stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
Do I still need to GFCI protect LED pool lights because they are fed via driver?
LED Pool Lights
- Thread starter stickboy1375
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
The led lights I have seen were fed from a remote source so there is no contact with the water. I see no reason to gfci protect it.
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
Exactly.....
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
Wait a minute LED???? I was thinking fiber optic. How do these lights get set up. Is there a remote transformer with the low voltage light in the pool? I question whether that is code compliant
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
We the gfci be effective on an led with a driver-- meaning are they 120V source or low voltage?
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
120v source, it was just something I was thinking about, these pool lights have a standard sjo cord attached to them, but was curious what purpose gfci protecting a driver would accomplish, unless the light itself had a metal housing and that could become energized I suppose.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
I think if the source is 120V and the led lights are 120V then I don't see why the GFCI wouldn't work. If they were low voltage then I would think we have an issue but I am too lazy to look it up.
If the lamp operates at greater than 15 volts, 680.23(A)(3) requires GFCI protection. I don't know that we can equate "driver" to transformer, but 680.23(A)(2) also requires listing for pool applications.
I would bet a majority of inspectors would be concerned about the listing of any pool light.
I would bet a majority of inspectors would be concerned about the listing of any pool light.
Aren't 12V lights (which couldn't possibly kill you) fed from a remote source as well?
Does it make a difference? If the 12V transformer can fail and short out on 120V, so can an LED Driver.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
That is not true when you are in the water...a few volts across your body can impair muscle function enough to prevent you from getting out of the water.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
We do know that 30V can kill you out of water but I don't know if there is any data on 12v in water. Stepping out could knock you for a loop enough to hit your head fall back in the water and drown. Every get hit by a telephone wire when the phone is ringing. It hurts.
Because the phone line has 80 volts or so when ringing.
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
Well that explains that. But you have put a 9V battery to your tongue. Now take 12v and stand in water. I bet you will be surprised. People can feel a few volts getting out of the pool.
stickboy1375
Senior Member
- Location
- Litchfield, CT
2-3 volts is surprisingly painful....
Back to my original question:
"Aren't 12V lights (which couldn't possibly kill you) fed from a remote source as well?
Does it make a difference? If the 12V transformer can fail and short out on 120V, so can an LED Driver."
Let me add one more thing to clarify:
Aren't LED drivers 12 volts as well?
And I might be wrong, but I think a lot of LED drivers run on DC, and might be wrong even further, but I also think DC can stop your heart easier than AC(being that the heart has a small DC voltage, it's easier for 3V DC to interfere with its operation than 100V AC)
I mean at these voltages we're definitely talking heart failure, there can't possibly be burns and tissue damage from 12V.
Furthermore at 3K ohms resistance, and 12V, the amps will be 4 miliamps, which wouldn't trip a gfi anyway.
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- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
Some led's are line voltage and may have the drivers built into the bulbs. I do believe they are DC voltage and I assume they have a rectifier built into them however I think the voltage is still 120V
- Location
- Chapel Hill, NC
- Occupation
- Retired Electrical Contractor
I don't see how a 12v system can be install within 5 feet of a pool since the gfci on the line side of the trany will not affect the load side. However, There may be a gfci built into the load side of the trany-- I have not seen a 12V gfci but perhaps there is such an animal.
Even at 1000 ohms and 12V, the amps would be 12 miliamps, which conversed through the transformer would result in 1.2 miliamps in the primary. Again, not even close to trip the GFCI on the 120V side.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
A GFCI on the line side of a power supply or transfromer cannot see a ground fault on the load side.
cpinetree
Senior Member
- Location
- SW Florida
Led lights
Led lights
We install a lot of led pool lights in SW FL, always hooked to an Intermatic 12v transformer(PX100 or PX300) non GFI.
Hayward Color Logic Led lights have a #8 bond wire that runs back to the pool light junction box but no gfi protection on the circuit.
Savi Melody Led pool lights made by Nexxus lighting, fit into IIRC an 1 1/2" pvc pipe for the light shell and do not require the #8 bond wire.
Led lights
We install a lot of led pool lights in SW FL, always hooked to an Intermatic 12v transformer(PX100 or PX300) non GFI.
Hayward Color Logic Led lights have a #8 bond wire that runs back to the pool light junction box but no gfi protection on the circuit.
Savi Melody Led pool lights made by Nexxus lighting, fit into IIRC an 1 1/2" pvc pipe for the light shell and do not require the #8 bond wire.
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