Pool pump and gas heater feed

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dm9289

Industrial Maintenance Electrician
Location
Pennsylvania
Occupation
Industrial process repair/ maintenance Electrician
A Electrician friend asked me about an installation and to me it did not seem correct but thru Nec I could not find a reference.

From the basement a double pull 20 amp 120/240 GFCI breaker feeds a Disconnect switch in a pool area. From this disconnect a 240V pool pump is direct wired and 1 leg of the 240v is used to direct feed the 120 volt electronics of a gas pool heater. For some reason this bothers me, is this code compliant?

Another odd tidbit when the person fires up their 120 volt air compressor on a separate circuit the double pull GFCI trips now that he got a new inverter driven pool pump?
 

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That's not compliant. You can't treat it like a multiwire branch circuit if you are using a 240V connection to serve the pump.
The GFCI is most likely tripping due to a current imbalance.
 
Rock86 said:
That's not compliant. You can't treat it like a multiwire branch circuit if you are using a 240V connection to serve the pump.
The GFCI is most likely tripping due to a current imbalance.
Click to expand...
I don't like the described install but i do not know a code reference. I would do it different, but it does not mean I am correct lol.

The odd part is with the old pump it did not trip. Also long as the air compressor is off it will not trip.
 
dm9289 said:
A Electrician friend asked me about an installation and to me it did not seem correct but thru Nec I could not find a reference.

From the basement a double pull 20 amp 120/240 GFCI breaker feeds a Disconnect switch in a pool area. From this disconnect a 240V pool pump is direct wired and 1 leg of the 240v is used to direct feed the 120 volt electronics of a gas pool heater. For some reason this bothers me, is this code compliant?

Another odd tidbit when the person fires up their 120 volt air compressor on a separate circuit the double pull GFCI trips now that he got a new inverter driven pool pump?
Click to expand...
How about the fact he pulled 120V off the 240V circuit with no neutral. At least no neutral mentioned. Can't use the EGC for a neutral.
He needs a panel installed at the pool equipment. Then run a circuit for the pump and one for the heater control/igniter.
The VFD driven pool pumps are known to trip GFCI breakers. I think Pentair has a branded GFCI breaker made by Siemens that supposedly will work on the pumps.
 
Rock86 said:
That's not compliant. You can't treat it like a multiwire branch circuit if you are using a 240V connection to serve the pump.
The GFCI is most likely tripping due to a current imbalance.
Click to expand...
Why not? 210.4(C) says line-to-neutral loads only, but there is Exception 2 which allows line-to-line loads if the breaker is a common trip, which most double pole breakers would be. But you do need a real neutral, and not just a ground acting as a neutral.
 
Little Bill said:
How about the fact he pulled 120V off the 240V circuit with no neutral. At least no neutral mentioned. Can't use the EGC for a neutral.
He needs a panel installed at the pool equipment. Then run a circuit for the pump and one for the heater control/igniter.
The VFD driven pool pumps are known to trip GFCI breakers. I think Pentair has a branded GFCI breaker made by Siemens that supposedly will work on the pumps.
Click to expand...
There is a neutral the gas heater needs it. I agree with your install method but there is a disconnect greater than 5 ft away and within sight so I don’t know that it’s not compliant. I can’t find a reference
 
suemarkp said:
Why not? 210.4(C) says line-to-neutral loads only, but there is Exception 2 which allows line-to-line loads if the breaker is a common trip, which most double pole breakers would be. But you do need a real neutral, and not just a ground acting as a neutral.
Click to expand...
My apologies there is a neutral the gas heater uses it. So again not my style of install but likely code compliant but n 2014 with both hardwired.
 
dm9289 said:
There is a neutral the gas heater needs it. I agree with your install method but there is a disconnect greater than 5 ft away and within sight so I don’t know that it’s not compliant. I can’t find a reference
Click to expand...
I said he needed a panel to divide the 240V circuit from the 120V circuit. Does the disconnect have OCPD?
I don't understand why go to the trouble of pulling a 3-wire (+gnd) circuit and not just putting in a panel. the cost would be minimal for a small panel.
 
Little Bill said:
I said he needed a panel to divide the 240V circuit from the 120V circuit. Does the disconnect have OCPD?
I don't understand why go to the trouble of pulling a 3-wire (+gnd) circuit and not just putting in a panel. the cost would be minimal for a small panel.
Click to expand...
They used the 20amp breaker as overcurrent protection. Very odd install to say the least
 
suemarkp said:
Why not? 210.4(C) says line-to-neutral loads only, but there is Exception 2 which allows line-to-line loads if the breaker is a common trip, which most double pole breakers would be. But you do need a real neutral, and not just a ground acting as a neutral.
Click to expand...
Okay, I will admit you would be correct. Still though... kind of an awkward way of installing it. 1690567419185.png
 
Being 20A makes it easy and more general purpose. Just run the conductors to a 4" sq box with two switches, one for the pump and one for the heater so you have local disconnects for each. No chunky air conditioner disconnect needed. This approach is good for fastened-in-place equipment. Because the pump is 12A, you can't put the pool light on this circuit or add the required general use receptacle to it. But if the sum of fastened-in-place equipment was 10A or less, all of those things could be on the one 20A multiwire branch circuit. 210.23(A).
 
I don't like the suggested installation either, but 210.4(C) would imply that such is allowed as long as a Neutral is involved.

210.4(C) "Line-to-Neutral Loads.
Multiwire branch circuits shall supply only line-to-neutral loads.
Exception No. 1:
A multiwire branch circuit that supplies only one utilization equipment.
Exception No. 2:
Where all ungrounded conductors of the multiwire branch circuit are opened simultaneously by the branch-circuit overcurrent device."

The enhanced content on NFPA Link describes exactly such an installation as using one leg of a 240V circuit that is providing a 240V load to also power a 120V load.
But most time such an imbalance on a GFCI breaker will cause it to trip.
 
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