Most people ring up asking for a 22kW EV charger because that’s the number they’ve seen online. Brodie Rix, owner of BRIX Electrical & Air, hears it every week. Half those callers don’t need three-phase power at all, and once we walk through their car and their driveway, most end up with a 7kW unit instead.
Choosing the right EV charger isn’t about buying the biggest box on the shelf. It’s about matching the charger to your car’s onboard charger, your home’s power supply, and how you actually drive. Get that wrong and you’ve either paid for speed you can’t use, or you’re stuck waiting longer than you need to. Our team handles EV charger installation across Ipswich and Brisbane every week, and the same questions come up on almost every job.
What 7kW and 22kW actually mean
A 7kW charger is a single-phase unit, usually wired on a 32A circuit. It adds roughly 40km of driving range for every hour it’s plugged in. For most households, that’s an overnight top-up, done by the time the kettle’s on in the morning.
A 22kW charger needs three-phase power and pushes out roughly three times the energy per hour. Sounds like an easy win until you check what your car can actually accept.
Here’s the part most charger brochures skip: your car’s onboard charger sets the real ceiling, not the wallbox. If your EV only accepts 7.2kW AC, which covers a large share of the popular models on Australian roads, a 22kW charger delivers exactly the same charging speed as a 7kW one. You’ve paid extra for hardware and installation complexity your car can’t use.
Single-phase and three-phase power, explained plainly
Around 90% of Queensland homes run single-phase power. That’s the standard setup for most suburban blocks across Ipswich, Brisbane and Logan, and it’s what a 7kW charger is built for.
Three-phase power splits the load across three separate wires instead of one, which is what lets a charger pull more energy at once. Not every street has three-phase available at the meter box, and not every home that has it uses it for anything beyond a stove or an air conditioner.
The only way to know what’s running to your property is to check, not guess. That’s one of the first things our electricians confirm on a site visit, along with your switchboard’s condition and whether an upgrade is on the cards before any charger goes in.
One thing that doesn’t change between 7kW and 22kW is the plug. Every home charger sold in Australia uses a Type 2 connector, the standard here regardless of charger speed or the brand fitted to the wall. If a supplier tries to sell you something with a different plug type for a home install, that’s worth questioning before you buy.
Why most Ipswich and Brisbane homes only need 7kW
If you’re driving under 50km a day, which covers most commuting in South East Queensland, a 4.6kW to 7.4kW charger will comfortably refill your battery overnight on a standard tariff. There’s no need to pay for capacity you’ll never draw on.
A few things point toward 7kW being the right call:
- Your daily driving sits under 50 to 70km
- Your car’s onboard charger tops out around 7.2kW
- Your home runs single-phase power
- You’re charging overnight rather than needing a fast top-up during the day
- You want the lower-cost, lower-complexity install
Queensland’s Energex network also treats single-phase chargers over 20A differently since a 2024 rule change. Any 7.4kW/32A charger needs an approved connection pathway, either an economy tariff circuit, a smart charger with active load management on your main tariff, or an 11kW three-phase unit spread across phases.
Energex, the network distributor for South East Queensland, publishes the full connection requirements if you want the technical detail straight from the source.
When 22kW is genuinely worth the extra cost
There are real cases where three-phase makes sense. If your car’s onboard charger accepts 11kW or 22kW AC, common in some European and higher-spec EVs, you’ll actually use that extra speed. Households running two EVs off one charger, or anyone who regularly needs a fast top-up between trips rather than an overnight charge, are the other genuine candidates.
One BRIX Electrical & Air job involved a customer-supplied Tesla Wall Connector going onto a full three-phase switchboard with zero spare capacity. We designed and installed a dedicated sub-board alongside the EV circuit, with the Energex compliance paperwork lodged as part of the job. That’s a case where the extra complexity of three-phase infrastructure actually earned its keep, because the property and the car both supported it.
What it costs to install each one
A single-phase 7kW charger costs noticeably less to install than a three-phase 22kW unit, mostly because three-phase needs heavier cabling and more involved switchboard configuration. If your board needs upgrading before the charger can go in, that’s a separate cost most homeowners don’t plan for until the site visit flags it. Every fixed-price quote is confirmed after that visit, not guessed over the phone.
Either way, the job should include a Certificate of Electrical Safety, lodged after the work is done. It’s not optional paperwork, and you’ll want a copy filed with your insurance records.
How BRIX Electrical & Air sizes your installation
We don’t quote off a phone call. Every EV job starts with six questions: which car, how far you drive daily, single or three-phase supply, whether you’ve got solar or a battery, which smart features actually matter to you, and your budget. Then we visit the site, confirm the switchboard and cable run, and put together a fixed-price quote.
If you’ve already got a solar and battery installation, the charger brand matters more than it seems. Our SolaX and Sungrow chargers can be set to draw from solar surplus before pulling from the grid, timed to your system rather than fighting it.
Fourteen electricians, one point of contact, licence 88304. Call (07) 3060 9100 or book a free quote and BRIX Electrical & Air will tell you straight whether you need 7kW or 22kW, not whichever’s easier to sell.
FAQs
For most Brisbane and Ipswich homes, 7kW is the right choice. It matches single-phase power, suits daily driving under 70km, and covers what the majority of car models can actually accept from AC charging.
No. A 22kW charger needs a three-phase supply to deliver its full rated speed. Without it, the unit is limited to whatever your single-phase circuit can carry, which defeats the purpose of buying 22kW hardware.
Only if your car’s onboard charger can accept that much power. Many EVs cap out at 7.2kW or 11kW AC regardless of the wallbox connected to them, so check your vehicle’s specifications before assuming faster hardware means a faster charge.
Not always. Older switchboards, particularly anything with ceramic fuses, usually need upgrading before an EV circuit can go in safely. Modern boards with spare capacity often don’t. A site visit is the only reliable way to know.
Yes. Our team handles single-phase, three-phase and load-managed EV charger installations across Ipswich, Brisbane and Logan, including the Energex compliance paperwork that comes with each connection type.