Controlling low voltage lights (how to wire) with Pentair Easytouch

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G

GeoGolfview

Member
Dec 3, 2021
22
Southern Florida
Hi all,
I just read an 'old thread' that was relating to what I needed, but it did not 'finish' the thread and so I still have a question. I currently have low voltage overhead LED lighting system for our pool lanai area. We also have a low voltage pool light that is controlled by a wall switch. We had an electrician that installed the overhead LED lights and he put a switch INSIDE the Pentair box that was a wifi switch (see picture below) Our thought was we wanted to be able to "control" the time the switch was on since we also rent out this vacation home. Well, the Wifi switch has stopped working (I think it is a 'range issue' since the box is outside the house).
So, I want to wire the switch directly into the Pentair and remove the 'wall switch' for the pool light and control both from my remaining (1) Pentair relay. I am including a current picture below. I thought I was just going to remove the wires from the switch (the electrician installed inside the box) and put the wires on the relay, but I'm not sure if they are already stepped down to low voltage or not.
My question is, can low voltage wires be controlled by the Pentair relay directly? or do they need to be the high voltage putting OUT to the low voltage transformers??? (and can I put both on one relay either way?)
Thanks...George
 

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George,

The EasyTouch is designed with a low voltage section and a high voltage section. In theory you are not allowed to have any low voltage in the high voltage area.

The right way to do it is to run 120 volts to the line side of a relay and then have the high voltage side of a transformer connected to the line side of the relay. When the relay closes it sends high voltage to the transformer which then sends low voltage to the lights.

That would not keep you from wiring it like you want, it just does not make it right.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jim,
Thanks for your response....However, I'm still a 'little' confused. So, you are saying that I CAN bring the low voltage wires (already stepped down from the transformer(s)) and attach to the relay?? or the 'correct' way is to attach the 120v powering the lights and then direct that to the associated transformers for the 'low voltage' lights?? Sorry for stupidity....I just want to get this right and NOT make it worse than it is now.
Thanks again!!
George
 
George,

What you want to do will work, but it is against code. I am surprised that the electrician that did your original button actually has a license. :poke:

From an operational point of view, the Aux relays do not know the difference between low voltage and high voltage, so the relays will work with either.

I am not publicly going to tell you to run low voltage through the high voltage area of your EasyTouch.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
George,

The line side of the relay is normally the input side, and the Load side of the relay is normally the output side.

Just think of the relay as a normal wall switch. The switch is either open or closed. The relays are the same thing, only instead of using your hand to turn them on and off, you are using the automation.

If you look at the relay, it has 4 pins. From left to right they are Line 1, Load 1, Line 2, Load 2. (See the inside of the door)

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Looking at the photo it appears that the wifi switch is a standard 120v in wall switch and powering the 120v side of the silver transformer barely seen just to the right of the easy touch( this looks like a mean well transformer, installed right side up which would also indicate 120v on the left side). Making that assumption, your white wire from the transformer should land on the neutral bus bar. The black wire from the transformer to load 1 of the relay and the black wire from the breaker to line 1 of the relay.
Can you post a photo of the transformer ?
20220909_072259.jpg
 
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This could be considered "going down the rabbit hole " but...
It appears from the photo and your previous photos that the top breaker powers this setup. Lighting in the pool area should by code be on gfci which this is not. If this where my install I would purchase a gfci outlet and "in use" cover. Install that in the knockout on the lower right of the easy touch box. Black wire from the breaker to line side of the new gfci outlet, white wire from neutral bar to new gfci outlet. Black load side of new gfci outlet to line 1 of your extra relay. Black wire to transformer on load 1 of relay. White wire from transformer to white load of gfci outlet.
 
Jimrahbe said:
The pic above is NOT a transformer, it is a switcher power supply that has a DC output.

It is not a "Pool Rated" device!!!

Sigh,


Jim R.
Click to expand...
Correct, but it appears that is what is installed to the right of the op's easy touch and going to the wifi switch. I merely posted it to show that line voltage enters the left side as it appears the op's is doing
 

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Sorry, I just saw these new posts.....you are correct that the silver box just to the right of the Easy Touch box IS the 'transformer' or "box" related to the overhead pool lights that were installed by the electrician. I haven't seen 'in person' how it wired it, but it seems he is powering the 120V wifi switch (in the box in the picture) sourcing somewhere in the Easy Touch box and then it is converted to 'low voltage' outside the Easy Touch box (by the silver box outside) to feed the low voltage to the lights. I am sweating doing this, because I'm not sure from the pictures (I'm remote to the location, but going down to get this done next week) I don't think I'll totally know what I'm in for until I get there. The pool light itself (in the pool) has a switch on the wall in the pool area (also wifi, that we swapped out a 'traditional switch' to try to get 'some control' over its use by VRBO guests when we are not there. this was all done when the pool was new (est 1974) and I don't think it is attached to a GFCI either because of the age. I am hoping that I can figure this all out when I get there and see what the electrician actually did and hopefully get this right so that we can remotely control via the Easy Toucho_O ... I definitely appreciate ALL the input and suggestions. I might upload some additional pictures and detail when I get there and see what I'm up against.
Thanks!
 
Ok...I am onsite now and got the wiring done today! so, now I would like to have input on 'how I did'?...be honest, I can handle it. The GOOD news is the electrician that put the low voltage overhead lights and the 'light switch' in the Pentair box, did a little better than I originally thought. He did add a breaker in the Pentair box to power them by (good news), bad news is that it is NOT GFCI breaker. Please looks at the after pictures and tell me what you think. I ended up leaving the pool light alone (still on the Wifi wall switch and got that working via Wifi again (later might try to add a relay in the Pentair box as I am now out of relays and ended up not wanting it on the same relay as the overhead LED lights).
First picture is detail of box AFTER removing the Wifi switch and powering via the Pentair relay, 2nd picture is for "Ahultin" that requested a shot including the overhead lights transformer box. (low voltage transformer for inside pool light is in blue box below the new box)
thanks...George
 

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oh yeah....a follow up question. For whatever reason, on my Pentair software.....the new relay "automatically" showed up under "lighting" and only allowed an "off/on".....which we need a "schedule" for them. So I was trying to configure the screenlogic and was able to get it changed to 'cabana lights' and put on a schedule, but it almost looks like the pump has to be running to operate the lights???o_O Any advice there? am I doing something wrong?? Thanks again!
 
Cant quite tell, Where does the white (neutral) wire from the lv transformer for the overhead led land? It looks like (but could just be the 2d nature of the photo) the green and white are tied together?
Transformer looks like it is a meanwell hlg-150h-24v which is as Jim R stated not pool rated. That being said, a quick google search turned up no hits for a pool rated 24v lighting transformer so theres that lol.
If you want to gfci protect the lighting the cheapest route is adding a gfci outlet to the knockout on the bottom right of the easytouch cabinet as a siemens gfci breaker is @50 whereas a wr gfci outlet is @23 and in use cover is @10 which would ultimately be cheaper and provide more utility.
 
Ahultin, yeah....the wiring for the LV transformer were "colorful" to say the least....not really any kind of 'standard' that I've ever seen. In looking at one of the other closeups that I took...the white (actually tied to a blue-ish wire from the transformer) is tied into a white which leads to the bar (the bus that has all the whites on it)...it was odd, but I really left ALL the wires the same as the electrician had already wired in. The only changes I made were re-routing the line/load black wires.
Thanks for the advice on the GFCI!
 
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