On the larger plots of Fairmile, Downside and Stoke D’Abernon, the question we hear is not whether a house can take one charger but whether it can take two. Detached houses are 30.9% of Cobham and Downside ward’s 3,721 households and semis 27.6% (Census 2021), and a two-car household with both cars electric is no longer unusual. The answer sits on the incoming supply: the main fuse, what else the house runs in the evening, and whether UK Power Networks needs to do anything.
This post is about the supply. For the cable runs, the Surrey gully scheme for terraces and the grants, see our Cobham EV charger installation page.
The numbers on a KT11 supply
A 7 kW home charger draws 32 A continuously for as long as it runs. Most homes have a 60 A, 80 A or 100 A main fuse, the fuse in UK Power Networks’ cut-out where the supply enters the house. On a 60 A supply a single charger takes more than half the fuse on its own (our arithmetic). A large Cobham house with an electric oven, an electric shower, a heated outbuilding or a home office can already use a good share of that headroom in the early evening, just when both cars come home.
Across Elmbridge, DVLA records 6,523 privately kept plug-in vehicles at the end of June 2026, up from 5,249 a year earlier. Our arithmetic puts that at about a quarter more in twelve months, 1,274 extra vehicles across the borough.
Two chargers, one fuse
On a two-car Cobham drive, two chargers running at full rate draw 64 A between them. That is more than a 60 A fuse before the house uses anything, and leaves 16 A on an 80 A fuse and 36 A on a 100 A fuse for everything else (our arithmetic). So the sum that matters is not the chargers alone but the chargers plus the evening house load, and the survey adds it up from what is actually in the house.
On a KT11 survey we read the fuse rating from the cut-out, where it is usually printed, rather than guess. We also check the consumer unit, which has to take two new circuits, and the earthing.
Load management, in practice
Load management, on a Fairmile or Downside house as anywhere, is a current sensor clipped around the incoming supply. It tells the charger how much current the house is drawing, and the charger reduces its own draw when the shower or oven is on, then ramps back up. With two chargers, the spare headroom is shared between them. Overnight, when the house load falls, both cars usually finish well before morning: at 7 kW a charger delivers roughly 7 kWh an hour, so even at a reduced rate there are hours to spare in an off-peak window.
For most two-car Cobham households, load management is the answer and no supply work is needed. Our guide to whether your fuse will take a 7 kW EV charger goes through the single-charger case in more detail.
When UK Power Networks upgrades the fuse
Cobham sits in UK Power Networks’ South Eastern Power Networks licence area, about 7 km from any other network, so UKPN is the operator a Cobham installer deals with. Where load management cannot fit the demand, UKPN says it can upgrade a main fuse from 30 or 60 A to 80 or 100 A. It also says that where an installer has applied to connect the device, a fuse upgrade may not be needed. If no upgrade is needed there is nothing to pay UKPN; if one is, the cost and timing vary from project to project. The installer contacts UKPN on your behalf, and any upgrade sits on the quote as its own line.
Looped supplies
Some houses share a supply cable with next door, known as a looped supply. With two chargers on the end of it, that arrangement has to be re-planned with both households, and UKPN says it may carry a charge. The survey checks for a loop at the cut-out; in the older streets of Street Cobham and Church Cobham, as anywhere, it is worth knowing before a second charger is priced.
Why 22 kW rarely helps
A bigger charger is the instinctive answer on a big Cobham house, but a 22 kW charger needs a three-phase supply, which most UK homes do not have, and many cars can only take 7 kW or 11 kW on AC. On single phase a 22 kW unit runs at about 7 kW anyway. Two 7 kW chargers with load management usually charge two cars overnight. Our post on 7 kW versus 22 kW charging explains the supply side.
What the installer sends to UK Power Networks
Every new chargepoint in Cobham is notified to UK Power Networks by the installer, not by you. For a house up to 69 kVA whose supply can take the equipment, approved installers notify UKPN through its Smart Connect portal within 28 days of the installation, and the portal handles chargepoint forms alongside those for panels and batteries. If you are adding panels too, a larger inverter may need a G99 approval before work starts.
Grants rarely apply to a detached Cobham house, as owner-occupiers of houses get no OZEV chargepoint grant; our guide to the EV chargepoint grant explains who does qualify. For storing daytime power on the same supply, see our page on battery storage in Cobham, and for the charger costs, EV charger installation cost.
Sources: charger current draw is arithmetic at 230 V nominal, and fuse ratings and load management are standard UK installation practice; UK Power Networks, main fuse upgrades and looped supplies for EV charging; UK Power Networks, Smart Connect (read 15 October 2026): https://www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/smart-connect; UK Power Networks, Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved (read 15 October 2026); ONS Census 2021, TS044 and TS054 (Cobham and Downside ward); DfT and DVLA, VEH0142, privately kept, end of June 2026 and 2025 (published 23 September 2026); UK Power Networks, licence boundaries (December 2024); GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026).