phideauxiii
New member
- Location
- Frederick, MD
Here's the situation.
Loudoun County, VA is the AHJ, inground spa is the project, and I am responsible for building the entire thing, from floating slabs, laying block, plumbing jets, and best of all, wiring and bonding the entire area. An electrician by trade, although I am unfamiliar with the delicate nature of the NEC as it applies to recreational bodies of water.
I am installing:
1) two 3hp 240VAC jet pump motors
2) one 1.5hp 120VAC filter pump
3) salt-chlorine generation unit, 120VAC
4) two underwater 120VAC luminaires, wet niche
the installation area is tight. the spa is built entirely of reinforced, solid filled CMU on a concrete slab. three sides of the spa are surrounded by an 8" vault space for plumbing, the last side of the spa is a 24" equipment vault with an access door in the retaining wall.
i have been dealing with the Loudoun County inspectors frequently, to get this one right. The inspector who comes most of the time is patient, fair, and firm (like they should be) although it's hard to get in touch with them aside from actually calling in for inspection. That's where you excellent folks come in!
OK, back to the description:
The rebar grid in the slab was bonded with #6 solid, as was the wire mesh reinforcement in the vault slab. The wet niche was bonded #6 solid to the outer lug, and with #8 stranded to the inner lug, which enters the conduit and heads off to the deck box, and potted inside the niche with evil, awful, durable Scotchcast. These bonds have been inspected and approved. Thus begins the bonding journey.
I laid 1.25" NM from the house near the main panel about 120 feet, finishing up in the equipment vault. Into that conduit, I pulled four #2 stranded THHN conductors (hot/hot/neutral/earth). I got the OK for concealment from the inspector, covered it.
The #2 THHN terminates into a Square D 60A 240V GFI disconnect box. This box supplies all 240V equipment. A separate GFI circuit has been run from the dwelling to service the 120V needs, eliminating the hybrid GFI failure. Pretty straightforward there...until I started thinking and reading up on proper equipotent bonding protocol as it applies to subpanels, timers, and other service equipment near water. I am assuming that the neutral bus inside the GFI box is isolated from the case. Two hots hit the breaker at the top, two load hots leave through the bottom, white GFI pigtail hits neutral bus bottom, load neutral hits neutral bus center, line neutral terminates at top. Ok....now on to my question:
The earth ground from the main panel in the dwelling enters the GFI box and hits a simple two opening bus, which joins it to the load ground as well as the case of the box. On this bus' mounting bolt, on the outside of the box, I attached a listed Cu bond lug, which I hit with the same #6 solid bare bonding conductor as I used for the pumps, rebar, etc. Assuming that the neutral bus is isolated from the case itself, this should be proper, and required, correct?
Also, I legged out 15 feet or so of #6 stranded THHN to supply a 240V spa controller. I went ahead and simply phase taped them wherever they are visible inside the box. Do you all think I can skate on that, or is #6 considered heavy enough that continuous color jacket is no longer required? If so, i wonder if I could simply wrap the entire length with phase tape to meet the "continuous color" rule?
I've been out of the loop for a while, and have never done pool/spa work before. It's been a pain having to drag our inspector out simply for information gathering, so its nice to have a forum like this to communicate.
Regards and thanks in advance,
Ryan
Loudoun County, VA is the AHJ, inground spa is the project, and I am responsible for building the entire thing, from floating slabs, laying block, plumbing jets, and best of all, wiring and bonding the entire area. An electrician by trade, although I am unfamiliar with the delicate nature of the NEC as it applies to recreational bodies of water.
I am installing:
1) two 3hp 240VAC jet pump motors
2) one 1.5hp 120VAC filter pump
3) salt-chlorine generation unit, 120VAC
4) two underwater 120VAC luminaires, wet niche
the installation area is tight. the spa is built entirely of reinforced, solid filled CMU on a concrete slab. three sides of the spa are surrounded by an 8" vault space for plumbing, the last side of the spa is a 24" equipment vault with an access door in the retaining wall.
i have been dealing with the Loudoun County inspectors frequently, to get this one right. The inspector who comes most of the time is patient, fair, and firm (like they should be) although it's hard to get in touch with them aside from actually calling in for inspection. That's where you excellent folks come in!
OK, back to the description:
The rebar grid in the slab was bonded with #6 solid, as was the wire mesh reinforcement in the vault slab. The wet niche was bonded #6 solid to the outer lug, and with #8 stranded to the inner lug, which enters the conduit and heads off to the deck box, and potted inside the niche with evil, awful, durable Scotchcast. These bonds have been inspected and approved. Thus begins the bonding journey.
I laid 1.25" NM from the house near the main panel about 120 feet, finishing up in the equipment vault. Into that conduit, I pulled four #2 stranded THHN conductors (hot/hot/neutral/earth). I got the OK for concealment from the inspector, covered it.
The #2 THHN terminates into a Square D 60A 240V GFI disconnect box. This box supplies all 240V equipment. A separate GFI circuit has been run from the dwelling to service the 120V needs, eliminating the hybrid GFI failure. Pretty straightforward there...until I started thinking and reading up on proper equipotent bonding protocol as it applies to subpanels, timers, and other service equipment near water. I am assuming that the neutral bus inside the GFI box is isolated from the case. Two hots hit the breaker at the top, two load hots leave through the bottom, white GFI pigtail hits neutral bus bottom, load neutral hits neutral bus center, line neutral terminates at top. Ok....now on to my question:
The earth ground from the main panel in the dwelling enters the GFI box and hits a simple two opening bus, which joins it to the load ground as well as the case of the box. On this bus' mounting bolt, on the outside of the box, I attached a listed Cu bond lug, which I hit with the same #6 solid bare bonding conductor as I used for the pumps, rebar, etc. Assuming that the neutral bus is isolated from the case itself, this should be proper, and required, correct?
Also, I legged out 15 feet or so of #6 stranded THHN to supply a 240V spa controller. I went ahead and simply phase taped them wherever they are visible inside the box. Do you all think I can skate on that, or is #6 considered heavy enough that continuous color jacket is no longer required? If so, i wonder if I could simply wrap the entire length with phase tape to meet the "continuous color" rule?
I've been out of the loop for a while, and have never done pool/spa work before. It's been a pain having to drag our inspector out simply for information gathering, so its nice to have a forum like this to communicate.
Regards and thanks in advance,
Ryan
