Charger Installation
Receiving, setting, fixing, connecting and protecting the units themselves - heavy, delicate, long-lead items that have to land exactly where the base says they will, because a plinth in the wrong place cannot be moved.
Last updated 2026-09-06
Typical duration
Typically 1-3 weeks of installation on a mid-sized scheme once bases and circuits are complete, with delivery dates and out-of-hours access windows setting the pace rather than the labour.
What is Charger Installation?
A charging unit arrives as a finished product. The power electronics, the cooling, the cable management, the screen, the payment terminal and the controls are all built and tested by the charger supplier, and the unit turns up on a lorry as a sealed assembly wanting nothing from site but a level base, a cable, a network connection and to be left alone. That makes this stage an erection sequence rather than a fit-out. Offload, set, level, fix down, terminate, seal, protect. The tasks are few and repetitive, and once a team finds its rhythm on a hub the units go in far faster than anyone expects - which is exactly why it is a mistake to leave float in the programme here and none anywhere else.
They are also awkward things to handle. A rapid unit is heavy, tall and top-heavy, and it does not like being lifted from anywhere other than the points the supplier designates. A slower post-mounted or wall-mounted unit is light enough for two people but there are far more of them and the tolerance on each one still matters. All of them contain electronics, a display and a payment terminal, none of which appreciate water, dust, vibration or standing in a compound on their side for six weeks waiting for a base to be recast. Handling, storage and protection requirements come from the supplier and they are the basis of the warranty as well as the installation, so they get followed rather than interpreted.
Delivery dates are the standing risk. These are long-lead items ordered against an energisation date months earlier, they are frequently late, and a hub cannot be part-commissioned around a missing unit in any way the client will accept. That is why the bases and ducts have to be exactly right before anything is ordered onto site: a unit that arrives on time and cannot be set because the base is twisted, or because the duct comes up where the cable will not reach, has to go into storage while the base is broken out and recast, and on a live trading site that means another closure, another traffic management set-up and a date that has now moved for everybody. Verify the bases against the supplier's drawing before the lorry is booked, not after it arrives.
Compare the methods at a glance
When and why is Charger Installation used?
Charger installation follows the civils and runs alongside the electrical works, starting the moment the bases have cured, the ducts are proved and the base survey is in hand. It is deliberately late in the sequence because the units are the most vulnerable and most valuable items on the project and there is nothing to gain from having them on a construction site any longer than necessary - and a good deal to lose, since an installed unit on an unfinished site is a target for theft, impact and weather. The reason the units arrive complete is the same reason batteries and plant rooms do: assembling power electronics in a factory is faster, safer and far more consistent than assembling them in a car park, and it moves the skilled work off the critical path. It also means site has almost no ability to fix a problem inside the enclosure. A damaged unit generally goes back to the supplier rather than being repaired on the bay, so the emphasis shifts entirely onto careful receipt inspection, accurate setting, disciplined protection and honest records. On a scheme where the energisation date is fixed and the client has already advertised an opening, this is the stage where the programme is either banked or lost.
Types of Charger Installation
Explore each method in depth - benefits, limitations, plant and quality control on its own page.
Free-standing rapid and ultra-rapid units
Self-contained high-power units on their own base, each with its own power electronics, cooling and payment terminal. The standard arrangement for public hubs and forecourts: one item per bay, simple to set and simple to replace, but each unit is heavy, needs its own cooling airflow and generates enough noise that its position relative to neighbours matters.
Explore this methodPower cabinet with satellite dispensers
A single cabinet holding the power electronics for several bays, feeding slim dispensers at each bay. It puts the bulk, the heat and the noise in one place away from customers, keeps the bay furniture small and allows power to be shared between vehicles, at the cost of a second set of connections between cabinet and dispensers and a single item whose failure affects several bays.
Explore this methodPost-mounted and wall-mounted slower units
Compact lower-power units mounted on a post between two bays or fixed to an adjacent wall or structure. Cheap per bay, light to handle and by far the most numerous type installed, suited to long dwell times in car parks, workplaces and depots, but the sheer number of positions makes setting out, labelling and cable management the real work.
Explore this methodCanopy, gantry and overhead arrangements
Units or cable management mounted overhead on a canopy or gantry, dropping the cable to the vehicle from above. It keeps the bay clear, protects the equipment and the driver from weather and suits depots parking vehicles nose to tail, but it brings a structure, a lifting operation and working at height into what would otherwise be a ground-level job.
Explore this methodBest suited for
- Public rapid and ultra-rapid hubs where a small number of high-power units carry the whole revenue
- Retail, workplace and leisure car parks installing many lower-power units across a large area
- Depot and fleet bases where dispensers are installed in rows around a working vehicle operation
- Retrofits into existing car park structures where access, headroom and protection govern the arrangement
- Phased rollouts adding units to distribution that was built with capacity for them
Charger Installation: step by step
- 1
Step 1: Verify the bases and ducts against the supplier's arrangement before delivery
The first task is to prove that what was built matches what the units need, and it happens before a lorry is booked. Base positions, levels, orientations, cast-in fixing patterns, duct stub positions and cable entry alignments are re-surveyed and compared against the charger supplier's general arrangement, position by position. Door swings and screen orientations are checked against the finished bay layout, and clearances are checked against the bollards, kerbs and wheel stops as actually installed rather than as drawn. Any discrepancy is raised now, while there is still time to adjust, because a base found to be wrong with the unit hanging on a hook costs a day and a base found to be wrong after the unit is fixed down costs a great deal more.
- 2
Step 2: Plan the delivery, offload and interim storage
The route from the road to the bay is walked for the delivery vehicle and the offload plant: access, headroom, swept paths, gradients, surfacing that will take the load and somewhere to stand while the unit is lifted. On a trading site that generally means an early morning or an out-of-hours slot with traffic management in place. Deliveries are booked to match the installation sequence so units go from the lorry to the base rather than into a compound, because every extra handling operation is another chance to damage something. Where units do have to be stored, the supplier's storage requirements govern - upright, secure, weather-protected and off the ground - and the storage area is chosen with the same care as the bays, since a compound full of long-lead equipment is the most attractive thing on the site.
- 3
Step 3: Receive and inspect every unit on arrival
Each unit is inspected as it arrives and before it is accepted. The checks cover transit damage to the enclosure, the door, the screen, the payment terminal, the cable and connector assemblies and any seals or vents, the condition of the transport packaging and fixings, and any impact or tilt indicators fitted for the journey. The paperwork is checked at the same time - serial numbers, factory test evidence and whatever configuration information the supplier provides. Findings are photographed and recorded against the serial number there and then, because a scratched screen or a damaged connector argued about three months later belongs to nobody. Units are not unpacked in the rain on a forecourt, and any internal inspection follows the supplier's procedure rather than curiosity.
- 4
Step 4: Set, level and fix down
Units are lifted from the lorry or the store to the base in the planned sequence, using the lifting points and accessories the supplier designates rather than the nearest set of straps, with an exclusion zone kept clear and the lift briefed even though it is a small one. Each unit is landed on its base, checked for level and alignment in both directions and packed or shimmed within whatever the supplier allows until it stands true. Level is not cosmetic: a unit set out of plumb has a door that binds, a cable management system that will not retract properly, and a screen that a driver has to lean to read. It is then fixed down using the specified method and fixings, tightened with calibrated tooling and recorded unit by unit against the serial number and the bay.
- 5
Step 5: Make the cable entries, terminations and seals
The final circuit is drawn into the unit through its designated entry, and the terminations are made to the supplier's method by people it accepts, with the earthing connection made as the design requires. Terminations are tightened with calibrated tooling and recorded as they are made. Communications and control cabling is terminated at the same time and kept segregated from the power cabling as the design specifies, because a unit reading noise instead of data produces intermittent faults that take weeks to trace and always get blamed on the software first. Cable entries, gland plates and base openings are then sealed so the unit stays weathertight and vermin-proof, which on an outdoor bay standing unattended for years is a genuine failure mode rather than a theoretical one.
- 6
Step 6: Complete the cable management, protection and accessibility features
The charging cable management - retractors, holsters, overhead arms or whatever the design uses - is installed, adjusted and tried with the cable in the position a driver will actually pull it to, at both ends of the bay and on both sides of a vehicle. Impact protection is confirmed as installed and confirmed as not obstructing use. Accessible bays are checked for the things that are easy to draw and easy to get wrong: room to get alongside the vehicle, a surface without a lip, a screen and terminal at a height that can be reached from a seated position, and a cable that can be handled without excessive force. These checks are made physically, with somebody standing at the bay, rather than by scaling a drawing.
- 7
Step 7: Install the network hardware, identification and signage
Whatever the unit needs to talk to the outside world is installed and its path proved: aerials, routers, wired connections, and the signal check taken in the position the unit actually stands in rather than in the middle of the car park. Each unit is given the identification that will follow it for the rest of its life - the number on the enclosure, the number in the back office, the number on the bay marking and the number on the drawings all matching, because a customer reporting a fault reads the number on the unit and the operator has to find it in a system. Bay signage, tariff information, instructions for use, emergency contact details and any branding are installed to the client's and the operator's requirements.
- 8
Step 8: Protect, secure and record the completed positions
Completed units are locked, their screens and enclosures protected, and the bays kept out of use until commissioning, because a unit that looks finished will be tried by a member of the public within the hour. Records are completed while access is easy: serial number against bay position, fixing and torque records, termination records, seal and gland completion, damage and remedial notes, and photographs of everything. The as-built schedule tying bay number, unit serial number, circuit number and back-office identifier together is the single most useful document handed over at the end of this stage, and it is built up as the work proceeds rather than reconstructed from memory the week before handover.
Plant & equipment
- Hiab, small mobile crane or telehandler sized for the unit weight and the offload position
- Lifting accessories and attachment points designated by the charger supplier
- Skates, jacks, packing and shims for final positioning and levelling on the base
- Calibrated torque tooling for fixing-down and termination records
- Precision levels and a total station for verifying position, plumb and alignment
- Cable pulling equipment for drawing the final circuits into the units
- Signal survey equipment for proving connectivity in the actual unit positions
- Temporary protection, covers, locks and secure storage for units awaiting commissioning
Quality control & testing
- Base positions, levels, orientations and fixings verified against the supplier's arrangement before delivery is booked
- Receipt inspection of every unit recorded against its serial number, with photographs taken at the point of delivery
- Level, plumb and alignment of each set unit checked and recorded before it is fixed down
- Fixing installation and tightening recorded position by position with calibrated tooling
- Terminations made to the supplier's method by people it accepts, and individually recorded
- Cable entries, glands and seals inspected for weathertightness before the unit is closed
- Connectivity proved in the installed position rather than assumed from a site-wide survey
- Bay number, unit serial number, circuit reference and back-office identifier reconciled on one schedule
Safety watchpoints
- Lifting on a live trafficked site, with exclusion zones, briefed lift plans and the supplier's designated lifting points
- Top-heavy units that are unstable until they are fixed down, and must never be left standing unsecured
- Manual handling of units, cables, connectors and packaging across a long repetitive operation
- Working at height for canopy, gantry and wall-mounted installations
- Live circuits at the board end while units are being terminated, controlled by isolation, lock-off and permits
- Continued public interface, with customers who will approach and try to use equipment that is not yet in service
- Vehicle movements and offload operations sharing space with parking, deliveries and pedestrians
- Security of high-value equipment on site, and the risks to people that come with interrupting a theft
Common defects to hunt
- Transit damage accepted without record, then disputed with the supplier months later
- Units set out of level or plumb, so doors bind, cable retractors will not sit and screens are awkward to read
- A unit installed facing the wrong way, so the cable will not reach the vehicle's charging port from the bay
- Cable entries or terminations strained because the circuit was left short at the base end
- Water ingress through unsealed entries, damaged gaskets or an unsealed duct beneath the unit
- Fixing down incomplete or unrecorded because the lifting plant moved on and nobody came back
- Identification inconsistent between the enclosure, the bay marking, the drawings and the back office
- Units left standing on site unprotected and unpowered for weeks, arriving at commissioning already damaged
How long does Charger Installation take?
Typical duration: Typically 1-3 weeks of installation on a mid-sized scheme once bases and circuits are complete, with delivery dates and out-of-hours access windows setting the pace rather than the labour..
Related processes
- Site Survey & Grid Application
- Civils & Groundworks
- Electrical Infrastructure
- Commissioning & Energisation
- Free-standing rapid and ultra-rapid units - method
- Power cabinet with satellite dispensers - method
- Post-mounted and wall-mounted slower units - method
- Canopy, gantry and overhead arrangements - method
- EV Charging Infrastructure sector guide
- Utilities & Energy - group of sectors