Choosing an EV charging service - 3 questions and answers

EV charging is not rocket science. With a proper charging service, all you have to do is to plug in.

Q: Can’t I just charge from a regular household socket?

Sure you can, but there is a reason why it is called temporary and slow charging. Using a normal household socket for EV charging can be considered a serious safety risk.

Normal household sockets are not meant to handle high power demand for long periods of time. Charging a car battery full via a household socket can take dozens of hours, even days. If the household socket is being used even temporarily for charging, you should at least make sure that the socket does not get hot during charging.

To put it bluntly – investment on a smart charging device is also an investment on your peace of mind. A charging device fills up your car battery much faster than a regular socket. Charging power can also be restricted to eliminate the risk of overloads and shared evenly with multiple devices and plugs.

Q: Can I install a charging point myself? Do I need to do maintenance?

Charging devices can be installed by qualified electricians and comprehensive instructions for installation are included with the device. The electrical capacity of most residential and office buildings can sustain an installation of a few charging devices. From Virta’s admin panel, the charging power can also be restricted.

When the charging device is installed properly, you don’t need to worry about much more. The device mechanisms last for years. Our customer support is always available for you - a device connected to Virta’s system can be easily diagnosed and rebooted remotely. 

Q: What does it mean that the service is smart?

"Smart" is not just a nonsense word trying to make you convinced. Smartness means that charging is future-proof, cost-efficient, safe, flexible, sustainable, fast and can be controlled remotely. Virta’s smart charging service is cloud-based, thus new features can be easily added to it, depending on the needs of today and tomorrow.

Virta Home already uses optimised charging times, meaning that you can plug in when you want to, but charging will start when the electricity price is at the lowest. Load management features oversee the electricity consumption and take care of the electricity capacity of a building.

Smartness means that all you have to do is to plug in: we’ll take care of the rest and bring the future to your garage.