Pool House Electrical

[rynoshark]

With some free time on my hands, I'm finally getting to rewire my pool house and finish setting up all the automation. I had purchased everything last year, but just didn't have time to complete before the weather got back last year. I thought this diagram might be helpful for others, and I always love feedback! This doesn't show any of the low voltage connections between controllers and valves/sensors/etc.

Some big improvements:

* added safety shutoff switch on outside of pool house
* pump circuit is no longer controlled by turning on/off a 240A circuit switch, it is powered to ALWAYS be on, and the PE653 pool controller uses RS485 control to turn on/set speeds
* adds valve controls, plus the P5043ME expansion controller allows me to control BOTH my heat pump and gas heater
* ensures salt water generator can never run (even if on a timer) if the pool pump breaker trips
* subpanel now meets NEC code to be able to shut off all power in the pool house, on all circuits (a 240V and a separate 120V were originally run to the pool house in 1980s)
* all load calcs done to ensure proper wire derating, circuit sizing, etc

Unusual notes about my setup:

* My pool house is wired with two circuits: 120V circuit (landscape lighting) and a 240V (pool equipment). Both are grounded to ground rods. Equipment from all circuits is grounded together.
* Intermatic PE653 relay can support power from three different circuits, in my case I just have two. The landscape light circuit (which includes the pool light transformer) is controlled entirely through the PE653.
* Shutting off the 20A circuit breaker, powers down the PE653, which automatically breaks al the relays for power to all the 120V lanscape circuit.

 

[ajw22]

Nice electrical design.

Let us know what you think of the Intermatic PE653. Folks are often looking for a simple pool controller and we don’t think of that.

 

[jimmythegreek]

Looks great thorough job. Dont forget your bonding and gfci breakers for all wet equipment

 

[rynoshark]

Thanks @jimmythegreek. Yes, pump 20A double breaker is GFCI. One of the 20A circuits has a GFCI outlet, but the second circuit only has one hardwired control device (no outlets), is it required to be GFCI protected?

 

[RDspaguy]

What does the "hardwired control device" control? If it comes into contact with water, it should be gfci protected. I am not sure if current code requires it, but that's what I recommend.

 

[ajw22]

Do you have this running yet?

Looking at your wiring from a GFCI perspective, running red L2 to your pump and to the SWG and then to neutral bus will not work. The SWG bypasses GFCI monitoring and will probably cause the 240v GFCI CB to trip.

120V path lights should be GFCI protected.

Subpanels should not have their own ground rods. Only main house entrance panel should be connected to a ground rod.

 

[rynoshark]

@ajw22 thanks for looking in detail!

The 240v L2 from pump doesn't power the SWG, the L2 leg of the 240v circuit goes to a relay which energizes the normal 120v circuit for the SWG. So, as long as power exists on the 240v then the 120v circuit that powers the SWG is active. If that 240v circuit is shut off, the relay immediately opens and the SWG is also not energized. Does that make more sense? It is more of a safety item than anything else.

Thanks for tip on the 120v path lights, I will make sure this is GFCI protected as well. Probably will simplify this by GFCI protecting the feeder circuit for the landscape lighting, then all three lighting circuits are GFCI protected.

We are on the 2017 NEC code here in Washington. On both my 100A garage subpanel (single feeder) and my shed (two 120V feeder circuits), the inspector required two ground rods be added at each location. For the shed, it was required to have a electrical shutoff on back for those circuits per the inspector, per 250.32(A).

 

[rynoshark]

Based on everyone's great feedback, I have revised the drawing to:

* GFCI protect entire lighting circuit, on entry into the pool house before splitting out into 3 different light circuits

* GFCI protect all equipment circuits with GFCI breakers

* 15A breakers for the 120V circuits that come from the main panel, since 20A was oversized (and 20A 240V + 2x 15A 120V matches the 35A breaker coming from garage supanel)

* clarified in drawing by shading the two sides of the SWG relay

Really appreciate all the comments, it definitely improved things. Thanks everyone!

 

[ajw22]

Any special software you used to create the nice wiring diagram?

 

[jimmythegreek]

There you go all bases covered. Nice job

 

[rynoshark]

@ajw22 I used diagrams.net, which is a free online based diagramming tool. It works really well for this.