Charge at home, intelligently

Australia's transition to electric vehicles is accelerating, and for Melbourne households and businesses that are already driving electric or planning to make the switch, the quality of the home charging installation is one of the most consequential decisions in the ownership experience. A well-specified and correctly installed EV charger adds genuine daily convenience — consistent overnight charging, smart scheduling to take advantage of off-peak tariffs, and the ability to prioritise surplus solar generation rather than exporting it to the grid at a fraction of what it costs to import. Lumen & Wire installs smart AC home chargers and fleet charging solutions across Melbourne, as an accredited electrician with the Clean Energy Council.

The market for EV charging equipment has matured significantly. The generation of chargers now available in the 7 kW to 22 kW AC range — compatible with the Type 2 inlet fitted to virtually all current EVs sold in Australia — are connected devices with sophisticated load management, energy monitoring, and solar integration capabilities that were unavailable even three years ago. Selecting the right unit for your circumstances, installing it correctly with appropriately rated cabling and protection devices, and configuring it properly are all areas where professional guidance makes a real difference to the outcome.

Home EV Charger Installations

For most Melbourne homes on a single-phase 63 A supply, a 7 kW (32 A) single-phase wall-mounted charger is the appropriate choice, capable of delivering approximately 40 km of range per hour of charging. Homes with three-phase supply can install 11 kW or 22 kW units, which charge proportionally faster — useful for households with high daily driving distances or multiple vehicles. We assess your existing supply capacity and switchboard headroom before recommending a charger rating, and we'll tell you honestly if a supply upgrade is needed to support the installation safely.

• Dedicated circuit from the switchboard with appropriately rated cable and RCBO protection
• Smart chargers with Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity for scheduling, energy monitoring, and remote access
• Solar-aware charging — configured to prioritise surplus PV generation before drawing from the grid
• Dynamic load management to prevent the combined EV and household load from exceeding supply capacity
• Tethered or untethered (socket outlet) configurations to suit your vehicle and preference
• Clean Energy Council accredited installation with Certificate of Electrical Safety issued on completion

Solar Integration and Smart Scheduling

For households with rooftop solar, integrating the EV charger with the solar system's export monitoring unlocks a genuinely compelling capability. Rather than exporting surplus generation to the grid at the prevailing feed-in tariff — which in Victoria has declined substantially in recent years — a solar-aware charger diverts that energy into your vehicle's battery. The effective cost of that energy is zero beyond what you've already paid for the solar system. Most smart chargers achieve this through CT clamp monitoring of grid import and export, with the charger modulating its draw in response to available surplus. We configure this functionality as part of the installation, and we verify it's operating correctly before we leave.

Smart scheduling is the other key feature that makes a home charger far more useful than a simple socket outlet. The ability to programme charging to begin at midnight to take advantage of off-peak tariff periods, to set a departure time and target state of charge, and to override the schedule when needed via a phone app or OCPP-compatible home automation system are all features available in the current generation of equipment. We configure these settings to your tariff and usage pattern during commissioning.

Commercial and Fleet Charging

For businesses transitioning vehicle fleets to electric, the electrical infrastructure challenge is more complex. Multiple simultaneous charging sessions can impose significant demand on a commercial supply, and the commercial tariff structures applied to peak demand make unmanaged charging expensive. We design fleet charging installations with dynamic load management as a core feature — the system allocates available amperage across active sessions in real time, preventing demand peaks while ensuring every vehicle charges to the required level before its next deployment. We work with OCPP-compatible charging management systems that provide session logging, cost allocation, and remote management across multiple sites.