Electrical Questions

[wymj99]

My new pool is almost finished and I have been looking at the electrical and have some questions. The pool guy will be here later today but I would like some more thoughts.

They installed a 220v breaker in my main box inside and ran it out to another box by the pump/filter. In the outside box is a 110v gfi breaker for the light, a 110v breaker running to a gfi outlet, and another 220v breaker for the pump. I don't see how the pump is protected with a gfi, am I right in thinking it should absolutely have one? There is also no on/off switch for the pump that I see, since the 220v breaker is open now, it looks like that is how they plan to turn it on/off. I also think this is bad practice.

I'm going to discuss this later today with the pool people but I would like some more opinions.

Thanks

[BigChuckD]

I'm here to read and learn myself, but that doesn't sound like the most efficient/practical way to operate the pump. How difficult was the filter set-up?

[PoolDoc]

It's pretty common to use a local breaker as a pump on/off switch. A heavy duty motor-rated toggle switch (like a light switch) will cost more than a breaker.

It is not common to put an in-ground pool pump on a GFCI . . . and I wouldn't want to do so. If the pool is bonded properly (and grounded -- which is a distinct but related thing), there's no hazard. The key here is to make sure the pool is installed to code AND is inspected.

[wymj99]

They are going to add a switch and gfci breaker. I agree the switch is probably not necessary. They also do not think code requires a gfci on the pool pump, but after some googling this I found that in 2008 NEC 680.22b now requires all pump motors to have gfci protection. Can you take a look at that and see if you would agree? Is there any reason not to want this?

My concrete is suppose to be done next week, I really don't expect to see them do any bonding of the rebar, diving board jig, handrails, coping, or anything. Should I insist on this? I expect to get the "we install pools all the time and never do that" answer.

[PoolDoc]

Take a look at this:
http://www.mikeholt.com/newsletters.php?action=display&letterID=802
and download his 'illustrated' section 680 -- I didn't read it completely, but it appears that BONDING *is* still required. His guide to 680 looks excellent.

[BigDave]

Check with your local electrical inspector, each municipality adopts the NEC at different times and many are several years behind. Many municipalities also ammend the NEC. In my area, GFCI is required for circulation as is a twist lock outlet and cord not more than 3' long although none of this is specified in the locally adopted version of NEC.

[CarlD]

Check with your local electrical inspector, each municipality adopts the NEC at different times and many are several years behind. Many municipalities also ammend the NEC. In my area, GFCI is required for circulation as is a twist lock outlet and cord not more than 3' long although none of this is specified in the locally adopted version of NEC.

Yup, that's code in New Jersey suburbs--I have the same codes as Big Dave, including the twist-lock, 3' cord, AND internal timer! Oh, and ANYTHING outdoors, or near water in NJ must have GFCI. No exceptions.

[vinper]

The main breaker to my whole 60 amp sub panel is a ground fault breaker . So everything on the panel is protected and you dont need gfci recepticle... By using a main gfci breaker its cheaper than using all seperate ones.