant?
Only if you rent, or own a flat. The OZEV chargepoint grant was updated on 1 April 2026 and now covers 75% of the cost up to £500 per socket, but it's aimed squarely at renters and leaseholders. If you own a house with a driveway, you're not eligible, and anyone telling you otherwise is out of date.
For those who do qualify, which covers a fair few of the flats in Westbourne, Lilliput and along the Poole quayside, we'll walk you through the claim paperwork so you're not left wrestling with the forms alone. You'll need written permission from your landlord or freeholder, and the grant runs until 31 March 2027, so there's time but not endless time. Landlords can claim the same £500 per socket for their rental properties too.
How long does it take, and do I need planning permission?
The installation itself is normally a single day, occasionally two if there's a consumer unit change or a trench to dig. From your first enquiry to a working charger we'd usually say two to three weeks, mainly because of the survey and, where needed, the SSEN fuse upgrade. Once we've fitted the charger we register it with the network operator and lodge the Part P notification with BCP Council, so the paperwork is done.
Planning permission isn't needed for a wall-mounted home charger in almost all cases. The exception is a listed building or a charger that faces the highway in a conservation area, where we'd check with you first. We've fitted plenty in the older parts of Christchurch and Wimborne without any planning issues.
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Ready to charge at home?
If you're in Poole, Bournemouth or anywhere across Dorset and Hampshire and you'd like a fixed price for a home EV charger, book a free survey with Complete Builds and we'll come out, look at the route and the board, and give you one clear figure. No guesswork and no surprise extras on the day.
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