spa feeder equiipment grounding conductor

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smallfish

Senior Member
Location
Detroit
Why is it necessary, as well as required (08NEC680.25(B), for new spa installations, that the equipment grounding conductor (egc) installed with the feeder conductors be insulated? A contractor recently installed indoors a NM feeder cable with a jacketed bare egc and I'm wrestling with allowing it or not. Thanks.
 

curt swartz

Electrical Contractor - San Jose, CA
Location
San Jose, CA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I'm not 100% sure why an insulated condcutor is required but in this case even if it was the installation would not be compliant. The feeder is required to be in a raceway.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
I'm not 100% sure why an insulated condcutor is required but in this case even if it was the installation would not be compliant. The feeder is required to be in a raceway.

I would have to go along with this whole answer. Looks to me like even if you had a cable with an insulated ground in it, that you couldn't use it.

I just looked in my 1987 code book and the wording has only changed a little since then. So you've never been able to use a cable assembly.
 
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smallfish

Senior Member
Location
Detroit
spa feeder equiipment grounding conductor

Thank you for your response. I again attacked the code book and found 2008 NEC 680.42 (C) that meets the description of this install, whereby NM with a jacketed bare egc is allowed. However Michigan's residential code requires an insulated egc under these same conditions. I'll quiz them. Thanks
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
You may use NM for the interior wiring to a hot tub even with an uninsulated ground however many tubs call for a full sized equipment grounding conductequipment grounding conductor 680.42C
 

suemarkp

Senior Member
Location
Kent, WA
Occupation
Retired Engineer
Also, is it really a feeder. Some people say a 50A circuit that goes to a 50A GFCI disconnect is a branch circuit and not a feeder. They treat the GFCI as a supplemental overcurrent and not the "final" one. If the feeder is going to a panel with more breakers than the spa GFCI, then it is definitely a feeder.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
While I am the electrical inspector for the city, I usually only inspect commercial, solar and special systems. I do so little residential that many of the resi guys know that part of the code better than I. I can't even tell you the last time I looked at a swimming pool.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Also, is it really a feeder. Some people say a 50A circuit that goes to a 50A GFCI disconnect is a branch circuit and not a feeder. They treat the GFCI as a supplemental overcurrent and not the "final" one. If the feeder is going to a panel with more breakers than the spa GFCI, then it is definitely a feeder.
It is a feeder as the disco is not supplementary but the final OCPD. I wrote a proposal tfor this but I think it never made it to the cmp.
 
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