One of the first questions people ask when they're considering a home EV charger is whether it actually pays for itself. The short answer is yes — and faster than most people expect. But the full picture is worth understanding, because the gap between home charging and public charging in the UK is wider than most drivers realise before they install one.
This guide runs through the real numbers, the realistic timelines, and the situations where the savings are biggest.
Why the charging location matters so much
When you charge your EV matters almost as much as what you're charging. The UK public charging network has improved enormously over the last few years, but the cost of using it has gone in the opposite direction.
Right now, a rapid public charger in the UK — the kind you'd use at a motorway service station or a retail park — averages around 76p per kWh on a pay-as-you-go basis. Ultra-rapid chargers, those running at 150kW and above, can reach 85p per kWh or more. For a typical 60kWh battery, that means a full charge at a rapid charger costs somewhere between £27 and £39 depending on where you are and which network you're using.
Charge at home on a standard electricity tariff and the same full charge costs around £14.80 — roughly half the price of a rapid charge, using identical electricity.
Switch to a dedicated EV off-peak tariff — which any smart charger like the MX7 can manage automatically — and the same full charge drops to between £4 and £6, depending on your supplier. Some overnight rates in 2026 sit as low as 7p per kWh.
That gap is significant. And it compounds quickly.
What the numbers look like in practice
For a driver covering around 10,000 miles per year, the charging costs break down roughly as follows:
- Charging entirely at public rapid chargers: approximately 23p per mile, working out to around £2,300 a year just in charging costs.
- Charging at home on a standard tariff: around 7p per mile, roughly £700 annually.
- Charging at home on an off-peak EV tariff overnight: as low as 2.5p per mile — under £250 a year for 10,000 miles.
That's a difference of over £2,000 per year between the worst-case public charging scenario and optimised home charging. Even compared to a mid-range standard home tariff, the saving over public rapid charging is well over £1,000 a year for a typical driver.
Most people's real-world use sits somewhere in the middle — the majority of daily charging happens at home, with occasional public top-ups on longer journeys. But the direction of travel is clear: the more you can shift charging to your home wallbox, the less you spend.
Want to see the figures for your own car? Try our charging cost calculator — pick your model and tariff and it works out the cost of a charge.
So when does a home charger pay for itself?
The Humax MX7, including standard installation in Greater London, starts at £599 for the charger plus £450 for installation — totalling around £1,049 for a fully fitted, certified smart charger. That's a clear, fixed number with no surprises.
If you're currently relying on public rapid charging for most of your day-to-day needs, the maths is pretty stark. A saving of £1,000 or more per year against a one-off installation cost of around £1,000 gives you a payback period of under twelve months. Most industry estimates for drivers doing typical UK mileage put the payback window at between seven and sixteen months.
After that, the savings are ongoing. A home charger installed today could realistically reduce your charging costs by £10,000 or more over ten years compared to regular public network use.
The off-peak tariff factor
This is worth flagging separately because it's the part that often surprises people. Smart chargers — and the MX7 is designed for exactly this — can be set to charge only during off-peak overnight hours when electricity is cheapest. You don't need to do anything manually. You plug in when you get home, and the charger waits until the cheap window opens, typically around 11pm, before it starts drawing power.
Suppliers like Octopus Energy, OVO, and British Gas all offer dedicated EV tariffs with overnight rates well below the standard Ofgem cap. On the cheapest of these, you're looking at 7p to 9p per kWh — compared to the standard 24.67p cap rate and the 76p average at a rapid public charger.
The MX7's intelligent charging function manages this automatically, tracking your vehicle's battery and your tariff schedule without you needing to think about it.
What about solar?
If you have solar panels, or you're considering adding them, a home EV charger takes the savings further again. The MX7's Auto Solar mode reads your home's generation via a CT clamp and directs any surplus into your car's battery rather than exporting it back to the grid at a lower rate.
On a sunny day, that can mean charging for close to nothing. Over a full year, particularly for higher-mileage drivers, the combination of solar generation and smart off-peak charging can reduce annual charging costs to well under £100.
Why a three-pin plug isn't a substitute
Some EV owners hold off on a home charger installation and use the three-pin granny cable that came with their car instead. It works, but at 2.3kW it's so slow that a 60kWh battery takes over 26 hours from empty. More practically, it means you're drawing power at a fixed time rather than choosing when — so you get no benefit from off-peak tariffs, and the slow speed means your car is often not fully charged when you need it.
A 7.4kW wallbox like the MX7 fills the same battery overnight in around eight hours. That's the real difference in daily life — you wake up to a full charge, every morning, without thinking about it.
The property value argument
It's worth mentioning, because it comes up when people are weighing up the initial outlay. Research from Rightmove suggests a home EV charger can add between £3,000 and £5,000 to a property's market value. As EV ownership continues to grow in the UK, a home without a charger is increasingly viewed the same way as a home without off-street parking — a gap that buyers notice.
That doesn't change the charging economics, but it's a consideration when you're thinking about the total return on the installation cost.
A realistic summary
For most UK drivers with off-street parking, a home EV charger pays for itself within one to two years — faster if you're currently relying on public rapid chargers for day-to-day use. After that, the ongoing savings are substantial and permanent.
The Humax MX7 includes intelligent overnight charging, solar compatibility, and a five-year warranty in a single package. It covers the full range of ways a home charger can reduce your running costs, and it's covered by standard installation in Greater London within a week of ordering.
If you want to work through the numbers for your own mileage and current energy costs, get in touch — we're happy to go through it with you before you commit.