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Smartlec Electrical SolutionsYour new EV is in the driveway and the wall socket it is trickling off is already the slow way to do this. A proper home setup is a dedicated circuit and a wall charger, not an extension lead, and getting one fitted safely is electrical work first and a gadget second. Martin Turnbull has run Smartlec, an A-Grade licensed and insured electrical contractor, out of Prahran since 2017, and EV charger installation is one of the jobs he is asked for most. Tell us the car, the parking spot and roughly where your switchboard sits, and you get a firm quote before anything is mounted on the wall.
A house charging one car overnight and a workplace running a bank of bays for staff and fleet are different jobs, and we take on both. For homes that usually means a single 7kW wall unit on its own circuit, sited where the cable reaches the car without crossing a doorway or a path. For businesses it can run to several units, a shared supply that has to be split sensibly, and load management so the building does not trip when three cars plug in at five o’clock.
Either way it is the same standard and the same licensed hands: the load calculation a multi-bay workplace needs, or a home circuit done properly so the rest of the house keeps working while the car charges. As an EV charger installer we fit the common home and commercial wall chargers rather than tying you to one brand, and we will talk through which unit suits your car before you buy anything.
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Almost no installer publishes a real EV charging price, because almost no two installs are the same. What decides yours is the run from the board to the charger, whether the switchboard has room, and whether your supply is single or three phase. So rather than quote a number that means nothing, we come and look.
We charge a $99 inspection fee to assess the job in person and give you a firm, itemised quote, and that $99 is waived in full the moment you go ahead. A straightforward home job we can often scope from a few photos of your switchboard and meter. Either way the price is fixed before any work starts, so there is no open-ended hourly meter and no surprise on the invoice.
Here is the catch the cheap quotes leave out. A 7kW charger is a serious continuous load, and plenty of Melbourne homes, especially older ones with ageing wiring, run a switchboard that has no spare capacity or still leans on old fuse-style protection. Bolting a charger onto a board like that is how you get nuisance tripping, or worse. The honest answer on a fair number of homes is that the board, or the mains supply feeding it, needs upgrading before the charger goes in.
This is exactly where doing it all under one A-Grade licence matters. We carry out the complete switchboard and mains upgrades ourselves, so if your board needs work it is the same trade, the same quote and the same warranty as the charger, not a second contractor you have to find and coordinate. If a safety check is the sensible first step, we will say so plainly, and we will tell you when the existing board is perfectly fine and no upgrade is needed. No upsell to a new switchboard when the one you have can carry the charger.
Keen to get a quote? Please call us on 1300 870 531 or enquire right here online. Once the size and scope of the job is set, we’ll provide a fixed price that already accounts for the circuit and any board work, so the number you are quoted is the number you pay.
Our hours are Monday to Friday 7:00am to 5:30pm and Saturday 7:00am to 3:00pm. The charger is the easy part; getting the supply behind it right is the job, and that is the part we are licensed for.
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Most homes are best served by a 7kW single-phase charger. It adds plenty of range overnight for normal driving and suits the single-phase supply most houses already have. A 22kW charger only reaches full speed on a three-phase supply, and most cars cap their home AC charging below that anyway, so 22kW often buys speed neither your supply nor your car can use. Three phase earns its place for a workplace, a fleet, or a home that genuinely has three-phase power and a car to match.
Smart charging is the other choice worth making early. A networked charger lets you fill the car on off-peak rates, track usage, and on a shared or multi-bay setup, balance the load across chargers so the supply is never overdrawn. For a workplace that load management is what keeps the lights on while the cars charge. We will walk you through 7kW against 22kW and basic against smart for your situation, not sell you the biggest number on the shelf.
A lot of EV charger installers are exactly that, charger installers, and they sub the electrical work out to whoever is free. Smartlec is the other way around. Martin Turnbull is a licensed A-Grade electrician who fits chargers, so the dedicated circuit, the switchboard capacity and the charger itself are one job, one trade and one person accountable for it.
Here is what stands behind that:
Complete electrical solutions for homes, businesses, and modern energy upgrades.
Smartlec is based in Prahran, at 23 Regent St. Plenty of EV charger installers service the inner south-east from somewhere across town. We are not. Being based in Prahran, we can install chargers across all of the surrounding suburbs, including South Yarra, Richmond, Kew, Hawthorn, Camberwell, Glen Iris, Malvern, St Kilda and Brighton, reaching roughly 30km from Prahran. A charger is rarely the only thing on the list either, so if you are also weighing up split-system air conditioning or getting off gas, the same licensed contractor covers those too.
Smartlec services across metropolitan Melbourne, including the inner south-east suburbs.
Smartlec services across metropolitan Melbourne, including the inner south-east suburbs.
Smartlec services across metropolitan Melbourne, including the inner south-east suburbs.
FAQ'sFind answers to some of the most common questions about our electrical services.
Explore FAQ's
It depends on the cable run, your switchboard capacity and whether your supply is single or three phase, which is why we do not publish a flat figure. We charge a $99 inspection to assess it and give you a fixed quote, and that $99 is waived when you proceed. A simple install can often be quoted from photos of your board.
A power point will trickle-charge a car, but slowly, and running it for hours is not what a general circuit was built for. A dedicated EV circuit and wall charger is faster, safer and protected on its own, which is the setup we install.
Sometimes. A 7kW charger is a heavy continuous load, and an older or full board may lack the capacity or protection to add it. We check that as part of the quote, and because we are A-Grade electricians we can do the board or mains upgrade and the charger as one job if needed.
For most homes, 7kW on single-phase power is the right call: most cars cap their home charging there and it suits the supply houses already have. A 22kW charger only reaches full speed on three-phase power, so it mainly suits workplaces, fleets or three-phase homes. We will advise on your car and supply.
Yes. We install single home chargers and multi-bay commercial and workplace setups, including the shared supply and smart load management a bank of chargers needs. There are Victorian VEU rebates that can apply to some energy-efficiency upgrades, and eligibility depends on the work, so we will tell you upfront whether your job qualifies.
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