What are the differences between home AC chargers and public AC chargers?

1. The first difference is in measurement. According to EU regulations, all commercial AC chargers must be equipped with MID meters for more accurate measurement. However, for home use, there is no need for a Charge Point Operator (CPO) to calculate power consumption. Therefore, home AC chargers typically use onboard metering methods, which are not as accurate as MID meters, to reduce costs.

2. The second point concerns RCD (Residual Current Device) leakage protection requirements. According to IEC standards, commercial charging stations must comply with AC 30mA and DC 6mA leakage protection. Some manufacturers use Type-B RCDs, while others use Type-A with AC 30mA and DC 6mA, known as A+6. Both types of RCDs meet the standards. Returning to home chargers, some manufacturers integrate the leakage protection function directly onto the control board to save costs, while others use MCBs (Micro Circuit Breakers).

3. The third point is about connectivity. Due to their operational requirements, commercial charging stations need to maintain a reliable network environment. Therefore, they support three types of connectivity: Ethernet, WiFi, and 4G. This ensures that if one method is unstable, alternative options are available. However, home charging stations do not have such high network requirements. Some users may not connect their charging stations to the network at all. Therefore, these stations typically only provide Ethernet or WiFi connectivity options.

4. Last but not least, there are big differences in OCPP functions between public and home chargers. Public chargers need to comply with all the OCPP functions, including smart charge, charging profile, payment gateway, and so on. However, people mainly need the charging function for home chargers; they do not need all the OCPP functions. So, some manufacturers do not even add OCPP functions to home chargers, while some comply with some.

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