Bonding question

[MNJ]

I’m trying to determine what in my pool needs to be bonded. It appears the pump is bonded but I am not sure about the pool light or ladder. I’m going to have an electrician dead the pool light ( we never use it) and I’m hoping this would cancel out the potential need to dig up concrete to bond it. If the ladder and the pump are both bonded is that good? We don’t have any other features or equipment. I’m getting the breaker updated as well.

Thanks!

 

[JohnT]

Technically, the light and the niche it’s mounted in need to be bonded whether it has power or not. Basically anything conductive with a dimension more than 4” that touches or could touch pool water or is reachable (5’) by a swimmer while still partially in the pool needs to be bonded.

I would discourage you from disabling the pool light. Though you may not use it for swimming, it’s an important piece of safety equipment if someone were to fall into the pool in the dark or a swimmer were to become unconscious while swimming after dark.

 

[MNJ]

Thanks. I understand the lighting concern, I’m going to put solar floaters lights in if we do disable it and also add some solar lighting around the deck.

For the light bonding. If the niche etc isn’t properly bonded would that be something that is only accessible under the concrete deck?

 

[ajw22]

I will echo John's point that your light may form your water bond and removing the connections may compromise your pools bonding and safety.

It would take a detailed review of your pools bonding system to understand if the light is a key part of the bonding grid.

 

[MNJ]

Would disconnecting the wires remove it from the bonding?

 

[ajw22]

Would disconnecting the wires remove it from the bonding?

Depends which wires you disconnect.

There is a specific bonding wire that needs to stay connected.

You can disconnect the voltage wires. They do not effect the bonding.

I would leave the bonding wire and ground wire connected.

 

[MNJ]

That makes sense, thanks

 

[joshua5438]

I just went through a similar issue. I had the concrete replaced around my pool as it had many cracks and started to sink over an inch in places. Pool was built in the mid 90's and had zero bonding. If I had a cut on my hand and touched the coping I would get a small shock. Now that the concrete has been replaced, the coping and ladder now are bonded. We could not replace the light niche as it was cast into the concrete wall and could not add a bond to the outside of the niche as we had no access to the rear of the niche in the wall. To bond this, my electrician ran a #8 wire with the new light wire and bonded it to the lug on the inside of the light niche. It is then connected to the lug in the pool light junction box, that is then bonded to the rest of the bonding system.

 

[MNJ]

Thanks! I figure we will eventually need to replace the concrete around ours as well. Do you mind if I ask how much of a project that was time and budget wise?

 

[1poolman1]

If you don't want to use your light, just turn the breaker to off. That way it is available if needed and no electrician needs to be paid to do it.
If the pump and ladder are bonded it is likely that the light niche is as well.

 

[joshua5438]

Thanks! I figure we will eventually need to replace the concrete around ours as well. Do you mind if I ask how much of a project that was time and budget wise?

To have existing concrete removed, 2 loads of fill dirt and one load of gravel brought in and leveled, 25 yards of colored concrete, new ladder, new pool light, new diving board, and concrete sealed totaled $18,000. I was originally looking to just have the existing concrete leveled, patched and refinished until we discovered the bonding issue.