Expert electrical advice from our NICEIC registered team
Written by Tim, NICEIC registered with 18+ years experience in Poole & Dorset · 26 five-star Google reviews · Same-day fixed quote, no obligation.
Choosing a home EV charger can be confusing — there are dozens of options and they all claim to be the best. Having installed hundreds of chargers across Poole, Bournemouth, and the wider Dorset area, here’s my honest comparison of the four most popular models we fit — with real installed prices and the pros and cons I see on the job.
| Ohme Home Pro | Easee One | Zappi | Tesla Wall Connector | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price installed | From £850 | From £750 | From £950 | From £900 |
| Power | 7.4kW | 7.4kW (22kW with 3-phase) | 7kW | 7.4kW (11kW with 3-phase) |
| Best for | Smart tariff users | Design & future-proofing | Solar panel owners | Tesla owners |
| Smart tariff | Excellent | Good | Basic | Basic |
| Solar divert | No | No | Yes (built-in) | No |
| Connectivity | WiFi | 4G built-in | WiFi | WiFi |
| Tethered cable | Yes (5m/7.5m) | Yes (5m/7.5m) | Yes (6.5m) | Yes (7.3m) |
Not sure which one suits your home? Message Tim on WhatsApp with your address and he’ll recommend the best charger for your setup — plus give you a fixed, all-inclusive price. No obligation.
The Ohme Home Pro (7.4kW) is the charger we install most often, and for good reason. Its killer feature is native integration with Octopus Intelligent Go — it communicates directly with the energy supplier to charge your car at the cheapest possible times, automatically. You plug in, the Ohme and Octopus work out the cheapest overnight slots, and your car is ready by morning.
The Ohme is compact and unobtrusive on a wall. We install these regularly in suburban areas like Broadstone and Ferndown where most properties have driveways and garage walls — straightforward installations with short cable runs.
My take: If you’re on Octopus Energy or plan to switch, the Ohme is the clear winner. The smart tariff integration alone can save you £300–500 per year compared to charging on a flat-rate tariff.
The Easee One is a beautifully designed Norwegian charger that’s compact, quiet, and upgradeable. It comes with built-in 4G connectivity (no WiFi dependency) and dynamic load balancing to prevent overloading your supply.
The Easee is the smallest charger on this list — about the size of a paperback book. The built-in 4G means it works reliably even when mounted on an exterior wall far from your WiFi router, which matters for properties where the charger sits on a front or side wall. We see a lot of Easee installations in Canford Cliffs and Sandbanks where the compact design and clean aesthetics suit higher-end properties.
My take: The Easee is the best all-rounder. Lowest installed price, great build quality, and the 4G connectivity means fewer post-installation support calls. If you’re not wedded to a specific smart tariff, this is my default recommendation.
The Zappi by Myenergi is the only charger with a genuine solar divert mode. If you have solar panels, the Zappi can detect excess generation and divert it to your car instead of exporting to the grid — effectively charging your car for free from the sun.
The Zappi needs a CT clamp on your electricity supply to monitor import/export, which adds a small amount of installation time. It’s worth it if you have solar — we regularly install Zappi chargers alongside solar and battery systems for customers who want to maximise their self-consumption.
My take: If you have solar panels, the Zappi is the obvious choice. The solar divert mode genuinely works — on a sunny day your car charges from surplus generation that would otherwise be exported at 4–15p/kWh. Over a year, that can be worth £200–400 in free charging. If you don’t have solar, the premium price isn’t justified.
The Tesla Wall Connector (Gen 3) is Tesla’s own home charger. Despite the branding, it works with any EV that uses a Type 2 connector — not just Teslas. It’s a sleek, minimal unit with the longest tethered cable of any charger on this list (7.3m), and integrates seamlessly with the Tesla app.
The 7.3m cable is a genuine advantage for properties where the parking position is further from the wall — common with terraced houses or where the charger needs to reach past a second vehicle. We install Tesla Wall Connectors across the area, and they’re particularly popular in Sandbanks and Poole where Tesla ownership is high.
My take: If you drive a Tesla, the Wall Connector is the tidiest option — the cable management and app integration are excellent. For non-Tesla drivers, the Easee or Ohme offer better smart tariff features at a lower price.
It depends on your priorities:
Don’t have a driveway? If you live in a Bournemouth terrace, read our guide to EV charger installation for terraced houses — there are more options than you might think.
All four chargers above are excellent products — but a charger is only as good as its installation. A poorly installed charger can trip your supply, charge slowly, or fail within months. Here’s what a professional installation should include that many cheaper quotes leave out:
We’re NICEIC registered contractors and we’ve installed hundreds of EV chargers across Dorset. We fit all four chargers on this page and we’re not tied to any single brand — so when Tim recommends a charger, it’s because it’s genuinely the best fit for your home, not because we get a bigger margin on it.
Every charger installation from Lilliput Electrical includes:
If your consumer unit doesn’t have a spare way, a consumer unit upgrade from £450 may be needed — we’ll identify this during the survey and include it in the quote.
We install all four chargers across Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Wimborne, Broadstone, Ferndown, and the wider Dorset area.
The easiest way to get started is to message Tim directly. Send your address and which charger you’re leaning towards — he’ll come back with a fixed, all-inclusive price, usually within the hour.
Ready? Message Tim on WhatsApp or call 07809 680068 for a free quote. We cover all of Poole, Bournemouth, and East Dorset.
Tim and his team are happy to answer questions or provide a free, no-obligation quote. 26 five-star reviews and counting.
Tim and his NICEIC-registered team are here to help. Message us on WhatsApp or call 07809 680068 for a free, no-obligation quote.
