How to choose a home EV charger

Five details on the box and the spec sheet decide whether a charger suits your home. Each one has its own section below:

Ontario law requires it. ESA says an electrical product must be approved by an accredited certification or evaluation agency before it is used, sold, displayed or advertised for sale in Ontario, and must carry that agency's mark. Installing or connecting unapproved equipment is against the law and can lead to prosecution.

ESA publishes the marks it recognizes, among them CSA, ULC, and the Canadian or Canada-US marks of UL, Intertek, TÜV Rheinland and Nemko. Look for the full product mark. ESA lists component marks, the ones on parts inside a product, as not recognized on a complete end-use product.

ENERGY STAR is a useful second check. Natural Resources Canada says ENERGY STAR certified chargers are safety tested and certified, and use on average 40% less energy in standby, where a charger spends about 85% of its life. NRCan points buyers to the ENERGY STAR product finder to compare certified models, since chargers with a counterfeit safety label are sold in North America.

Both are Level 2 chargers on a 240-volt circuit. What differs is how the circuit is sized. ESA Bulletin 86-1-7 (May 2025) requires a plug-in charger on a 14-50 or 6-50 outlet to be protected by a 50 A breaker, so the charger works within what that outlet allows.

A hardwired charger can be set to the circuit instead. The same bulletin lets the installer set a charger's amperage by app, software, dip switch or dial on fixed-in-place equipment, the kind that takes a tool to remove, with a permanent label beside it and the setting locked.

The makers' spec sheets show what that means in amps. FLO's Home X6 ships set to 48 A when hardwired and 40 A on its NEMA 14-50 plug. ChargePoint's Home Flex datasheet holds its plug-in models to 32 A or 40 A, against up to 50 A hardwired.

Plug-in suits an indoor garage where you want to take the charger with you when you move. For a charger outside, ChargePoint's datasheet calls for a hardwired install or a weatherproof outlet, with an outdoor-rated GFCI breaker ahead of a plug-in model.

Either way, Rule 86-300 of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code, as ESA's bulletin sets it out, puts the charger on its own branch circuit, unless an energy management system controls it. The ways to make room on your panel are on our EV charging page.

Often less than people expect. NRCan puts the average Canadian at about 20,000 km a year, or 55 km a day, and a Level 2 charger adds 16 to 97 km of range per hour, depending on the car. At those rates an average day's driving comes back in about 35 minutes to three and a half hours (our arithmetic).

Your car sets a ceiling as well. NRCan explains that a Level 2 charger supplies alternating current, and the car's own onboard equipment converts it to the direct current the battery stores. Check the maximum AC charging rate in your car's specifications before paying for more amps than it takes.

Whether the panel can spare the circuit is settled by a load calculation. ESA says a panel upgrade, if the house needs one, goes through your local distribution company, and a Licensed Electrical Contractor can assess the panel for you.

Measure from the mounting spot to the charge port before you buy. ESA's advice is to plan how you park, keep the charger and the charge port close together so a cord never runs across the garage, and let your contractor choose the spot on both convenience and wiring.

Then read the rating. NRCan says an outdoor rating is essential for a parking spot outdoors rather than in a garage. Three makers' published specifications, in alphabetical order, show what the numbers look like:

All three are made to mount indoors or out. Ottawa's cold sits inside those ranges on nearly every night of the year: Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Ottawa airport count 0.45 nights a year below -30 °C and none below -40 °C, with the coldest reading at -33.1 °C, in January.

A charger in an attached garage sits warmer still, and a pedestal beside the driveway keeps the cable short where the car parks nose-out.

Match the plug to your car. NRCan says most chargers and cars use the SAE J1772 connector, and any car with that receptacle can use any Level 1 or Level 2 charger. ChargePoint's Home Flex and FLO's Home X6 are each sold with a J1772 or a NACS (SAE J3400) connector, and FLO's sheet names NACS for charging a Tesla.

Then set the start time. On Ontario's Ultra-Low Overnight plan the lowest-priced hours run from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day (Ontario Energy Board, prices set for November 1, 2026). NRCan advises choosing a charger that can control charging times if your car cannot, and FLO's app, for one, sets a charging schedule.

The price of each period, and the City of Ottawa loan that covers a Level 2 charger, are in our guide to EV charger rebates in Ontario. With solar, a home battery can store daytime output for an evening plug-in, and a solar carport puts the panels right over the parking spot.