EV Chargers: Everything you need to know about plugging in at home

Electric vehicles all have a charging port, usually in a similar spot where you'd fill up a gas car. 

The most common types of EV chargers are the NACS and J1772 standards. Ideally, your home EV charger model matches the charger port of your EV; however, adapters exist for both types, making nearly all EV chargers compatible with most EV models.

A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the basic unit of EV charging economics, sort of like a gallon of gas for a traditional gas-powered car. The price of electricity is measured in cents per kWh. 

The cost to charge an EV depends on where and how you’re charging your car. If you're charging at home, the cost per kWh is generally the same rate you pay for the rest of your electricity—about 18 cents per kWh on average, according to the Energy Information Administration as of September 2025. You can look up the precise rate on your utility bill or your utility company's website.

A typical at-home, Level 2 recharging rate is approximately 20 to 30 miles of range per hour of charging. Ideally, your charger will completely fill the battery if it’s plugged in overnight. 

If you plug in with a standard wall outlet, you'll get about 4 miles of range per hour of charging. At that rate, it'll take a few days to charge a long-range EV completely, although it should provide enough power for a reasonable commute or to run your local weekend errands.

If you own your home and property rights aren't an issue, you can almost always get an L2 charger—there are very few technical reasons that would prevent it from happening.

However, if you rent and your landlord doesn't want to pay for electrical upgrades, you might have to settle for an L1 charger plugged into a standard outlet.

Some landlords and HOAs have charging stations installed on the property for residents' use. 

If that’s not the case, do you have a deeded parking spot? Is there a clear path for you to run wiring between your electrical panel and the parking spot? It gets complicated, but sometimes it's possible.

You'll probably depend on public chargers. If your car supports it, Level 3/DC fast charger can be a good way to juice up relatively quickly. Still, EV manufacturers caution that heavy use of super-fast charging could reduce the lifespan of your battery.

You can also charge while you work or shop. Some office buildings and shopping centers have L2 chargers in their parking lots, while some cities have even begun to install streetside public chargers, including some built into streetlights.

That's the typical length of an EV charging cable. If you're within that range, you're all set at least for a Level 1 charger. You might have a 240-volt, 4-prong outlet that can support a Level 2 charger if it's a new house built with EVs in mind, or you park near your electric clothes dryer. 

If not, you’ll need to hire an electrician to install a new hookup. Extension cords and EV chargers are an unwise pairing—the amount of power required to charge an EV exceeds what typical extension cords are designed to handle. Plugging in your EV with an extension cord increases the risk of fire and electric shock (in addition to slowing down the charging process).

In a private driveway or garage, the answer is almost always yes. An electrician will know how to locate the circuit and will have the tools to make it work.

The answer is often yes, but go check out your panel to be sure. You're in great shape if there are at least two open “slots” for breakers. If the number on the big switch at the top of the panel is 200 amps, that's another strong sign it'll be an easy installation. A smaller number (often 100 amps) can be fine, too—it just depends on how many other high-draw items you have and how fast of a charger you're trying to install.

If your panel doesn't have the capacity for a new 240-volt circuit, or there's already a lot of demand on your panel, an EV charger might trip the breaker regularly. 

You still have plenty of options. About 20% of homes worked on by Qmerit, the largest network of EV charging and other electrification technology installers in North America (and an EnergySage corporate partner), have needed one of these upgrades. 

While the traditional approach has been to install a larger panel and have the utility company provide a service upgrade, more cost-effective and simpler alternatives have emerged. Circuit-sharing and load-shedding devices are fast becoming the industry standard. Joe Miller, Director of Technical Support at Qmerit, advises their electricians to use these innovative devices whenever feasible.

• It's a cleaner-looking installation with shorter cable runs, no visible plug, and no outlet.

• You can avoid installing a bulky outdoor-rated outlet because the hidden electrical connection already makes the charger more weatherproof.

• Hardwired connections can charge faster than plug-in chargers (if your car and electrical wiring can support it).

• You'll need an electrician to install it, then uninstall and replace it when it wears out (though this shouldn’t happen for 5-10 years), so the costs can add up over time.

• If you already have an outlet, you don't need to hire an electrician. Even if you need a new outlet or your existing one wears out, you won't need an electrician to swap out chargers in the future, which saves you money in the long run.

• Certain models are weatherproof (for outdoor use), though you'll need to plug into an outdoor-rated outlet.

• They have a maximum charging speed of 40 amps (20-30 miles of range per hour). That's the safe limit for a NEMA 14-50 outlet.

Most L2 charging stations can connect to WiFi and have some sort of mobile app. It's where you'll set charging schedules (see above), adjust the power output (see below), monitor the charging status, and track your energy use over time. They all basically do the same thing, but some are better looking, others more prone to glitches, and a few try to shoehorn in an extra interface for public charging networks, too. If you think this will be something that matters to you, check the app store ratings before buying.

This lets you control the charging rate. If you own a 32-amp charger, you can usually set it to supply just 24 amps, 16 amps, or even 8 amps to your car. Why would you do this? Maybe you're trying to manually manage your home's electrical load to avoid tripping an underpowered breaker, or you’re acting out of some sense of courtesy for the electrical grid. 

You never really need to do this. The EV itself will only ever draw as much power as its battery can safely handle, and there's no good evidence that L2 charging is any worse for an EV battery's longevity than L1 charging. Still, most L2 chargers provide this option if you want it, though not all of them.

Certain EV chargers are also compatible with demand response programs through your utility company. If you opt-in, it gives the utility some control over your charger (via software), typically in exchange for a small cash rebate. 

Demand response typically works like this: The utility can turn off or turn down an EV charger at peak demand to help avoid overloading the grid. That might be during the early evening on the hottest days of the year, as people arrive home from work and crank the AC, or frigid winter mornings in regions with a lot of electric heat. All the demand response programs we know of allow you to override the utility company's control, but you might lose out on the rewards.

A basic charging cord for L1 starts at around $100. Higher-speed models with sturdier components can cost over $300. 

Amazon lists hundreds of these low-cost models, and they're often indistinguishable. There are a few things to remember when shopping for basic charging cords:

• Most of these product listings don't specify whether the chargers are UL-listed, so watch out for that if you decide to go this route. 

• Many are for indoor use only. 

• Pay attention to the kind of wall plug they use. Some come with a four-prong NEMA 14-50 (the standard for Level 2), and some with a plug for a regular NEMA 5-15 outlet (for a standard household outlet). Others come with plugs that were more common a few decades ago, like that big 3-prong outlet your old clothes dryer uses.

Standard Level 2 charging stations (boxes that hang on a wall, with a holster for the connector and a hook for the cable) start at $300 and range up to about $800.

You're probably thinking of these models when you picture a home EV charger. They cost more because they're sturdier, charge faster than basic L1 cords, and often work with mobile apps that allow you to control certain aspects of EV charging remotely.