The word “smart” on a charger quote is not an extra. Since 30 June 2022, the law has required every new home chargepoint sold in Great Britain to be smart, under the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021. For a Horley driver, that changes two things: what the charger does on its own out of the box, and how much of the cheap overnight window you can use without thinking about it. Our page on getting an EV charger in Horley covers fitting it; this post covers what it does once it is on the wall.
We read the regulations on legislation.gov.uk on 19 October 2026. Here is what they require, in plain terms, for a house in Westvale Park, Langshott or Horley Row.
What “smart” means in law
Regulation 5 says a compliant charger must be able to send and receive information over a communications network, and to respond to signals by increasing or decreasing its rate of charge or changing when it charges, so that it can provide demand side response services. It must also have a user interface the owner can operate. Regulation 6 says it must not lose that smart functionality if you change electricity supplier, and further regulations cover a measuring system and security. So a charger fitted on a Horley drive keeps its scheduling when you switch supplier. The EnSmart SmartBee-M we fit connects over Wi-Fi or Ethernet and supports the OCPP 1.6 standard, per its published specification, the kind of connectivity that off-peak tariffs and apps rely on.
The peak hours the regulations name
Regulation 10 defines peak hours as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays. A charger must come with pre-set default charging hours outside those windows. In practice that means a car plugged in at teatime on a Horley drive does not start pulling 32 A into the evening peak if you keep the default hours; it waits for them unless you override it. Weekends are outside the definition.
Default hours, and changing them
When you first use the charger, the regulations say you must be offered the chance to accept the pre-set hours, remove them or set different ones, and you can change or remove them at any time after that. You can also override the default and charge immediately. The point is a sensible starting setting, not a lock. If your supplier’s cheap period runs at different hours from the factory setting, you set the charger to match. A Horley commuter who leaves before 8am may find the defaults already suit; a household at home in the day may want different ones.
The randomised delay
Regulation 11 requires the charger to apply a random delay of up to 600 seconds at each relevant time, meaning the moment charging would start or its rate would change, and you are able to cancel it. The reason is the grid: if every smart charger in Reigate and Banstead started at exactly the moment an off-peak period began, the network would see a cliff edge. DVLA counts 5,110 privately kept plug-in vehicles across the borough at the end of June 2026, up from 4,051 a year earlier, so a few minutes of scatter makes more sense each year.
If the connection drops
Regulation 7 requires a charger that loses its communications connection to remain capable of charging. A broken router does not strand the car. What stops while it is offline is the app, scheduling changes from your phone and any tariff signals that depend on the link. On a Westvale Park or The Acres house where the charger sits on a garage wall, the survey checks the Wi-Fi reach there, and an Ethernet run is an option where it is weak.
Where tariffs come in
Smart hours only save money if your tariff rewards them, and in Horley the tariff comes from your supplier, not from UK Power Networks, which runs the wires. Ofgem’s price-cap unit rate for October to December 2026 is 26.32p per kWh on Direct Debit, an average across Great Britain. Off-peak EV tariffs price overnight units well below that, and each supplier sets its own rates and hours, so we do not print them; check yours and set the charger’s default hours to the cheap window. A 7 kW charger adds roughly 7 kWh an hour, so a few overnight hours cover most days’ driving.
If you have panels, the defaults work the other way: to soak up midday surplus you remove or change the default hours, which the regulations let you do. PVGIS puts a 4 kWp south-facing array in Horley at about 491 kWh in June but about 138 kWh in December, so that is a summer setting. Our existing guide to an EV, solar and a battery together in Horley covers how the three share a house; solar panels in Horley covers the roof.
Telling UK Power Networks
Smart or not, the network operator is told about every new chargepoint, and the installer does it. Horley is in UK Power Networks’ South Eastern licence area. Its Smart Connect service, open only to approved installers, takes EV chargepoint forms, and for houses up to 69 kVA whose supply can take the equipment, notification is within 28 days of installation. UK Power Networks says there is nothing to pay it where no upgrade is needed.
What to ask before you buy
Three questions sort a sound quote from a weak one. Does the charger support the tariff or app you want to use? Will Wi-Fi or Ethernet reach the position reliably? And is load management included if your main fuse is 60 A? The home EV charger installation page has the SmartBee-M’s published specification. With 70.4% of Horley households owning their home, most can choose a tariff and set the charger without asking anyone.
Sources: The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021, S.I. 2021/1467, regulations 1, 5, 7, 10 and 11 (legislation.gov.uk, read 19 October 2026); Ofgem, energy price cap October to December 2026; DfT and DVLA, VEH0142, 2026 Q2 and 2025 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); European Commission JRC, PVGIS 5.3, PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023; ONS Census 2021, TS054, Horley Central & South (E05012876), Horley East & Salfords (E05012877) and Horley West & Sidlow (E05012878) wards, via Nomis; UK Power Networks, Smart Connect (ukpowernetworks.co.uk/smart-connect), read 15 October 2026; UK Power Networks, licence boundaries (December 2024); EnSmart SmartBee-M specification as listed by its UK distributor.