Located near the heart of coastal town Poole, in the south of England, you’ll find Woodlands, a thriving over 60s residential home. Step inside, and it’s clear that the upmost care has gone into making it a modern and spacious place, designed to enhance wellbeing. Here is where we find Roger and the other residents; a group with a variety of professions, experiences and knowledge. 

For Roger and the other residents it was important to have a future-proof solution.

As more of the residents began transitioning to electric, it was evident that a charging solution would need to be put in place. Billie Shuter, Buildings and Community Manager, explains: ‘’We have a really wonderful group of residents here who are really actively involved in the community. They’re also very technologically minded so they really wanted to be involved in this project and undertook a lot of the research themselves.’’

They had some specific requirements: ‘We wanted something that was really a future-proof solution, so that as people bought electric vehicles in the next 5 years, 10 years, they could simply have a charging facility of their own in their own assigned bays at minimal cost’ explains Roger.

For them, the choice was easy. 

‘The residents find the Easee products really easy to use, and they’re really pleased with the system they have in place’ (Billie Shuter, Building and Communities Manager)

‘A helpful little device’

Vanadium were on hand to complete the installation which consisted of 5 Easee Charge (22kW electric vehicle chargers), 13 Easee Ready and a Commercial Equalizer. 

Installer Tom Dibben has seen first-hand how challenging it can be getting EV infrastructure into apartment blocks. These challenges can include hesitancy from residents who don’t own an electric vehicle yet (and don’t want to pay for a charger they won’t use) as well as concerns about overloading the fuse limit and causing power outages.

With the Easee Ready (backplate and blind cover) you can prepare for future charging demands without the need for any additional infrastructure costs.

This makes the Easee Ready the perfect solution for MDUs. Consisting of a backplate and a blind cover, the Easee Ready is a passive charging solution that can be made active when required, by clipping in the active Easee chargeberry. This allows all the active and passive charging infrastructure to be installed at once, meaning no further installation materials or cost are required when a new resident wants to switch to an EV.

To address the concerns around load management, an Easee Equalizer was installed. Dibben explains, ‘this helpful little device will wirelessly connect to all the Easee chargepoints across the entire circuit and automatically make sure that the load on the site is met correctly and is safe.’ Another benefit is that it allows for additional chargers to safely be installed, without having to pay for the expenses that come with increased electricity access. 

Easee Equalizer in a hand

The future is electric

In finding the right solution, the residential home is now ready to welcome drivers at every stage of their journey to electric. Roger explains ‘As a community we’re very happy with what’s been installed. Even the people here who are not into cars necessarily are pleased with what they see in the garage because it’s all so neat and tidy!’

Are you a resident or building manager considering charging solutions for your residential property? Find out more here:

Residential Buildings

Government Grants