In the twelve months to June 2026, the number of plug-in vehicles kept by private owners across Broxbourne went from 1,856 to about 2,631, on DVLA figures. That is 775 more cars and vans in one year, a rise of about 42% on our arithmetic. Some of them are parked outside terraces in Flamstead End, some on the drives of Goffs Oak semis, and some in the bays of Waltham Cross flats. For the households behind them, the next question is often whether a battery, or panels, or both, belong alongside the car.
The short answer is that the three do different jobs on different timetables, and Cheshunt’s housing decides most of the rest. This guide works through it. For where a battery physically goes and how it connects in EN7, EN8 and EN10, see our page on home batteries in Cheshunt.
What the Broxbourne count covers
The DVLA figure is for the whole borough, so it includes Hoddesdon and Broxbourne itself as well as Cheshunt. It counts vehicles where the registered keeper’s address is, and we print only the privately kept figure, because company registrations can swell a council’s total. It is not a count of home chargers or of households with an EV. What it does show is that a plug-in car in a Broxbourne driveway is no longer unusual, and that the household question has changed from “should we?” to “how do the pieces fit?”
Three machines, three timetables
Panels make electricity in daylight. The European Commission’s PVGIS 5.3 tool, run for Cheshunt on the site’s standard settings, gives a 4 kWp array facing due south about 479 kWh in June and about 136 kWh in December. On our arithmetic that is roughly 16.0 kWh a day in midsummer and 4.4 kWh a day in midwinter, from an unshaded roof.
A battery moves some of that daytime output into the evening. The Energy Saving Trust says a typical home system might be 10 kWh, and that there is no exact formula for sizing one.
A car is a much bigger store. At Ofgem’s price-cap unit rate of 26.32p per kWh for October to December 2026, a 60 kWh charge costs about £15.79 on our arithmetic, and off-peak EV tariffs price overnight units well below that. A 10 kWh home battery holds a sixth of that 60 kWh. So the battery is not a reservoir for the car. In most homes the car charges overnight, the battery runs the house through the evening, and the panels top up whichever is set to take priority during the day. Since 30 June 2022 every new home chargepoint sold in Great Britain has had to be smart, which is what lets a charger follow a schedule or a solar surplus rather than draw whenever the car is plugged in.
The Cheshunt figures above also show why a December car charge comes mostly from the grid, whatever is on the roof: 4.4 kWh a day will not go far once the house has taken its share.
Cheshunt’s housing decides the charger
At the 2021 Census, 33.3% of households in the Cheshunt built-up area lived in terraced houses, 30.1% in semis and 14.8% in detached homes, so on our arithmetic 78.2% have a house rather than a flat. The other 21.5% live in flats or maisonettes.
OZEV’s grants follow that split. Renters and people who own and live in flats can get 75% of the purchase and installation cost, up to £500 per socket, if they have private off-street or allocated parking. Households with on-street parking only can get up to £500 towards a chargepoint installed with an approved cross-pavement solution, subject to the council’s rules, so Broxbourne’s own position is the first thing to check. Owner-occupiers of houses get no grant; the scheme that covered them closed in April 2022. Our guide to who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant sets out each case.
Tenure matters too. Across Broxbourne, 16.0% of households rented privately and 14.3% from a social landlord at the Census, and for them a charger, a battery or panels are the landlord’s decision first.
The fuse in a Cheshunt house
A 7.4 kW home charger draws 32 A continuously. Most homes have a 60 A, 80 A or 100 A main fuse, and load management, a current sensor on the incoming supply that turns the charger down when the house is busy, usually avoids an upgrade. UK Power Networks says it can upgrade a main fuse from 30 or 60 A to 80 or 100 A where one is needed. On some older terraced streets a supply is looped, shared with a neighbour, and UKPN says a looped supply has to be re-planned with both households and may carry a charge. The survey checks the fuse and the supply before anything else goes on the list.
The paperwork on the Eastern network
Central Cheshunt sits in UK Power Networks’ Eastern Power Networks licence area, the network Eastern Electricity managed across Hertfordshire before UKPN. The installer notifies it of a new chargepoint. For a battery or panels, the inverter is what counts: type-tested generation up to and including 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) is notified under G98, before commissioning or within 28 days after it, and anything larger needs a G99 application approved before work starts. A 4 kW inverter, at 17.39 A, is just over that line. If a battery is added to panels, the two inverters together are what the network operator looks at.
VAT and the order of work
The VAT rules treat the three differently. Residential solar panels and batteries are zero-rated until 31 March 2027, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027, whether a battery is fitted with panels or on its own. A home EV chargepoint is not on the energy-saving materials list, so its installation is standard-rated at 20%. On a combined quote, check that the charger line carries its own VAT; our guide to what size home battery you need covers the sizing questions that sit alongside the price.
On order, the Energy Saving Trust says fitting storage at the same time as panels costs less than a separate visit later. Broxbourne has a small local record of households doing both: the council reports that its last Solar Together Hertfordshire cohort brought 23 solar PV and 22 battery installations to the borough. For lower-income households, Broxbourne delivers the Warm Homes: Local Grant with the National Energy Foundation, and DESNZ’s guidance funds a battery only alongside solar PV, never on its own and never for a charger.
Backup is a separate decision
One point applies whatever else is fitted. A standard grid-tied battery shuts down in a power cut, even when it is full, so neither the house nor the car charger runs from it during an outage. Backup has to be designed in, with extra equipment and wiring, and it is priced as its own line. Any quote should say in writing whether it is included.
If panels are part of your plan, our page on solar panels in Cheshunt covers the roof, including the Churchgate conservation area, and our solar panels in Hertfordshire hub covers the neighbouring districts.
Sources: Department for Transport and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by local authority, Broxbourne, 2025 Q2 and 2026 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission JRC), PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, 4 kWp, 35°, due south, 14% losses, run 15 October 2026; Energy Saving Trust, Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); Ofgem, energy price cap October to December 2026; ONS, Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021 (tables 5c), and Census 2021 TS054 Tenure, Broxbourne (Nomis); OZEV, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021; UK Power Networks, fuse upgrade guidance, Our history, and Licence Boundaries open dataset (17 December 2024); Energy Networks Association, EREC G98 Issue 2 (10 March 2025); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; Borough of Broxbourne, Solar Together Hertfordshire and Warm Homes: Local Grant pages; DESNZ, Warm Homes: Local Grant guidance (updated 2 July 2026).