Good morning! I recently received a mild shock in the vicinity of my pool light. I checked voltage from wet cement on deck near light to area near light and the light retaining ring itself and got over 5 volts reading. Light was turned off. I then turned off the breaker for the light in the breaker panel. 5 volt reading remained. Started turning off other breakers and when I got to one of the bedroom breakers the voltage disappeared. I then found out that my main ground cable from the breaker box to the ground rod had come loose from the ground rod (the clamp had corroded and failed to hold the wire). This problem has been fixed with a new ground rod. I think the two failures that caused my light fixture to energize were the failed ground wire from the breaker panel and a fault from the bedroom romex cable that leaked voltage to the ground wire in that cable (probably where the cable enters the breaker panel). Does anyone agree that this is what caused my ground system in the house to end up about 5 or 6 volts above ground level and therefore energize my light fixture thru the green ground wire? Thanks, everyone.
Pool Light
- Thread starter rktalbot
- Start date
Sounds like a defective bonding grid to me. The failure of the ground and the breakdown of the wire insulation probably caused an issue, but proper bonding would have prevented it from becoming a problem.
When was the pool built?
When was the pool built?
Best I can tell, pool was built in the 80's. Again though, all power was disconnected from the light in two places. I even undid the wire nuts connecting neutral and hot to the pool light fixture. All I left connected was the green ground wire which went back to the ground and neutral bus in the breaker box. There was no doubt the house grounding system failed, as evidenced by the disconnected main breaker panel to ground rod wire. I suspect if anything, the bonding system was draining off some of the dangerous voltage to ground. I have been told to be careful and not to consider the bonding system as a ground??
That's correct. The bonding grid is not a ground. It should have prevented any voltage gradients from forming around the pool if it was done correctly.
One more question if anyone could help with this. A few years back a home warranty contractor installed a new Hayward pool pump. The pump and filter, heater, etc, are located about 20 ft. from the pool. I see no wire attached to the external bonding screw on the pump motor. Is it necessary to bond this pump to the pool and how would I do that? If I ran a proper bonding wire from the pump motor, where would I attach it. Is it sufficient to bring it to the pool light junction box and tie it to the bonding wire coming from the wet niche? Thanks
There should be a bonding wire close to the location of the pump. If there's not then running it to the light box and tying it to the existing bond wire will do fine.