EV Charger Installation Checklist for Electricians (2026)

A repeatable EV charger installation checklist for electricians has seven stages: a photo-based remote survey that answers the eight questions that decide the price, a main fuse and load check that tells you whether load balancing is mandatory, a cable route and drilling plan agreed before you quote, the correct earthing arrangement and residual current protection for the supply you found, a fixed commissioning test sequence with recorded values, a handover that includes app pairing and a live load-balancing demonstration, and an invoice raised the same day with the certificate attached. Do those in order and a charger install is a two to four hour job with a predictable margin. Skip the survey and it becomes two visits, and the second one is free.

Why the survey is now the whole job

Charger installs are high volume and quoted blind. A customer sends three photos and expects a price by the end of the day. The firm that wins is not the cheapest; it is the one whose photo request is so specific that the quote survives contact with the property.

Almost every loss-making charger job traces back to one unasked question. The consumer unit was full. The main fuse was smaller than assumed. The supply was TT, not TN-C-S, and nobody priced an earth rod. None of these are hard problems. They are only expensive when you find them with a van outside and the customer watching.

Stage 1: the photo-based remote survey

Send one intake form, not a chat thread. Ask for these photos, each described so a non-electrician takes the right one:

• The consumer unit or fuse board, door open, close enough to read every breaker rating and to count free ways.
• The main fuse or service head, showing the rating on the carrier. In the UK this is usually 60, 80 or 100 A. In Sweden it is the main fuse rating on the service, commonly 16, 20 or 25 A per phase at 400 V, which is the number that decides everything.
• The meter, wide enough to show the tails and any existing tails clamp or henley block.
• The earthing arrangement: the main earthing terminal and the earthing conductor where it leaves the cut-out, plus any earth rod.
• The proposed charger position, taken standing where the car parks, showing the mounting surface and the reach to the vehicle inlet.
• The route: one photo from the board towards the charger position, and one back the other way.
• Both sides of every wall you will drill, including the inside face where the core will emerge.
• The supply type: single or three phase, and whether solar, a battery or a heat pump is already on the board.

Then ask the four questions photos cannot answer: which car, is the parking space the customer owns or communal, is the building rented or leasehold, and has anything on the board ever tripped when the oven and the shower run together.

Keep the answers on the job card, not in someone's inbox. An embeddable enquiry form is the difference between a survey you can quote from and a folder of screenshots.

Stage 2: main fuse and load balancing

This calculation decides whether you fit 7.4 kW, 11 kW or 22 kW, and whether dynamic load balancing is optional or mandatory.

The rule of thumb that keeps you honest: a Swedish home on a 16 A three-phase main fuse has roughly 11 kW of total headroom, and an 11 kW charger will use all of it. The car does not care that the oven is on. Dynamic balancing with current transformers on the incoming tails is not a luxury there, it is the only thing between your customer and a blown main fuse on a Sunday.

Before you price the CTs, confirm how far the sensor sits from the charger and whether it needs a data cable or a wireless bridge. That detail is a common cause of a return visit.

Notify the network operator to the scheme they run. In the UK that is your DNO, and the threshold for notify-before versus notify-after depends on the point rating and the supply, so check the current position with them rather than assuming. In Sweden the grid company is informed if the fuse rating changes. Either way, the notification is a line on the checklist, not an afterthought.

Stage 3: cable route and drilling

Walk the route on the photos and price the metres, not the wish:

• Measure the run and add 15 percent. Charger cable is not where you want to be optimistic.
• Volt drop on a 32 A run of 40 m or more is real. Size the cable for the drop, not just the breaker.
• Cavity walls: core from the outside in, angled slightly upward from the inside face so water cannot track in. Check for a cavity tray and blown insulation first.
• Rendered or brick-slip walls need a marked, sealed penetration. Photograph it before and after.
• Buried runs need depth, warning tape and a route the customer will remember when they plant a tree. Photograph the trench open.
• Timber cladding and thin render want a backing plate; the charger and a flexed cable weigh more than people think.

Stage 4: earthing and RCD requirements

This part varies by country. The principles do not.

• Establish the earthing arrangement on site, do not trust the photo. TN-C-S (PME), TN-S and TT each lead to a different design.
• Open PEN protection. On a PME supply feeding an outdoor charge point, a broken PEN conductor can put the vehicle body at line voltage. In the UK, BS 7671 Section 722 permits either an earth electrode arrangement or a device that disconnects on an abnormal line-to-earth voltage; the commonly cited threshold is disconnection when the voltage rises above roughly 70 V for more than a few seconds. Verify the figures against the current edition and the manufacturer's declaration, because both have moved. In Sweden the installation rules in SS 436 40 00 and the manufacturer's instructions govern, and Elsäkerhetsverket is the authority to check when you are unsure.
• DC fault current. A vehicle can inject smooth DC that blinds a Type AC or Type A RCD. Every charge point needs either a Type B RCD or a Type A RCD combined with 6 mA DC fault detection (RDC-DD) built into the unit. Read the datasheet; do not assume the box has it because it is new.
• One RCD per charge point. Do not share it with the sockets or the lights.
• TT installations need an electrode with a measured, stable resistance and a design that disconnects in time. Price the rod in the quote, not after you have dug.

Stage 5: commissioning test values to record

Test in a fixed order and write the numbers down as you go. The certificate is the product; the box on the wall is the packaging.

• Continuity of protective conductors: R1+R2 recorded for the final circuit.
• Insulation resistance: 500 V DC, line and neutral to earth. The limit is 1 MΩ; a healthy new run reads above 200 MΩ. Anything between 1 and 2 MΩ is a fault you have not found yet. Isolate the charger's electronics first.
• Polarity: at the board, at the isolator, at the charge point.
• Earth fault loop impedance: measure Zs at the point and compare it with the maximum for the protective device at the actual conductor temperature.
• Prospective fault current at the origin and at the point.
• RCD test: a 30 mA Type A or Type B should not trip at 0.5x, should trip within 300 ms at 1x and within 40 ms at 5x. Record both polarities.
• 6 mA DC detection: use the manufacturer's procedure or a tester with DC injection. A button press is not a test.
• Open PEN device: prove it operates. Record the method.
• Earth electrode resistance where fitted, plus the soil condition on the day.
• A real charge: connect the customer's car and confirm it draws the current you designed for, not the current the app claims.

Then load-test the balancing. Put the kettle, the oven and the shower on and watch the charger throttle. If it does not, the CTs are on the wrong conductor or the wrong way round. Four minutes, and it prevents the most common callback.

Stage 6: handover and app pairing

The customer judges the whole job by the app. Do this with them standing next to you, not from the van:

• Connect the charger to their Wi-Fi or SIM, then power-cycle it and confirm it reconnects.
• Have them install the app and create the account on their own phone and email. Never use your own; you will be doing their password resets for three years.
• Set the tariff or schedule to their off-peak window and show them where to change it.
• Demonstrate a start, a stop, an unlock, and what a failed handshake looks like.
• Show the isolator and the RCD, and explain the six-monthly test.
• Register the warranty on the spot and record the serial number on the job.
• Hand over the certificate, the test results, the photos of the route and the drilling, and the manufacturer's guide.

Stage 7: invoice before you leave the street

A charger install is small enough that a week of admin drag destroys the margin. The photos, the test values and the self-inspection record are already on your phone. Turn them into a certificate and an invoice from the job card before you drive off.

If you work in Sweden, the charging point qualifies under the grön teknik deduction rather than ROT. It cuts the customer's cost of both labour and materials and is claimed by you, not by them. It is its own scheme with its own ceiling and its own conditions on the point, so confirm the current amounts at Skatteverket before you quote a net price.

OdinTask suits this shape of job: the intake form collects the eight survey photos, the quote shows the net price with the deduction applied, the field app records test values offline in a bad garage, and the invoice comes out of the same job card. Start a free trial and run your next charger job through it end to end.

The one-page version

1. Photo survey: eight photos, four questions. No price without them.
2. Main fuse and load: decide the kW and whether balancing is mandatory.
3. Route measured, drilling agreed, cable sized for volt drop.
4. Earthing confirmed on site. Open PEN handled. Type B or Type A plus 6 mA. Dedicated RCD.
5. Test in order, record every value, charge the customer's car.
6. Load-test the balancing with the kettle and the oven.
7. App on their phone, tariff set, certificate handed over, invoice raised before you leave the street.