Why 2 circuit breakers for pool lights

[Davegnh]

Sorry about the confusion I just was searching for line voltage pool LED lights I didn't even know they existed. I then went to pentair sites and just looked up the latest generation LED pool lights that look like mine.

I'm hopeful the LED lights last much longer than some of the others have posted about. I'm sure we hear about the horror stories more than the normal lifespan. In my experience LED lights fail due to overheating and the pool cooling would be a perfect environment to stop that. Assuming the circuitry was properly protected from water corrosion. In my experience I've had some LED lights last 80,000 hours and still going strong and other times they failed within a year or two. But a lot different between a $2 to $15 light bulb and a $500 pool light Cross my fingers I'm on the other end of the extreme end of life span.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Sorry about the confusion I just was searching for line voltage pool LED lights I didn't even know they existed. I then went to pentair sites and just looked up the latest generation LED pool lights that look like mine.

I'm hopeful the LED lights last much longer than some of the others have posted about. I'm sure we hear about the horror stories more than the normal lifespan. In my experience LED lights fail due to overheating and the pool cooling would be a perfect environment to stop that. Assuming the circuitry was properly protected from water corrosion. In my experience I've had some LED lights last 80,000 hours and still going strong and other times they failed within a year or two. But a lot different between a $2 to $15 light bulb and a $500 pool light Cross my fingers I'm on the other end of the extreme end of life span.

Possibly.

What we saw in posts on TFP is that the initial generation of LED lights had lots of problems with either the sealing the electronics against water incursion and/or properly heat sinking the driver board circuitry. In the case of water incursions, pool water would get in and obviously damage things. With the heat sinking issues, the drivers would essentially fry themselves to bits. This seemed to be an across-the-board problem with all pool LED lights which would suggest that cheap oversees manufacturing processes were dominating the product line. All the pool companies would do is replace under warranty until they didn’t have to anymore even if defective product was still in circulation. This is fairly common when you have major companies like Pentair or Hayward farm out their manufacturing to overseas outfits. They contractually purchase a huge supply of product and then have to let it all die out before any updated designs take hold. The warranty covers the cost of that to the consumer but it’s frustrating nonetheless since there’s usually labor charges involved and lost use of equipment.

I can’t say for sure that they’ve worked out all the kinks but I wouldn’t assume that because the lightbulb costs more that it’s engineered any better. I have used many LED products around my home in various applications and, honestly, there never seems to be a correlation between price and longevity. It’s one reason why I’d rather just stick with halogen lights until the FBI is sent in, with arrest warrants, to remove them from my pool and have me dragged away in cuffs for violating the sanctity of Gaia …

 

[JFarr]

If all you're trying to do is free a slot could you use a single pole tandem breaker? Maybe for the control panel and auto fill? Maybe an easy / cheap solution.