Frequently Asked Questions

ReadySteadyPlug is a managed EV charging solution for strata buildings. It uses standard 15 A power outlets in car spaces, fed from an EV Charging Distribution Board that our partners install in the car park. Each outlet is individually metered and billed to the person who uses it, and dynamic load management keeps total EV charging within the building's available capacity. The system is modular, so a building can start with a small number of spaces and add more as EV uptake grows.

Bring a building-wide solution to your Owners Corporation rather than installing a charger on your own. A managed Level 1 system installed on common property gives every owner the option to connect, and it needs the Owners Corporation's approval even for a single car space. Many of our buildings started with one owner raising it at a committee meeting. The quickest first step is the Get Started form readysteadyplug.com.au/get-started.

Cars in apartment buildings are parked for most of the day, so overnight charging at 15 A covers typical daily driving for most people without the electrical infrastructure that faster chargers require. Level 1 uses the building's existing 230 V supply and standard outlets, which is what keeps the cost and the disruption low and lets the whole car park be covered rather than a handful of bays. ReadySteadyPlug provides managed Level 1 charging with dynamic load management rather than 7 kW wall chargers.

For most existing apartment buildings, a building-wide managed Level 1 system. It gives every owner the option to connect at their own space, meters and bills each user individually, protects the building's supply with dynamic load management, and avoids the supply upgrades that a car park full of Level 2 chargers usually needs. Faster shared chargers in visitor bays can complement it, but they do not solve overnight charging for everyone.

It is slower per hour than a wall charger, but that is rarely what matters at home. A 15 A Charge Point adds around 20 km of range per hour, which is approximately 200 km from a 10-hour overnight session, far more than the average Australian's daily driving. For most people one overnight session a week is enough, and many simply plug in whenever they park. The exact rate depends on your vehicle and the portable charger you use.

Plug-in hybrids are a natural fit. Their batteries are much smaller than a full EV's, so an overnight Level 1 session will take one from empty to full with time to spare.

The Owners Corporation can purchase and own the system, or choose the Charging-as-a-Service option, which reduces the upfront outlay. Residents who want a Charge Point pay a one-off contribution for their outlet and then pay only for the electricity they use plus a small service fee. Costs vary by site, so we set them out in a proposal for your building.

We need to look at your building first, because the cost depends on your switchboard, the car park layout and how many spaces are involved. Send us your strata plans and, if you have them, the electrical drawings through the Get Started form readysteadyplug.com.au/get-started. We come back with indicative pricing, and then a firm quote after a site assessment.

After the initial investment, no further Owners Corporation capital is required as the system scales. Growth of the shared infrastructure is funded through the per-Charge-Point fee that each new user pays, and future Charge Points are installed at the per-Charge-Point price in the agreement.

All charging is paid by the user from a nominated debit or credit card in the ReadySteadyPlug app, with automatic top-up, similar to an e-toll account. Nothing is added to the unit's electricity bill or to strata levies. The Owners Corporation sets a baseline per-kWh rate based on its own electricity costs. ReadySteadyPlug adds either a small per-kWh service fee on top of that rate or a flat monthly fee for an active Charge Point, whichever the user prefers, and users can switch between the two at any time. We measure the energy at each Charge Point, bill the user for it and reimburse the electricity cost to the Owners Corporation every quarter.

There is no subsidy as such that the building needs to apply for. ARENA has provided ReadySteadyPlug with funding that helps us offer our current model and pricing.

We don't track council or state rebates, and they change often, so it is worth checking with your local council or your state government whether anything is available for EV charging in apartment buildings. Our own model and pricing already reflects the ARENA funding we have received.

The agreement allows the Owners Corporation to terminate with 30 days' notice. In that case all hardware remains on site so it can be repurposed by another provider. The building's electrical backbone and the wiring to each car space make up the large majority of the total cost, so repurposing the installation is not a major exercise. We will also support OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) that allows another Charge Point Operator to run the system without repurposing it first

Yes. Dynamic Load Management meters the building's consumption at different bottlenecks in real time and keeps EV charging within the capacity that is actually available, regulating charging during peak building load rather than tripping the supply. That is what allows a building to add charging without the switchboard and supply upgrades. We confirm your building's electrical infrastructure from its electrical drawings or after a site visit and install the Energy Metering to ensure the electrical capacity is optimally used, and its limits never exceeded.

Two ways. Our capacity calculator readysteadyplug.com.au/calculator-how-many-evs-can-your-building-charge gives a first estimate: enter the spare amps per phase at the main switchboard, the hours cars are parked, daily driving and the car's consumption, and it works out how many EVs that supply can serve when the load is shared across the day. It uses the Australian average of about 31 km a day, cars parked at home around 19 hours a day, and 15 to 22 kWh per 100 km, and it assumes a 15 A (3.6 kW) Charge Point. Most buildings are surprised by the answer, because a car that drives 31 km a day needs less than two hours of Level 1 charging. For a firm number, the metering can be installed ahead of any charging rollout: the Owners Corporation then gets graphs of the building's incoming supply that make the spare capacity obvious, and that data is used for the design if you proceed. 2nd way/option: you know the exact answer to this question one we have installed our Energy Metering solution on the site.

Every Charge Point is individually metered inside the EV Charging Distribution Board, and their combined load is managed by our Charge Point Management System. We also meter the building's mains and house boards and any sub distribution boards where our EVDBs are connected, so we make sure we cover the whole hierarchy and do not miss any bottleneck. If demand on any of these bottlenecks approaches the supply limit, EV charging load is reduced first, so the rest of the building is never affected. The same metering gives the Owners Corporation real-time data on the building's electrical usage. The controller meters the mains, the house board and any sub-boards continuously, alongside every EVDB and Charge Point, and is set with a safety margin below the building's limits so the ceiling is never exceeded. Because each Charge Point is a 15 A outlet, load management works by deciding how many outlets are live, not by slowing a charger down. When capacity is limited, Charge Points start turning off from the one that has received most kilowatt hours (kWh) and are rotated through every 30 minutes based on that same logic and making sure power is shared equitably. Residents get a notification in the app if their charging has been paused and normal charging resumes automatically as capacity becomes available. In addition to safely managing charging within the site's maximum constraints, RSP's DLM can also dynamically manage loads within peak demand, in order to limit EV charging's impact to demand charges on the OC's electricity bill (if applicable - this metering is carried out using average calculations on house supply rather than watching instantaneous peaks at any given bottleneck).. More detail is on our dynamic load management page readysteadyplug.com.au/dynamic-load-management.

Each ReadySteadyPlug Charge Point has its own dedicated, individually metered and RCBO (Residual Current Breaker with Overload) -protected circuit in the distribution board. We never have anything else than dedicated circuits per CP, meaning your charging availability or speed do not depend on what your neighbours are doing, and you get the full outlet capacity every time you plug in. Some vendors put several chargers on one circuit, in which case only one can be active at a time and the others wait in a queue until the system switches them on.

Yes, and there is no minimum number of users. A building can begin with a single active user and add more Charge Points later without new switchboard upgrades, because the distribution boards are modular and the design allows for the whole car park.

Our full system is designed with larger strata buildings in mind, where car spaces are fed from common property power and separate individual metering and reimbursement for EV Charging are needed. For a small building, or one where each car space can be wired from the owner's own meter, we offer a smaller distribution board that provides load management only, without the energy metering and reimbursement to the Owners Corporation. Tell us how many lots and car spaces you have and how many EVs, and we will suggest the right option.

With the Owners Corporation's approval, yes. We can install a small starter EVDB connected to the nearest house switchboard together with one Charge Point. EVDB is sized so that other owners can connect to it later without starting again, and new EVDBs can be installed later once the "starter EVDB" gets full. Dynamic Load Management is optional with a single charger but may be worth considering in order to gain visibility of the building's overall load, "headspace" and to prepare for full DLM.

Yes. Any car space fed from the EV Charging Distribution Board can be included. The charge point can be configured to operate in "Visitor Mode", where Charge Points are paired by the user every time, and unpaired automatically after the charging has finished (in normal "private mode", CP is dedicated to one account and others cannot use or pair with it, unless this dedicated user unpairs it first). Whoever is paired with the CP pays for the energy they use.

Yes, this is possible, but it comes at a cost. If requested we can run the cabling to each car space in a heavier gauge so that Charge Points could later be swapped for Level 2 units. Level 2 would also need Wi-Fi or internet throughout the car park and the OCPP protocol implemented, and it brings the building closer to a supply upgrade sooner. Our recommendation is that once you can add a full day's driving overnight with Level 1, you rarely need to charge any faster at home.

Yes. No Wi-Fi is required at individual parking bays. The intelligence sits in the EV Charging Distribution Board, which is the only component that needs an internet connection, and which we make sure it has; it controls each outlet by switching its circuit on and off and meters what is used. We connect the board through the building's own internet connection or a 4G modem we supply, so the system works in underground car parks with no coverage. You can control your CP from wherever there's an internet connection and you do not need the QR code more than once, when you pair with it for the first time. If there's no connection at your car bay then, you get instructed to go to the area of coverage, where you can complete this one-off action.

Because their chargers are individual smart devices that each need their own wireless connection to be controlled and billed. In an underground car park with patchy coverage that means extending Wi-Fi across every level before charging can work. In our system the outlets are plain, and the connection is made and maintained at our EV Distribution Boards.

EVDBs are installed in the switch rooms or along the car park area and form the heart of the system. They house the metering and control equipment, along with individual mandatory circuit protection (RCBOs) for each Charge Point. The EVDBs are the only components that require an internet connection. The outlets at the car spaces are standard "dummy" 15 A outlets, with all intelligence located in the EVDB rather than at each outlet, meaning internet connectivity is not needed at every Charge Point.

EVDBs can be installed inside the main switchboard or mounted in the car park. They arrive pre‑configured with QR codes for each Charge Point, which means any licensed electrician can run the individual circuits once the EVDBs are in place, RSP may not even need to be contacted for this stage. They come in a range of sizes, allowing the system to scale easily as more residents connect.

EVDBs can also be configured for situations where Charge Points are connected directly to the tenant's own electricity meters, in these cases metering and billing are not required and "only" Dynamic Load Management may need to be deployed.

A standard, off-the-shelf 15 A outlet, each on its own RCD-protected circuit in the EV Charging Distribution Board. Because it is a standard outlet it works with the portable charger supplied with every EV and with after-market 15 A portable chargers, and it can be used for other devices.

Any of the following that you have: strata plan drawings and car park floor layouts; electrical designs such as a single line diagram (SLD) from the electrical switchboards, plus a few photos of the main switchboard and any sub-boards in the car park; photos of the car park; any energy studies already done for the building; and any information on current EV uptake, the Owners Corporation's budget and how much of a priority EV readiness is. The plans and the single line diagram are enough to start. It also helps to know where you are in your decision-making process and your expected timeframes. From there we prepare a tailored quote and meet on site to finalise the details. You can send it all through the Get Started form readysteadyplug.com.au/get-started.

We prepare a tailored proposal from your plans and electrical drawings first, and then meet on site to finalise the details once you are comfortable moving forward. The site walk confirms the switch room, the cable routes and the exact car spaces. Quotes are valid for 30 days because material and labour prices move; we can extend once and then re-validate. If you have a competent house electrician you trust, we could also have them to prepare a preliminary site visit for us

ReadySteadyPlug's installation partner does. We design the system, supply the EV Charging Distribution Boards and the metering and load management equipment pre-commissioned, and our licensed electrical contractor partners carry out the installation. The system is commissioned and a certificate stating the installation meets the required Australian Standards is issued. You deal with one company from proposal to hand-over.

Yes. We make an introduction once you are close to a decision. We do a little vetting first to protect our existing customers from early-stage reference requests, so it works best as the final checkpoint after the proposal and site visit.

Individual metering and billing so the Owners Corporation is reimbursed and no cost falls on non-users. Dynamic load management that meters the building's own supply, not just the chargers. No Wi-Fi or mobile dependency at the parking bays. One dedicated circuit per Charge Point rather than several chargers sharing one. A clear position on what happens to the hardware if you change provider and how this new provider is able to operate it.

Yes. We provide a short two-page overview, a guide for Owners Corporations that sets out the process step by step, an expression-of-interest form and a reservation form customised for your building, a flyer for lifts and noticeboards, a sample email to owners, and template by-law and motion wording. Ask for the pack through the Get Started form readysteadyplug.com.au/get-started.

We currently work in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, ACT and SA, with installations carried out by our licensed electrical contractors. If your building is in another state, send us your details through the Get Started form and we will let you know what is possible. If you have some trusted electricians that you would like to suggest, please let us know and we will get them on board.

Typically a new EV charging by-law, approved at a general meeting. We provide guidance and template by-law and motion wording for the committee. Approving a by-law for an EV charging solution without naming the vendor makes the decision-making process much easier later.

Not on your own. Car spaces and the cabling that feeds them are usually common property, so any charger needs the Owners Corporation's approval, and a charger wired to your own meter often is not practical from a basement car space. In New South Wales, EV charging is treated as sustainability infrastructure under the Strata Schemes Management Act: a sustainability infrastructure resolution passes unless more than half the unit entitlements vote against it, rather than needing the usual three-quarters. Since 1 July 2025 an Owners Corporation also cannot refuse sustainability infrastructure purely on aesthetic grounds unless the property is heritage listed. Other states have their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice; your strata manager can confirm the position for your scheme.

EV fires are rare, and rarer than petrol and diesel car fires. Fire and Rescue NSW describes them as low frequency but potentially high consequence, and its own figures put EV fires at roughly 2 to 8 per 100,000 registered vehicles a year in NSW, against 11 to 23 for conventional vehicles. EV FireSafe, which verifies every Australian incident, has recorded 13 EV battery fires in Australia since 2021 across more than 470,000 plug-in vehicles, and in none of them was charging the cause. In 2024/25 Fire and Rescue NSW attended 315 lithium-ion battery fires; none involved an EV, and most involved e-bikes, e-scooters and small devices.

The fire risk that does exist sits with the vehicle, not the outlet. What a building can do is keep its fire systems maintained and make sure the charging equipment is compliant and can be isolated. Our Charge Points are standard 15 A outlets on individual RCD-protected circuits, installed to AS/NZS 3000, and the system can be wired so that charging shuts down automatically when the building's fire alarm activates.

No. The changes under way go the other way. NSW strata law was amended in 2021 and again from 1 July 2025 to make sustainability infrastructure, including EV charging, easier to approve. The National Construction Code 2025 does strengthen car park fire safety, mainly sprinkler coverage, but the Australian Building Codes Board's own rationale is modern vehicles in general: larger cars, more plastics and new energy sources. The NCC applies to new building work, not to existing car parks, and NSW has not yet adopted NCC 2025; the current edition in force is NCC 2022, with adoption reported for 2027 but not confirmed.

Fire and Rescue NSW's 2025 position paper recommends locating EV charging in the open air where possible and, for charging inside buildings, sets out what it expects: working sprinklers and hydrant coverage, detection, ventilation and automatic shutdown of charging on alarm. None of that prohibits charging in a basement car park, and the shutdown-on-alarm connection is something we can provide through the building's fire indicator panel. Your strata manager can confirm the position for your scheme; this is general information, not legal advice.

A vehicle fire is handled the same way whether the car runs on petrol or a battery: damage to other vehicles goes through the owners' motor insurance, and damage to the building goes through the strata building policy. Fire water run-off from any vehicle fire is managed by the fire service under existing environmental procedures; it is not an EV-specific issue. We are not aware of insurers applying EV-specific exclusions or loadings for basement car parks, and the feedback we have had is that insurers see purpose-designed, compliant charging infrastructure as a positive compared with residents using ordinary power points. The simplest reassurance for a committee is to ask the building's insurer to confirm in writing that nothing changes.

You can have the Charge Point installed and leave it inactive until you have an EV. There are no charges until you activate it, and you only ever pay for the electricity you use (unless you opt in to the subscription model after activating the CP first). Installing it in your building's first round is the lowest-cost option, with no running cost until you start using it and is therefore the best and most cost effective option to future proof your car bay and lot.

You pay a deposit when you reserve your Charge Point and the balance shortly before your confirmed installation date; the amounts for your building are on your reservation form and invoice. Once the Owners Corporation has decided to proceed, deposits are non-refundable but can be carried forward to a future deployment.

You choose. By default, you pay a small per-kWh service fee on top of your building's electricity rate, or if you so choose, a flat monthly fee for an active Charge Point instead. You can switch between the two at any time.

The Charge Point takes very little space and can be installed where you prefer within your car space. It will not limit how you use your parking space. If you send a photo with the suggested location we can confirm it, or you can tape a small note on the exact spot to make it easy for the installer.

Yes. Note it on your reservation and we process the invoice for both; there is no need for a second form. If your space is in the middle of a row with no wall or column nearby, the outlet is mounted on a pendant from the ceiling, which we confirm on the site visit.

Once the reservation window closes we confirm the participants, complete the design and order the distribution boards, then send your final invoice before work begins. Cabling and the distribution boards go in first, then the individual Charge Points, followed by testing and commissioning. The works are not very disruptive, though there is some short, noisy drilling. You do not need to be on site. Building management will let you know if your space is affected, and we email you as soon as your Charge Point is ready to use.

Plug-in hybrids are a natural fit. Their batteries are much smaller than a full EV's, so an overnight Level 1 session will take one from empty to full with time to spare.

Scan the QR code on the front of your Charge Point and create an account. You only do this once. Add a card to start your balance, then plug in and tap On. The ReadySteadyPlug app is a web app that you install from the link in your welcome email; once installed it works the same as a native app. The quick start guide covers scheduled charging and what to do if something is not working. Also native apps are available from the Google Play and Apple App Store, but they work effectively just the same

Your Charge Point is a standard 15 A outlet, so you use the portable charger (often called "mobile charger") that came with your car, or an after-market 15 A portable charger, which charges somewhat faster. At 15 A you add around 20 km of range per hour, about 200 km overnight. You do not need to buy a wall charger.

It is slower per hour than a wall charger, but that is rarely what matters at home. A 15 A Charge Point adds around 20 km of range per hour, which is approximately 200 km from a 10-hour overnight session, far more than the average Australian's daily driving. For most people one overnight session a week is enough, and many simply plug in whenever they park. The exact rate depends on your vehicle and the portable charger you use.

By default the outlet switches itself off 15 minutes after charging finishes, and it stays paired to you. There is a setting to keep the outlet on, for example if you want to run a fridge or power tools in a private garage without opening the app each time. Whatever is drawn through the outlet is metered and billed to your account.

No. The Charge Point is controlled from the app and by default only works for the account it is paired to. It also switches off automatically after a period of inactivity and no one else can pair with it. CP can also be configured to operate in visitor mode, in which case it unpairs automatically after every use and new users can take it into use.

Yes. The Charge Point works as a normal power point, so it can be used for an e-bike or e-scooter charger, a vacuum or electric tools. Whatever is drawn through it is metered and billed to your account in the same way.

Usage is always billed to the user who has activated (paired with) the charge point, and only one user can be paired with it at any given time. If your tenant wants to use the Charge Point, they create their own account with their own card and pay for the energy they use that way. It is not tied to the unit's electricity bill, and the owner does not pay for the tenant's charging. Until a Charge Point is paired to an account no one can use it, and once it is paired with the account, only that user can use it.

Yes. No Wi-Fi is required at individual parking bays. The intelligence sits in the EV Charging Distribution Board, which is the only component that needs an internet connection, and which we make sure it has; it controls each outlet by switching its circuit on and off and meters what is used. We connect the board through the building's own internet connection or a 4G modem we supply, so the system works in underground car parks with no coverage. You can control your CP from wherever there's an internet connection and you do not need the QR code more than once, when you pair with it for the first time. If there's no connection at your car bay then, you get instructed to go to the area of coverage, where you can complete this one-off action.

If no load is being drawn, the Charge Point switches off automatically after 15 minutes. Check that the switch on top of the Charge Point is in the ON position and that your charging cable works on another outlet. If it continues, email support@readysteadyplug.com with your building and car space number and we will check the logs for your Charge Point.

No problem. Check first that you completed the reservation form for your building, because that is what creates your invoice. Then email support@readysteadyplug.com with your building and apartment number and we will resend it and confirm whether your deposit has been received.

Not on your own. Car spaces and the cabling that feeds them are usually common property, so any charger needs the Owners Corporation's approval, and a charger wired to your own meter often is not practical from a basement car space. In New South Wales, EV charging is treated as sustainability infrastructure under the Strata Schemes Management Act: a sustainability infrastructure resolution passes unless more than half the unit entitlements vote against it, rather than needing the usual three-quarters. Since 1 July 2025 an Owners Corporation also cannot refuse sustainability infrastructure purely on aesthetic grounds unless the property is heritage listed. Other states have their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice; your strata manager can confirm the position for your scheme.