My wife is in the process of purchasing a BEV, this will be the first that we have owned and arrives in a few weeks, and it falls to me to consider, specify and arrange a 7kW Wall charger. I naively (I should know better) thought that this would be relatively painless. I am currently wading through the specifications/options/installation routes, etc. and getting bogged down somewhat and hence seeking some advice and current user experience if possible. This is where I am currently at:

The electricity supply is from the front of the house facing East close to parking but somewhat exposed, with the meter and consumer units (CU) on an inside wall.

The CU was installed as part of a house refurb a couple of years ago and has a separate unit with a 40A circuit to the garage via an (iirc) 80A cable, (don’t ask, the pain is still fresh) and another 40A sub main that will eventually connect to another house CU (again, don’t ask, the house was previously split into a granny annex and main house, so we have two supplies and meters, one of which I hope to remove someday).

The garage has a CU (older, plastic, full) which feeds the garage/workshop/utility and is about 15m from the incoming supply. It’s complicated, a diagram would help if I get the time.

We don’t currently have Solar/battery but may in the future, so it would be useful to be able to integrate if that transpires. I realise this may be the wrong order to go about this, but that’s where we are.

The obvious solution is to fix to the front wall on the other side of the meter/CU cupboard.

As it’s potentially a bit of an eyesore and a trip hazard, as cables would need to pass over an entrance path, then I was considering an untethered unit, however a tethered unit would not be a deal breaker, though probably need greater than 5m cable to be safe.

The alternative would be to put it in/on the garage. The main issue with this would I expect be routing the cable for the current transformer for load balancing control and WiFi.

As we are out in the weeds, down a dip non line of sight to any mast, the 4G service at any location is poor, which leads me to rule out anything that relies exclusively on 4G, along with what appears to be poor customer service from companies supplying such devices.

That leaves units that connect via WiFi (or possibly fixed Ethernet). WiFi at the outside of the wall is currently non-existent though, as the walls of the house are stone, 600mm thick, and in places insulated with metal foil lined boards. I am currently investigating moving the main router and adding a mesh unit, which does significantly help.

Some initial questions:

The specifications of some units state only IP54 ingress protection (and one rather oddly lists in the user manual that it is actually IP45, but IP54 on the data sheet). One claims IP65 but then says that the backplate is only IP22 and should be protected under cover. As a former engineer that has put equipment through rain and dust testing, this gives me cause for concern. Given that this is to be installed in the South West, where it rains, a lot, are standard units not suitable for exposed wall mounting and what IP rating is adequate, or am I reading the wrong data or overthinking this?

On the 4G type units with control buttons, if 4G is lost, the units appear to be still useable to charge at full rate subject to some considerations. Does this include load monitoring and charger throttling or is it full power or nothing?

WiFi units appear to generally have no local control and don’t appear to be able to be commissioned without WiFi, so will they still work as a basic charger if WiFi is lost?

Would it be better to use a local independent installer rather than the supplier install route with less control over the installation?

Sorry for the long post, but I don’t want to commit to a particular model/location/installation route until I’m fairly satisfied I know what I’m getting, due to the cost and the fact that the wife will be mostly using this. I will of course ask detailed questions of any potential suppliers.

TIA