When a car owner makes the switch to an EV, they will often get the required infrastructure set up soon after, which means they will need to hire a specialist electrician who has experience and training in setting up EV charging stations.
The reason for this is obvious; installing a fast charging station means that it takes just a few hours to charge an EV’s battery, and with increasingly fast supercharger systems able to cut this time down to mere minutes, electric cars become increasingly practical and viable.
However, if someone happened to lack any of the apparatus to charge their EV quickly, would it be possible to use the same three-pin electric socket that every single home has?
The answer is yes, but the reality is that you probably should not.
Is It Theoretically Possible To Charge An EV Using A Regular Socket?
As long as you have an adapter to convert the EV charging cable into a standard three-pin plug, you can at least theoretically plug it into the mains. There are many caveats and downsides to actually doing this, however.
The first is that not every adaptor and cable will work for every car, and a qualified electrician will be best placed to let you know if you will get any power at all from it.
The other problem is that it takes a very very long time.
How Long Will It Take To Charge An EV?
Fully charging an EV or charging it to 80 per cent (a standard stopping point to conserve battery longevity) will vary depending on capacity but with a mains plug generating just 2.4kw, that roughly equates to 2.4 miles every 20 minutes, or 7.2 miles charged per hour.
This means that charging many modern long-range cars can take upwards of 30 hours to reach a usable range.
By contrast, a now-standard 7kW home charger will completely charge an equivalent EV in less than ten hours, and there are public charging stations which can fully charge a car in less than an hour.
Is It Dangerous To Use a Standard Plug?
Depending on the quality and condition of your wiring, charging an EV could potentially be damaging if not outright dangerous.
This danger comes from two main places; one is damage to your electricity supply due to the high energy draw for long periods of time, whilst the other is the encouragement of unsafe charging habits.
The first problem is often caused by overheating. Conventional 13A three-pin plugs are not designed to supply current for long stretches of time, but they are effectively required to do so because of the intense power draw and relatively low power output.
This can lead to overheating, which could cause damage to the plug or socket, leading to damage to the wiring and potentially even an electrical fire.
The other problem is that most electrical sockets are indoors, meaning that the wire is long and usually connected to an extension lead, which can also increase the risk of overheating as well as create a trip hazard for days at a time.