Electric vehicle home charger grant

The EV Home Charger Scheme (the "Scheme") is funded by SEAI through the Department of Transport. The funding for the Scheme is limited and all applications are subject to the following conditions:

1. The Application Guide, Application Form and Terms and Conditions are those published on the SEAI website on the date of submitting the application. However, SEAI may, if required by law or otherwise and without incurring any liability, vary, revise or supplement the Terms and Conditions of the Scheme after the Applicant's submission of an application and these revised or supplemented Terms and Conditions (as published on the SEAI website) will apply to the application unless the Applicant chooses to withdraw its application or withdraw from the contract. The Applicant must monitor SEAI's website in order to learn of any such changes to the Terms and Conditions. 
    
2. It is a condition of the Scheme that the property is a private residence with its own private off-street driveway. The address of the property must be the applicant's home address and the location of the proposed home charger.
    
3. Any expenditure incurred prior to grant approval will be deemed ineligible.
    
4. Applications will only be accepted on the official EV Home Charger Grant Application Form. Applications may be submitted by private individuals only.
    
5. Only one EV charger may be installed at a property.

    

6. Certain electric vehicle charging point developments are exempted development under Class 29A of Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development regulations 2001, as amended.  Homeowners, or their installers, should seek a declaration under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended from your local planning authority, for any charger installation that requires a new permanent structure or will extend beyond the boundaries of the property. The planning authority will declare that either the installation is or is not development or is or is not exempted development within the meaning of this Act.  Where the installation is development and is not exempted development, full planning permission will be required. 

   For residents/dwellers who wish to install a charger arm charging solution at their place of residence due to not having access to "off-street" parking and receive grant funding through SEAI's Home Charger Grant Programme, evidence must be provided of either a) official notification from the local planning authority that the declaration under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, is considered an exempted development or b) the local planning authority has issued full planning permission for the development as it is not considered exempted development

7. Grant aid is available for 100% of total installation costs to a maximum value of €300 which includes the charger cost and installation costs.

8. Claim for payment must be made on an official Payment Request Form as attached with the Letter of Offer pack.  This Form must be fully completed and returned to SEAI with all of the applicable support documents as outlined on the Payment Request Form.
    
9. Payments are only made by electronic fund transfer into the bank account nominated on the Payment Request Form.
    
10. SEAI or its agents reserves the right to conduct visits to properties in receipt of an EV Home Charger grant to satisfy itself that the charger installation has been completed, and fully paid for, in line with these terms and conditions either prior to making a payment in respect of any claim or following a payment in respect of any claim. Failure to accommodate such visits will result in either complete revocation of the Grant or clawback of the Grant.
     
11. All works must be completed and a valid claim for payment received by SEAI within six months of the date of the letter of offer.
     
12. Full responsibility for the information presented in the application form and supporting documentation submitted rests with the applicant concerned. SEAI or their agents shall not accept any responsibility for errors or omissions contained in applications for grant aid or any required supporting documentation.
     
13. It is the responsibility of the Applicant to familiarise him/herself with the scheme Terms and Conditions, the specifications and any amendments thereof and with the consequences for breaches of the scheme.
     
14. SEAI has the right to revoke funds where there are issues with project delivery e.g. quality, safety, timelines, completion and incorrect products.
     
15. All electrical work must be undertaken by a fully qualified and authorised electrician registered with Safe Electric Ireland.
     
16. Applicants must ensure that all electrical work complies with National Rules on Electrical Installation.  A Safe Electric Certificate Number 3 & Test Record Sheet will be required to evidence this compliance.  
     
17. SEAI accepts no liability or responsibility, whether for breach of contract, negligence or otherwise, in respect of any direct or indirect loss, expense , dispute, claim, proceedings or cause of action arising out of, or in relation to, any product (or its suitability), any materials (or their suitability), equipment (or its suitability), work, system, service, specification, standard, installation or the qualification or performance of the Contractor in respect of which a Grant Offer has issued, or grant approval or payment was given by SEAI. No undertaking, guarantee, assurance or other warranty, express or implied, is given by SEAI, or any of its agents or servants, in respect of the cost, quality, efficiency and /or benefit of any work, equipment, materials, product, service or installation provided under the Scheme.
     
18. In the event of any breach of the Scheme Terms and Conditions, the specifications and any amendments thereof by the Applicant, and where the Applicant has received payment pursuant to the Scheme, SEAI shall, amongst its remedies against the Applicant, be entitled to demand the complete repayment of and fully clawback the Grant. The Applicant agrees to comply with any such demand within one month of the date of the letter from SEAI containing such demand.
     
19. The Applicant shall follow the SEAI complaints procedure in relation to any disputes between the Applicant and SEAI concerning any matter in connection with the Scheme.
     
20. Any false, fictitious or fraudulent statements or claims knowingly made on grant applications, or supporting documentation, submitted in respect of previous grant applications / claims or otherwise made to SEAI, its authorised officers, or Inspector, or any breach of these Terms and Conditions of the Scheme may result in current and future applications being deemed ineligible by SEAI. In respect of applications where the Applicant has already received payment pursuant to the Scheme, Clause 20 shall also apply.
     
21. Any personal information which an Applicant volunteers to SEAI will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, strictly in accordance with the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003, as re-enacted, amended or replaced from time to time, and pursuant to the General Data Protection Regulation (meaning Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC) and any related legislation.  SEAI, as data controller, and its agents, will store such information on its database and fully respect the confidentiality of the data provided. The information provided by applicants will be used for evaluation purposes and to facilitate the administration of the Grant process. This may require that data be supplied to and discussed, in confidence, with any person or organisation appointed by SEAI to assist in assessing or monitoring this application. These persons will be subject to the same requirements for data protection and confidentiality.  The Applicant's signature on the offline manually submitted Application Form (or the Applicant's acceptance of the Terms and Conditions indicated on the online Application Form) is treated as confirmation that SEAI and its agents may use the information thus supplied for the aforementioned purposes.
     
22. The Applicant understands that all of the data collected in the administration of the Scheme will be aggregated by SEAI as a means of analysing the overall Scheme effectiveness e.g. in terms of cumulative achievements, market trends, and/ or environmental impacts. The disclosure of this data will not involve the release of any personal data.
     
23. The general location and charge point power data may be used by SEAI or its agents to assess the impact of multiple EVs charging in your neighbourhood on the local electricity system and the development of future methods. SEAI may assess this data directly or share this data with third parties for analysis purposes.
     
24. SEAI may contact you occasionally to gather your valuable opinion on electric vehicles or charging infrastructure related matters. 
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25. A list of approved smart charger products is available through the online application form. Your Safe Electric electrician or your EV Vehicle Dealer will assist you in sourcing a suitable Home Charger product. The following minimum Technical Standards and Directives must apply to Type 2 Home Charger products installed:

• 93/465/EEC - CE Mark
• I.S. EN IEC 62196 - Plugs, Socket-outlets, Vehicle Connectors and Vehicle Inlets - Conductive Charging Of Electric Vehicles 
• I.S. EN IEC 61439 - Low-voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies
• I.S. EN IEC 61851 - Electric Vehicle Conductive Charging
• Directive 2014/30/EU - Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive.
• Directive 2012/19/EU - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
• Directive 2011/65/EU - Hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment

Finally, all Electrical Installations must comply with the following regulations:

• I.S. 10101 - National Rules for Electrical Installations

Yes, it is recommended to get an electrical survey of your home done before finally deciding on the EV and home charger combination you are finally going to purchase. You should investigate what the power in kilowatts (kW) requirement of the on-board AC to DC charger for single phase 230 Volt supply will be. The electrician will examine the quality of your home wiring with respect to the current safe electrical standards and the proposed power demand from your EV.

He/she may recommend upgrading the wiring before installing your charger unit. Typically the upgrades may include one or all of these:

• Improving the Earthing connection.
• Increasing the wire size of the connection between your fuse board and your electricity meter. You can read more about this in our blog Meter Tails in a Domestic Setting
• Improving the electrical bonding between the metal pipes in your house.

Should these upgrades be required, please note that these costs are not eligible for grant support.

The most typical domestic connection available from ESB Networks is the Standard Connection of "12kVA" (note VA is volt-ampere, or apparent power, and is a form of power measurement equivalent to Watt, or eal power).  For example, if all the loads in the house were simple resistive loads, then the maximum power your house would draw would be 12kW.  If this power was drawn at standard 230V then the current flow would be 52amps (i.e. 12,000/230).  The actual fuse installed in your fuse board for a Standard Connection installation will be 64amps which allows a factor of safety to manage brief "spikey" loads such as electric motors when they start up. 

For a Standard Connection is important to ensure that the live and neutral wire connecting your fuse board to your outdoor ESB meter box are at least 16mm square in cross sectional area in order to manage the heat in the cable due to currents.  This wire is called the "meter tails".  It is likely that if your house is built before the year 2000 and has not had major wiring work done, your meter tails will be undersized in particular the older the property is.  As our goal is to increasingly electrify homes with Heat Pumps, Photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems, this issue will need to be addressed before you install an EV charger, or any the other major electrical system just listed.

Electric cars have on-board AC to DC chargers.  Typically, chargers come available in 16 amp and 32 amp connections sizes resulting in 3.7kW and 7.4kW maximum charger sizes respectively.  Note that your car could be capable of 7.4kW power but your Home Charger may only be sized to supply 3.7kW or less power to the charger.  In this case the car should automatically adjust to the lower power supply.  So it is important to establish what the on-board car charger is capable of firstly.

Next it is important to survey the electrical loads in the house.  The following gives an example of typical large loads:

• Modern Electric Power Shower = 8-10kW
• Electric Oven = 2.4 to 5kW
• Immersion Hot Water Heater = 3kW
• Kettle = 2kW

If all of these were going at the same time your home would be consuming 20kW of power which is far more than the maximum ability of a house to supply on a Standard Domestic Connection of 12kVA! In this case the main fuse in your fuse board would trip and disconnect you very quickly from the electricity network. You would then need to switch off some of these loads before resetting the fuse and reconnecting your home to the electrical power supply.

If you add a 7kW EV Home Charger to this list of loads you could have a problem if someone decides to use the Power Shower for instance.  In this case it is recommended to install a Demand Management device.  These devices can be as simple as a "Priority Switch" which ensure that only one of these loads (Shower or EV) is able to run at any given time.  However, some EVs may not restart charging in this case.  It is recommended instead that you choose and install an EV Charger with a Demand Management system fitted.  This comprises a monitoring clamp fitted around the main power line to the home with a communication link back to the EV Charger.  When the load on the house goes high, the unit will instantly reduce the charge on the EV or shut it off completely and then restart when there is capacity available on the power line for it to run without tripping the fuse in your home.

A list of approved smart charger products is available through the online application form and listed below. Your Safe Electric electrician or your EV Vehicle Dealer will assist you in sourcing a suitable Home Charger product. The following minimum Technical Standards and Directives must apply to Type 2 Home Charger products installed:

• 93/465/EEC – CE Mark
• IEC62196 – Plugs & Sockets
• IEC61439 – Standard for low voltage switchgear and control gear assemblies
• Directive 2014/30/EU – Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Directive.
• Directive 2012/19/EU – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
• Directive 2011/65/EU – Hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment

In addition, for Type 1 Home Charger products the following standards must apply:

• IEC61851 – Conductive Charging

Home Chargers are permanent connections on the side of your home which allow typically 3kW to 7kW of electrical power to flow for hours at a time. This means that the cable is able to safely carry 16amps to 32amps of electrical current reliably without over heating and causing a risk of fire. The Home Charger unit is the recommended method for charging your vehicle at your home in terms of convenience and speed of charge.

Many EV manufacturers supply extension leads or travel chargers, sometimes referred to as "granny cables". These leads feature the normal connector for the car on the car side but a standard 3 pin plug on the domestic socket side.  These cables and components can be typically designed and rated for up to 13amps of current supply and for as long as the car will require.  It is important therefore to ensure that within the home, the 3 pin socket in the wall is of sufficient quality and rating to ensure it can deliver the amp current required by the car for hours at a time.

The granny cable must be connected and laid out like an extension lead.  It can be plugged into an appropriate outdoor weather rated 3-pin socket or alternatively, the cable lead must be fed through a window, for example, back to a 3 pin socket in the wall inside the home. This cable is long and can create a trip hazard especially at night in the wet.

Therefore, the permanent exterior wall mounted Home Charger is the recommended solution for home charging.

If you wish to cancel your home charger grant application, complete the online EV home charger grant cancellation request form.

Download the list of Safe Electric Certified charge point suppliers and installers

Yes, however in the instance where a Safe Electric electrician is completing works in his own home, only the cost of the materials will be deemed qualifying expenditure.

No, payment should be made directly into the applicant's bank account and not a third party.

Certain electric vehicle charging point developments are exempted development under Class 29A of Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Planning and Development regulations 2001, as amended.  Homeowners, or their installers, should seek a declaration under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended from your local planning authority, for any charger installation that requires a new permanent structure or will extend beyond the boundaries of the property. The planning authority will declare that either the installation is or is not development or is or is not exempted development within the meaning of this Act.  Where the installation is development and is not exempted development, full planning permission will be required. 

For residents/dwellers who wish to install a charger arm charging solution at their place of residence due to not having access to "off-street" parking and receive grant funding through SEAI's Home Charger Grant Programme, evidence must be provided of either a) official notification from the local planning authority that the declaration under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, is considered an exempted development or b) the local planning authority has issued full planning permission for the development as it is not considered exempted development

Yes, however in the instance where a Safe Electric electrician is completing works in his own home, only the cost of the materials will be deemed qualifying expenditure.