Pod Point Solo 3 7kW EV Charger Install — Marple

A customer in Marple wanted a 7kW home charge point so the car could be charged on the driveway overnight. We supplied and fitted a Pod Point Solo 3 — a tethered unit, so the lead stays attached to the charger rather than living in the boot — mounted on the outside wall next to the garage.

On a normal single-phase domestic supply, 7kW is the practical ceiling for a home charger. That's a dedicated 32A circuit pulling roughly what an electric shower pulls, except it holds that load for hours at a time rather than minutes. So the circuit gets its own protection rather than being spurred off something existing: we fitted a separate consumer unit in the garage for the charger, with a 32A breaker for the EV circuit and a surge protective device (SPD) on the board.

The supply to the charger was run in 6mm H07 rubber-sheathed cable. Cable choice here is worth explaining, because it's the part customers never see on the quote. A garage is a working space — cars, bikes, tools and ladders all move past the walls — and a surface cable run needs a sheath that will take a knock without the insulation being compromised. H07 is a flexible rubber-sheathed cable with a much tougher outer than standard twin and earth, which makes it a good robust choice for a garage run, and at 6mm the conductor is sized to carry the charger's full load continuously rather than just briefly.

We also ran a separate Cat 6 cable back to the CT clamp inside the meter box. The CT clamp is what lets the charger measure the total current the house is drawing at the incoming supply. Without it, the charger has no idea what the oven, shower and immersion heater are doing, and a 32A charge on top of a busy house can take the whole supply past the main fuse. With it, the charger backs its own charge rate off automatically when the rest of the house is loaded up and brings it back when demand drops. It's the difference between a charger that works on paper and one that doesn't trip your main fuse on a winter evening.

Once the charge point was mounted and the circuit was in, everything was tested and the unit commissioned on site, so it was working and signed off before we left rather than the homeowner being left to sort the app out afterwards. We install EV chargers across Marple, Romiley, Bredbury and the wider Stockport area — if you're looking at a 7kW home charger and want it specified and installed properly, get in touch.