EV Charger Installation — Orbis Viaris 7.4 kW Single-Phase, Pedestal Mount, San Pedro de Alcántara (Marbella)
Spanish-made Orbis Viaris Uni 7.4 kW single-phase EV charger on a bespoke hot-dip galvanised garden pedestal at a villa in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella — Type 2 tethered cable, RFID Mifare authentication, dynamic load management on the existing single-phase supply, 3G6 mm² RZ1-K underground supply, dedicated 2-pole 40 A Type A + 6 mA DC RCBO. Full ITC-BT-52 / REBT certified.
By Ben Hayden
Project Overview
The Challenge: Open-Driveway Villa with No Garage on a Single-Phase 230 V Supply — Wall-Mount Charger Not Viable, Stepping Up to Three-Phase Not Justified for One EV
Install a properly sized home EV charger at a villa in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella where there is no enclosed garage and the parking is on an open driveway — selecting a single-phase 7.4 kW Spanish-made Orbis Viaris Uni rather than forcing a costly upgrade to a three-phase supply, fabricating a bespoke hot-dip galvanised garden pedestal that reads as garden ironwork rather than electrical equipment, running a 3G6 mm² RZ1-K underground supply across the driveway with full ITC-BT-52 protection (dedicated 2-pole 40 A Type A + 6 mA DC RCBO), and closing out the Boletín Eléctrico against the existing single-phase contracted supply with dynamic load management so the contracted power is never exceeded.
The Solution
The client owns a villa in San Pedro de Alcántara on the western edge of Marbella with a German plug-in hybrid in the household and an order placed for a fully electric replacement arriving later in 2026. The property has no enclosed garage — parking is on the open driveway alongside a landscaped garden — so a wall-mounted charger inside a structure was not an option. The client wanted a charger that could deliver a full overnight charge for either the current plug-in hybrid or the future EV, looked like part of the garden rather than an industrial fitting, and was supplied by a Spanish manufacturer rather than a US or Chinese OEM with uncertain spare-parts availability through a Spanish distributor. The answer was a single-phase 7.4 kW Orbis Viaris Uni — Spanish-designed and Spanish-manufactured by Orbis Tecnología Eléctrica out of Madrid, with full local distribution and a Spanish-language warranty network — mounted on a bespoke hot-dip galvanised steel garden pedestal rather than against a wall. The villa is on a single-phase 230 V Endesa supply with sufficient contracted power to run a 7.4 kW (32 A) charger overnight under the dynamic load-management mode the Viaris supports natively, so no contracted-power upgrade was required and no costly conversion to a three-phase supply was needed. The supply cable was pulled in a buried polyamide corrugated conduit from the consumer unit on the inside wall of the technical room, out under the driveway in a 60 cm deep trench with warning tape, and up through the hollow galvanised pedestal to the rear of the charger enclosure. This case study covers the full ITC-BT-52 compliant install: how the Viaris Uni 7.4 kW was specified against the household's existing single-phase contracted power and realistic overnight charging needs, why a pedestal in the garden was the right answer rather than a wall mount, the bespoke galvanised pedestal fabricated locally in San Pedro to match the existing garden ironwork, the underground RZ1-K (AS) 3G6 mm² supply route, the dedicated 2-pole 40 A Type A RCBO with integrated 6 mA DC fault detection on the consumer unit side, the RFID Mifare authentication setup so only family vehicles can draw a charge, and the test certificates (continuity, insulation, earth-loop, RCD trip and residual DC) that closed out the REBT paperwork.
Technical Specifications
- Property: open-driveway villa, San Pedro de Alcántara, western Marbella
- Charger: Orbis Viaris Uni 7.4 kW, single-phase, 32 A, Spanish-made (Madrid)
- Connector: Type 2 (Mennekes) tethered 5 m cable with integrated cable hanger
- Authentication: RFID Mifare cards (household-scoped, app-managed)
- Display: backlit LCD with white RGB status ring, IP54 / IK10 enclosure
- Existing supply: single-phase 230 V, Endesa (no contracted-power upgrade or three-phase conversion required)
- Dynamic load management: charger backs off when household loads rise (oven, induction hob, pool pump, AC) — contracted power never exceeded
- Pedestal: bespoke 60×40 mm hot-dip galvanised mild steel box section to EN ISO 1461 (>50-year design life, San Pedro coastal-inland C3)
- Pedestal anchored: M12 A2 stainless studs in resin anchors through stamped-concrete slab into underlying concrete
- Supply cable: 3G6 mm² RZ1-K (AS) 0,6/1 kV halogen-free fire-retardant
- Supply route: 60 cm deep buried trench across driveway, 40 mm IP67 polyamide corrugated conduit, yellow plastic warning tape 30 cm above conduit
- Protection: dedicated 2-pole 40 A C-curve Type A RCBO with integrated 6 mA DC residual fault detection (ITC-BT-52 compliant)
- Commissioning: PE continuity 0.18 Ω, IR >200 MΩ, Zs 0.41 Ω, RCD trip 28 ms / 14 ms, 6 mA DC trip confirmed
- Certification: Boletín Eléctrico filed with Junta de Andalucía under existing supply CUPS
Our Installation Process
Sizing the Charger Against Single-Phase Contracted Power and Overnight Needs
The first engineering question on any home EV charger install in Spain is not which charger to buy — it is what the contracted power on the supply will allow and what the household actually needs. This villa in San Pedro de Alcántara is on a single-phase 230 V Endesa supply, like the great majority of private villas across the western Marbella ring (Guadalmina, San Pedro, Nueva Andalucía, Atalaya, El Paraíso, Los Flamingos). Stepping up to a three-phase supply at this property would have meant Endesa civil works on the street and a permanent increase in the fixed term of the bill — neither of which the client was prepared to spend on for a single-EV household. With the supply firmly single-phase, the realistic options narrow quickly: a 3.7 kW (16 A) single-phase charger is too slow for an EV with a 75–100 kWh battery, and 11 kW or 22 kW chargers require three-phase and are not compatible with this supply. The right answer is the 7.4 kW (32 A) single-phase Orbis Viaris Uni, which delivers approximately 45 km of range per hour of charging — enough to add 60–80 kWh during a 9–11 hour overnight window, which more than covers the daily driving cycle of a Marbella household and a full empty-to-80% charge for the future EV across two nights. The dynamic load-management feature inside the Viaris is the second piece of the puzzle: it reads consumption at the meter via a CT clamp and reduces the charger's own draw in real time when the rest of the household pulls power (oven, induction hob, pool pump, AC), so the 7.4 kW charger sits comfortably under the existing single-phase contracted power and the ICP main breaker never trips.
Why a Galvanised Garden Pedestal — Not a Wall Mount
The villa has no enclosed garage — vehicles park on an open stamped-concrete driveway that runs along the front of the house with a hedge bordering the garden behind. The natural place for the charger is at the rear of the parked vehicle, which is the middle of the driveway, three metres clear of the house wall. A wall-mounted charger on the house elevation would have meant either a 5–6 m Type 2 cable trailed across the driveway every time the car was charged (a trip hazard and a warranty problem), or a long socket-and-mobile-connector setup which the client did not want. The right answer was a pedestal mount: the charger sits at hip height between the parking bays and the hedge, the Type 2 tether is 5 m long and reaches both vehicle bays without crossing the driveway, and the white LED status ring around the screen is visible from inside the house through the kitchen window. The pedestal itself was fabricated by our local steel shop in San Pedro from 60×40 mm hot-dip galvanised mild steel box section to EN ISO 1461 (the same specification we use for solar mounting structures on the same coast), bolted through the stamped concrete into chemical anchors set into the slab below. Hot-dip galvanising — not paint, not powder-coat — gives a 70–85 µm zinc coating with a design life of comfortably more than 50 years in this San Pedro inland-coastal C3 corrosivity rating, and the bright zinc finish ages to a uniform matte grey that reads as 'garden ironwork' rather than as 'electrical equipment'. The pedestal is hollow which lets the supply cable pass straight up through the post and into the back of the charger enclosure with no exposed cable run on the outside.
Underground Supply, ITC-BT-52 Protection and REBT Test Certificates
Spanish electrical regulations for EV charging infrastructure are set out in ITC-BT-52 of the REBT and are non-negotiable. The dedicated circuit from the consumer unit to the charger is 3G6 mm² RZ1-K (AS) 0,6/1 kV — phase, neutral and protective earth, halogen-free, fire-retardant — sized for the 32 A steady draw of the 7.4 kW single-phase Viaris with a comfortable derating margin against the cable's free-air ampacity for a buried run. The cable runs inside a 40 mm polyamide corrugated conduit (IP67, IK08, UV-stable) buried at 60 cm depth across the driveway in a sand-bedded trench with yellow plastic warning tape laid 30 cm above the conduit, then up through the hollow galvanised pedestal to the rear of the charger enclosure with a self-amalgamating tape gland at the bottom of the pedestal to keep ground moisture out of the post. At the consumer-unit end the circuit is protected by a dedicated 2-pole 40 A C-curve Type A RCBO with integrated 6 mA DC residual fault detection — the 6 mA DC element is mandatory under ITC-BT-52 because EV on-board chargers can leak DC fault currents that would blind a conventional Type A RCD, and specifying a Type B RCD instead is the more expensive alternative; the integrated 6 mA DC detector inside the RCBO is the modern best-practice solution. Commissioning measurements were: continuity of protective conductor 0.18 Ω end-to-end, insulation resistance phase-to-earth >200 MΩ at 500 V DC test, earth-loop impedance Zs at the charger inlet 0.41 Ω (well within the maximum allowed for the 40 A C-curve RCBO trip time), RCD trip 28 ms at IΔn and 14 ms at 5×IΔn, residual DC injection test confirmed 6 mA DC trip operation. The Boletín Eléctrico (REBT certificate) was filed with the Junta de Andalucía under the existing supply, and the charger was commissioned through the Viaris configuration app with RFID Mifare authentication enabled — only registered cards on the household account can start a charging session.
Results
7.4 kW single-phase home EV charging on a Spanish-made Orbis Viaris Uni — approximately 45 km of range added per hour of charging, comfortably 60–80 kWh added in a 9–11 hour overnight window, no costly upgrade to three-phase supply needed. Dynamic load management on the existing single-phase supply means the charger never trips the ICP. Bespoke galvanised pedestal with >50-year design life. Full ITC-BT-52 / REBT compliance and Boletín Eléctrico filed.
Backed by Research
EV charger installation in Spain is regulated by law. These facts protect your safety, your insurance, and your investment:
REBT ITC-BT-52 requires Type B (DC-sensitive) RCDs for all EV charging circuits
EV chargers produce DC leakage currents that standard Type A RCDs cannot detect — creating an undetected electrocution risk. Type B RCDs are mandatory under Spanish electrical regulations and are a condition of valid home insurance coverage.
BOE — REBT ITC-BT-52 ↗A Boletín Eléctrico is legally required for every new EV charging circuit in Spain
Under Spain's REBT, any modification to a property's fixed electrical installation — including adding a dedicated EV charger circuit — requires a certified electrical installation certificate issued by the authorised installer and submitted to the Delegación de Industria.
Ministerio de Industria — REBT ↗15% IRPF income tax deduction for home EV charger installation — up to €4,000/year
Spanish tax law allows residents to deduct 15% of home EV charger installation costs from their annual income tax return. This is the primary financial incentive for home charging in 2026 following the expiry of MOVES III at the end of 2025.
Agencia Tributaria (Spain Tax Authority) ↗Dynamic load management prevents tripping the main fuse when charging alongside household appliances
Smart EV chargers with dynamic load management continuously monitor total household consumption and automatically reduce charging power when other high-draw appliances run — preventing nuisance trips and avoiding the cost of a main fuse upgrade.
Wallbox — Charger Technical Documentation ↗The single most common mistake on a Costa del Sol EV charger install is sizing the charger against headline numbers like '22 kilowatt' that have no relationship to the supply the client actually owns. The vast majority of private villas across the western Marbella ring — Guadalmina, San Pedro de Alcántara, Nueva Andalucía, Atalaya, El Paraíso — are on a single-phase 230 volt Endesa supply. Stepping up to a three-phase supply means civil works on the street and a permanent increase in the fixed term of the bill, which for a single-EV household is rarely worth it. This client in San Pedro had exactly that situation: open driveway, no garage, single-phase supply, plug-in hybrid today and a fully electric replacement on order. The right answer is the 7.4 kilowatt single-phase Orbis Viaris Uni — it adds about 45 kilometres of range per hour of charging, which translates to 60 to 80 kilowatt hours added during a 9 to 11 hour overnight window, and the dynamic load management built into the Viaris reads consumption at the meter and backs the charger off in real time when the oven, the induction hob, the pool pump or the air conditioning kicks in, so the contracted power is never exceeded and the ICP main breaker never trips. We choose the Orbis Viaris on most San Pedro and Marbella villa installs because it is Spanish-designed and Spanish-manufactured by Orbis Tecnología Eléctrica out of Madrid, which means a Spanish-language warranty network and same-country spare-parts availability — neither of which you get with the US or Chinese OEMs that dominate the price-comparison websites.
The detail that decides whether an EV charger install in Spain passes the Boletín Eléctrico inspection or fails it is the residual current device on the dedicated circuit. ITC-BT-52 makes it explicit: every EV charging point requires both AC residual current protection and DC residual current detection at six milliamps, because the on-board chargers in modern EVs can leak DC fault currents that would blind a conventional Type A RCD and leave the user unprotected. There are two ways to comply. You can fit a Type B RCD upstream of the charger, which is the older and more expensive option and adds a separate device to the consumer unit. Or you fit a two-pole 40 amp Type A RCBO with an integrated six milliamp DC residual fault detector, which is the modern best-practice solution for a single-phase circuit and gives you a single device for overcurrent and residual current protection. The 3G6 millimetre squared RZ1-K cable is sized for the 32 amp single-phase steady draw of the 7.4 kilowatt Viaris with a comfortable derating margin for the buried run, the underground conduit is IP67 polyamide buried at 60 centimetres depth with yellow warning tape 30 centimetres above the conduit, and the test certificates that closed out this install — continuity 0.18 ohms, insulation resistance over 200 megohms, earth-loop impedance 0.41 ohms, RCD trip 28 milliseconds — are exactly the numbers a REBT inspector wants to see.
Work Completed
- Site survey including review of existing single-phase 230 V Endesa supply and consumer unit spare-way audit
- Charger specified: Orbis Viaris Uni 7.4 kW (single-phase, 32 A) with Type 2 tethered 5 m cable, RFID Mifare authentication, white RGB status ring, IP54 / IK10 enclosure
- Bespoke pedestal designed in-house: 60×40 mm hot-dip galvanised mild steel box section to EN ISO 1461, hollow for cable pass-through
- Pedestal fabricated locally by our steel shop in San Pedro and delivered to site
- Pedestal anchored through stamped-concrete driveway slab via M12 A2 stainless studs into resin-anchored sleeves in the underlying concrete
- 60 cm deep trench excavated across driveway from consumer-unit wall to pedestal location, sand-bedded with yellow plastic warning tape laid 30 cm above the conduit
- 40 mm polyamide corrugated conduit (IP67, IK08, UV-stable) laid in trench and brought up inside the pedestal
- Dedicated supply circuit pulled: 3G6 mm² RZ1-K (AS) 0,6/1 kV halogen-free fire-retardant — phase + neutral + PE, sized for 32 A single-phase steady draw with comfortable buried-run derating margin
- Self-amalgamating tape gland fitted at the base of the pedestal to seal against ground moisture
- Charger fixed to top of pedestal via through-bolts, supply cable terminated into the L/N/PE terminals inside the Viaris (top entry), pilot/proximity signal harness checked
- Dedicated 2-pole 40 A C-curve Type A RCBO with integrated 6 mA DC residual fault detection installed in consumer unit (mandatory under ITC-BT-52)
- Commissioning measurements: continuity of PE 0.18 Ω, IR phase-to-earth >200 MΩ at 500 V DC, Zs at charger inlet 0.41 Ω, RCD trip 28 ms at IΔn / 14 ms at 5×IΔn, 6 mA DC trip confirmed
- Charger configured via Viaris app: dynamic load management enabled against the existing single-phase contracted power, RFID Mifare authentication enabled, household RFID cards registered
- Test charging session completed: 7.4 kW (32 A) draw confirmed, charger automatic ramp-down verified when household oven energised
- Boletín Eléctrico (REBT certificate) filed with Junta de Andalucía under existing supply CUPS
Photo Gallery
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Services
LIT services in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella directly related to this work.
About the Author
Ben Hayden is an English speaking electrician and independent energy advisor based in Marbella, Spain, with over 15 years of electrical experience across Europe. He provides independent energy and electrical checks for overseas property owners and managers across the Costa del Sol — helping clients cut electricity bills, navigate Spanish regulations, and make confident decisions on solar PV, heat pump, EV charger and battery storage projects. Ben advises in plain English on projects where the paperwork is in Spanish and the stakes are high. His writing has appeared in ExpatArrivals, The Olive Press, Euro Weekly News, BuildingTalk and pv magazine.
Want a similar project?
Free consultation and no-obligation quote for Costa del Sol properties.
Quote ConfiguratorProject Details
- Location
- San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella, Málaga
- Completed
- May 2026
- Service
- Ev Charging
- Author
- Ben Hayden
Related Projects
EV Charging Station - La Cala de Mijas
90% free charging
Commercial EV Charging - Marbella Restaurant
€3,600 revenue/year
Tesla Wall Connector Gen 3 — Private Garage, Estepona
7.4kW single-phase home charging — 90km range/hr (11kW 3-phase) — €80–120/month saved vs public charging