Repairing 120V pool light wiring

[BoilerHorn]

In a back yard project I am working on, I became overzealous and cut through the wires of one of my pool lights. Before I made this mistake, the pool wires (3-wire insulated and unique ground) ran approximately 30 ft to a J-box and then back to the GFI.

To repair, I was thinking of installing a new code-compliant (5ft away from edge 2ft above water level) JBox near the lamp side of the cut. I'd then run new 3-wire + ground to the original JBox.

Does anyone see any problems with this? All wire connections are above water and away from water.

 

[jblizzle]

I can not think of any reason that would not work. I am not 100% on if it would pass code, not sure why it would not though.

 

[OldPoolMan]

Hi Boiler. Yes, I have done this repair several times many times. It means digging up the conduit to install a new j-box, but way cheaper than a new light.

 

[BoilerHorn]

Thanks for all of the replies. The conduit is going smoothly so far. The one hiccup I have is that the previous installation used AWG #10 solid wire for ground from the pool/lamp back to the original J-Box. For some reason, none of the big-boxes sell AWG #10 solid wire. #10 stranded - yep. #8 solid - yep. Does anyone know about stranded vs. solid. I've read about crimping terminals, etc. Anyone have any insight here? Thanks.

 

[proavia]

You mentioned 3 conductor 120 volt and a "unique ground". That "unique ground" is part of the bonding system. Bonding is very different than grounding. Do a search here for bonding, I think someone wrote a good article on it.

I believe the bonding wire is required to be solid core, not stranded. The newer standard is #8 AWG solid core. Not that you need to replace all yours with #8, but if splicing a piece in, I think using #8 would be prudent.

Of course, checking the code for your specific locale might be the best first move.

 

[Divin Dave]

The bare wire is a bonding wire and it shold connect all pieces of anything metal around the pool together. Its providing an equalized equipotential voltage gradient.
Building code requires it to be #8 and it should not be connected to a ground rod. The wire should run continuously to all metal parts, such as Light J box, timer box, pump case, swg power center case, any transformer boxes, breaker box etc, which is within the vicinity of the pool.

That wire also runs completely around the pool and is connecting all of the rebar in the deck together.

Some pools are built so close to the hose, that even all of the aluminum window frames have to be bonded.

You can learn more about pool bonding and equipotential differences by googling it. Its interesting stuff.

Thanks for all of the replies. The conduit is going smoothly so far. The one hiccup I have is that the previous installation used AWG #10 solid wire for ground from the pool/lamp back to the original J-Box. For some reason, none of the big-boxes sell AWG #10 solid wire. #10 stranded - yep. #8 solid - yep. Does anyone know about stranded vs. solid. I've read about crimping terminals, etc. Anyone have any insight here? Thanks.

 

[BoilerHorn]

Thanks for the replies!

It's strange that all of the green-wire ground is presently #10. It's probably due to the fact that the pool was installed 20 years ago and code might have been different then. I'll go for #8!

The original light wires were #14-3 enclosed in a black insulator. Given I am running these 3 wires from a J-box to another J-Box, would you run w/ an insulated 3-wire #14 or is 3 separate wires OK? I was advised by an electrician at a shop that 3 separate wires should be OK.

 

[danpik]

3 separate #14 THWN wires are fine. The ground does need to be an insulated wire. The bonding wire can be spliced with a split bolt connector

 

[kadavis]

If the light niche is plastic the #8 green wire is attached inside the niche and is code. If you are installing new j-box just attach to one of the grounding lugs