helping son in law hook up a spa he bought.
220v 4 wire.
2 hots, neutral, ground.
when the ground and neutral go back to the breaker box do they go into the same (ground) bus bar?
50 amp 6 gage wire is called for.
how is GFCI protection provided as i can not see this being plugged in?
Thanks
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Replies
You will have to spring for a high dollar GFCI breaker, mine was about $90. I believe the resident sparks will tell you that if reasonably recent construction the neutral and equip ground will be isolated and your neutral and ground should be appropriately connected. If the neutral and ground are not seperate they would both go to the same bar. Some tub/spa manuals tell you to add a ground or bonding wire at the tub area. I believe that is not in keeping with the one ground point thinking.
Hopefully the usual sage electricians will chime in. As usual you probably should check with your local inspection department. Your daughter's insurance company will be much more ready to cover if there were to be a catastrophe later.
Some related info: I believe that a disconnect/breaker box must be more than 5' but less than 10' from the spa. I think the idea is that you can't reach it while in the tub, but it is very readily available. Check that though - I'm not an electrician.
I am in a different county and mine was put in four years ago. I did not have to have a disconnect. I have a 50 amp gfci in my panel and a lockout bar (about$.85) that will allow you to make sure power is off for service. They may require the disconnect now for emergencies but I thought that is why you have a high $ gfci breaker. They do work as I kept getting what I thought was nuisance trips and it turned out I had a slight leak on the heater.
There may be separate bars in the panel for neutral and ground. These may or may not be connected together. Look inside your panel. If all the neitral and bare wires are connected to the same bus, do it like that. If there are two bars, one with only grounds and one with only neutrals, do it like that. Easy once you open up the panel. You need both a regular breaker AND a GFCI disconnect, although this may vary locally. Waterproof flex from the disconnect to the tub, disconnect located within sight of the tub and a minimum of 5 feet but maximum of 15 feet away. Breaker is cheap, but the disconnect is not. Around $150.