Electrical Questions

[ssmartt]

So after a few months of living in this new house I'm starting to find some questionable electrical wiring, the pool included. I've got one cable going back to my breaker box to a 30 amp breaker. 2 wire cable (with unshielded ground), no neutral. My concern is that my 12v pool light and convenience outlets (and shed light) are all hung off of this 220 circuit my 2 pumps run on. I called an electrician today who said I could put white tape on the ground wire, use it as a neutral and drive a ground rod in and use that as the ground. I'm not so sure that's right, which is why I've posted this thread. I want to replace the 30 amp breaker with a GFI breaker, and also protect the outlets with GFI, either through that breaker or just a GFI outlet.

far left switch is the pool light, the pvc feeds those 110 outlets. the other 2 switches are for the main and booster pumps.

bonus sketchy junction under the diving board. This should really be in a box not under the diving board, shouldn't it?

 

[gtemkin]

Couple of clarifying questions....

Is the 30amp breaker, with the 2 wire cable, a double pole breaker (220V across 2 poles)???

Did you mean un-insulated (bare), rather than unshielded, when describing the extra wire in the 2 wire cable???

Is that really water pipe PVC for the wires feeding that outlet???

 

[ssmartt]

Yes, technically it's half of a quad pole tandem breaker, with the hot water heater on the other half, I'm assuming because the panel was full when the pool was added. A black wire goes into one pole, a white into another, and the ground goes to the neutral bar.

Yeah, just a bare copper wire that one would use as a ground wire.

It may be PVC, I'll have to check in the morning. If it's proper in ground cable (I don't know if it is) would it matter much?

 

[gtemkin]

You should run your lighting and outlets off a separate GFCI breaker not associated with a new pump GFCI. Most lighting and accessory loads are less than 20A so you could use box mounted GFCI's for those loads (cheaper).

I would use the current pump cable (maybe wrap red tape around the white wire signifying it's a 2nd power line) and use the un-isulated wire as a safety ground. You said the bare wire is connected to the neutral bus in the panel. So long as this is a main panel, not a sub-panel (where neutral and ground busses are often segregated), you should be OK. If this is a ground segregated sub-panel, you'll want to move the bare wire to the ground bus bar.

The PVC water pipe is clearly not per code. Water pipe is not suitable because it wasn't designed or tested for applicable electrical performance such as resistance to ignition by electrical arcs, etc. Not a good choice.


Edit - Your diving board box should probably comply with the requirements of a niche lighting terminal box where there's a minimum height from the water surface and deck.

 

[gwegan]

Just a couple of points. I would install a sub panel and terminate your run from the main service panel at the sub panel. You would then have GFCI breakers for the lights and each pump. The ground wires should be green insulated solid wire.

The light connection under the diving board must be at least 5 feet from the pool edge, 4 inches above the pool structure and 8 inches above the water level. Most install them higher. It must be in a listed box.

The white PVC has to go if it can go.

You may also want to look at the pool bonding while you are at it. Is the pool bonded? Are the pumps bonded? When was the pool built?