FAQs
Everything you wanted to know ahout EV charge points in Cornwall and more.
EV Charger FAQs
Manta Power are based in Newquay, Cornwall. We are a family run business when not working spend lots of time playing with our two girls and granny who live close by. We are passionate about making positive changes to our day to day lives and are aware of the impact on our environment now and for our families future. As a fully electric household running a PV (solar) system and an electric car we want to help share our own experiences and help others with the transition of fossil fuelled cars to electric. We are passionate about the move towards a more renewable future.
We are an OLEZ approved installer, and only use installers who have the necessary qualifications and insurances.
Our business not only looks after its customers. We want staff to be happy and healthy and invest in education and wellbeing as well as supporting local charities.
Manta Power will provide the best EV (electrical vehicle) Installation service and deliver exceptional customer service throughout every installation. That’s a guarantee.
Your car usually spends a great deal of time sitting at home not doing a great deal. The most efficient way to charge your car is overnight and preferably on a smart tariff. This way the car is charged and ready to use when you need it. A smart energy tariff (like Octopus Go) gives you the opportunity to charge your car at a cheap rate (Think Economy 7 heaters of the past) over night. A smart car charger will allow you to control charging your EV from the comfort of your phone via an app.
If you own the property/land where the charger will be installed, then you won’t need permission.
If you rent or lease the property/land, then you may be need to seek permission from the owner of the land.
However, you are required to use an approved and suitably qualified EV charger installer like Manta Power to carry out a safe install.
You need to consider pence per litre as pence per kilowatt hour (kWh)
Charging your car at home is the most cost-effective way of running your car when compared to the price of using public charging facilities. Typically in the UK (Oct 2021) the cost of a unit of electricity is somewhere around 15p per kWh (that’s kW per hour) – so if you charge your car for an hour, it will cost around 15p. If you are on an EV specific tariff where it is cheaper to use at night it could cost as low as 5p per kWh.
The next set of factors is type and capacity. Charging your car battery from empty to full depends on the make and model of your car, size of its battery, the type of chargepoint you use at home, and your electricity supplier.
If your car has a large battery capacity similar to a Tesla model 3, you will be able to drive it for longer without running out of charge, but the battery will generally take longer to charge and therefore cost more. A smaller EV similar to a Nissan leaf (40 kWh battery) wont go as far but will take a shorter time to recharge. We own a Nissan as our family car and are using electricity at night to charge the car (5p kWh cost) than it costs approx.. £2 - 3 to charge the car. On average a full tank in the leaf gives us 100 miles. Which equates to about 33p per mile.
In addition to electricity being a cheaper fuel source, EV’s and hybrid owners currently also get a tax break with road tax exemptions and potentially in service costs.
What about petrol cars? If your petrol car has a 50 litre (11 gallons) tank and petrol is £1.45 per litres, the cost to fill it up is £72.5 for a full tank. If your car has an mpg average of 40 miles, then it can do approx. 440 miles to a full tank.
According to National Grid, peak demand for electricity in the UK was 62GW in 2002. Since then, the nation’s peak demand has fallen by roughly 16%. National Grid estimates that demand would increase by 10% if we all switched to EVs overnight, which is well within the range of manageable load fluctuations.
Unsure who you want to install your new charge point?
You may have heard of The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) who are a team working across government to support the transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs). They provide support for the take-up of plug in vehicles, as well as funding to support chargepoint infrastructure across the UK. Currently only those installers approved by OZEZ are eligible for the below EVHS grant.
In addition to guidelines set out by OZEZ it is worth looking for the Electric Vehicle Consumer Code for Home Chargepoints (EVCC). They aim to give consumers the confidence to install a charger at home, and ensure that manufacturers, suppliers and installers (Manta Power) consistently deliver the highest quality of work. Find out more about EVCC, as well as its members, at www.electric-vehicle.org.uk.
The EVHS grant provides a 75% contribution to the cost of one chargepoint and its installation. A grant cap is set at £350 (including VAT) per installation. The main requirement is that a person owns, leases, or has ordered a qualifying vehicle and has dedicated off-street parking at their property. A person may apply for 2 chargepoints at the same property if they have 2 qualifying vehicles. Act fast, this grant opportunity is ending in March 2022.
If you’re planning to install an EV chargepoint at home, you need to register the energy device with your Distribution Network Operator (DNO). The DNO is the company responsible for bringing electricity to your home. As the
Manta Power use the latest software to capture all the necessary documentation and take care of all the hard stuff leaving you to just to enjoy your new kit.
The type of charger you use will determine how quickly you are able to ‘fill’ your EV up. It’s tempting to want to select the fastest charger, but typically a car will be sitting at home for the longest time, this is the best time to trickle charge your EV and is often the cheapest and smartest way to do it.
Slow charge (typically around 3kW) points are often the cheapest to use taking advantage of power for your car and are suitable when vehicles are parked for several hours, such as during working hours or overnight. Using a slow charge point to charge a car from empty to 80% full will take approx. 16 hours.
Fast charge (typically around 7 – 22kW) ideal when vehicles are parked for a few hours whether this is at home, shops or a car park. Using a fast charge point to charge a car from empty to 80% full will take approx. 2 – 7 hours
Rapid charge (typically 50kW – 350kW) points are the quickest way to recharge a vehicle, typically recharging a vehicle to 80% in around 30 minutes. Rapid chargepoints are often located on the motorways and can be expensive to use, they cannot be installed at home. Using a rapid charge point to charge a car from empty to 80% full will take approx. 30 mins or under.
Manta can cover all major Cornwall towns, cities, and surrounding areas, including:
- Redruth
- Falmouth
- St Austell
- Truro
- Newquay
- Penzance
- Saltash
- Bodmin
- Helston
- St Ives
- St Blazey
- Liskeard
- Launceston
- Hayle Torpoint
Until April 2022 you may be entitled to receive a government grant for your charge point installation. can find the official list of accredited installers on the OZEV website.
In order to receive the £350 grant, your chosen charging point must also be approved by OZEV. You can check if it is on the approved list HERE.
If the installation company doesn't have both accreditations (installer and charging point), then your installation won't be eligible for the £350 OZEV grant.
Having said that, it's the installer that has to make the claim for the £350, so you should be fine either way.
Full eligibility information for the grant – basically if you wish to participate in the government's Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) – can be found here.
Yes, you can. However a standard 3-pin socket may take over 24 hours to fully charge a vehicle, which means a standard plug is handling a high load of electricity for a long period – something that is not recommended regularly. Extension cables should not be used for safety reasons.
Fitting a purpose EV charge point is a safer (no need for trailing cables from the house) and a long term, smart investment.
Most EV Charge point installations are straightforward. Manta power will have done the hard work of surveying your consumer unit (Fuse box), Electric Meter and EV charge point install location. This will allow us to determine whether it will be a standard installation, in which case you will be provided with a quotation and once accepted we will work with you in securing an installation date.
Most properties fall well within our standard installation requirements.
To qualify for our standard installation your install must:
- Have a maximum cable run of 10 metres from your consumer unit to your charge point
- Your consumer unit must be RCD protected and have a spare way for your EV charging unit.
- Your cable is to be surface mounted, that is to say clipped to walls, etc rather than sunk into the ground
- No ground works are necessary (it is very unusual for installation to require ground works).
- Your property must have an earthing arrangement that complies with current regulations (it is very unusual for properties not to have a suitable earthing arrangement).
- Your charging point needs to be fixed to your main property (this will also be a condition of securing any OLEV grants too)
If your installation does not meet any of the above we will work with you to configure a solution.
Manta Power are Electric Vehicle Charging Point Installer specialists. Employees have the latest and most up to date qualifications in this field of electrical works.
- City & Guilds trained and qualifies; including the Industry requirement – Level 3 Award In Domestic, Commercial and Industrial Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installation (City & Guilds 2919-02)
- NAPIT registered – Approved Competent Persons Scheme
- NICEIC – Approved Contractor
Home charging points replace fuel pumps and are designed to connect your car into the charger once you have finished your journey. It will depend on your car and charging point but it involves using a charging cable to be connected to the fixed charge point and your EV .
A charge point installation from Manta Power will finish with a full demonstration on how to use the charging point, so you can be confident using your new tech on your car.
