Removing pool light power

[khoidofl]

I recently purchased a home that has an older pool built 18 years ago. This is my first pool. The pool has a 120v pool light that functions just fine. However, my young son constantly mess around with it and yanking it out of the niche. I also feel uneasy having an older light underwater even though I never turn it on at the light switch. I plan to in the future change it to a 12V light.

For now, I would like to remove the pool light wire from the pool power box. I have opened up the pool power box and saw that the pool light wiring has a black and white wire that go to a GFCI outlet. There is a green wire that goes to to an area that all other pool equipment green wires connect to which I believe is the ground area. My question is, is it safe to disconnect all 3 wires from the pool light from the power box and put caps on them? I read that the pool water is usually bonded to the pool light. Would me removing all the wires affect the overall bonding of the pool and the other equipment?

 

[cowboycasey]

Welcome to TFP

The pool light niche should be bonded on the outside of the niche and the 3 wires are only for the light to work... If it were me I would disconnect the white and black wire and install nuts on them and leave the ground/green wire connected...

You could also connect a small wire pulling rope to the end of the wires and pull the light completely out leaving the rope in the pipe to pull the new 12 v light wires back through...

 

[khoidofl]

cowboycasey,

Yes, I did think about leaving the green(ground wire) intact but wasn't sure. I will do what you suggest and just disconnect the white and black wire for now. Thank you for your help.

As for pulling the light out, I think I'll wait until when I do the light upgrade to 12V and hire a professional to do this part instead.

 

[Crabcruncher]

The gfi would protect you by tripping almost instantaneously if a fault occurred.
I should know, I fell into my pool with a running 120 v leaf blower plugged into a gfi.
Not only did it save me, but after drying out, the leaf blower was good as new. Gfi protected outlets are more than a necessity in wet locations.