Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: jennyfun on November 15, 2005, 07:59:47 am
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I am gonna hire an electrician to do my wiring but in an effort to save some cash i thought i would run the Conduit and install the gfci. Leaving only the actual hookups to the electrician. I thought i had read that the Shut-off had to be at least 5ft from the tub and no more than 10ft. Anyone from Ontario familiar with our codes?
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I do not live in Ontario but those are the exact specs I had to follow. I also needed a 'convenience' outlet no closer than 10 feet but no further than 20 feet from my tub. And all the outlets had to be on the same 'plane'. Where I live I needed a permit for the electrical work and in my area a good electrician won't do the work without a permit.
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you can find the code here
http://www.esasafe.com/consumer/esafaqs.htm
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I'm in Ontario as well......The electrician that did my install last week said that if the shutoff is less than 10 feet from the tub, then the it must be just a shutoff, and the GFCI must be in the upstream panel, so that you don't end up with a non-GFCI protected cable within 10 feet of the tub.
Basically, if your shutoff IS the GFCI, and it's less than 10 feet away from the tub, even if the GFCI trips, you still have a 50A (or more depending on your upstream breaker) live wire less than 10 ft from your tub....you also cannot have any lights or outlets of any kind less than 10 ft away.....in other words, if your tub is on your deck and there's a light above your patio door, that light must be 10+ ft from the tub.
In my case, I have a standard 60A breaker in the panel, feeding the 50A breaker/shutoff/GFCI panel outside....which is 11 feet from the tub.
The electrican also said that in most cases, if the room where the main panel is located can be locked, the inspector will allow you to just have the GFCI breaker in the main panel, and not require a shutoff within sight of the tub......as it seems the electrical code specifies the shutoff to protect an electrician who may be working on the tub, so nobody can flip the switch on while he's working.....so it much be "within sight" of the tub, or in a locked room.....in my case, my main panel is inside my garage, which can be locked, so I could have gotten away with just a GFCI breaker in the main panel (which is how the previous owner of my house had his hottub setup.)
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10 ft in mt. if you are going to do that then why not do the whole thing, since you dont mind working to the power box. just start at the tub and work back. then have the electrician come out and check it and ok it if you need to. i did something like that with a house i had in ga. once and it was good. i knew the electrican though, maybee that matters. good luck
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have the electrician come out and check it and ok it if you need to. i did something like that with a house i had in ga. once and it was good. i knew the electrican though, maybee that matters. good luck
In Ontario, you don't need an electrician.
You need to pull a permit, then do the rough in, right up to the panel, but with nothing concealed behind insulation, drywall, or dirt in the case of a trench.
(cable must be burial rated, 24" deep or TECK-90, 18" deep covered in 6" of sand/loose soil with no stones, then a caution tape indicated buried electrical cable, then leveled off) then call the ESA to come out and inspect it...they'll give you the ok to install cover plates, fill the trench, connect it into the main breaker, and filp the power on. $85 fee covers the permit and inspection.
if you pay an electricain, they pull the permits, and I dunno if they're ok to approve their own rough-in or what, but they fill everything in, and leave you with a stub.....the installer connects it to the tub, you call the electrican back, and he arranges for the inspector to come out and do a final verification....at least that's how it happened for me.....
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I wouldn't be any closer than 5' with switch the idea being that you do not want to able to touch the electrical disconnect when you are in the tub but you want the switch visible to anyone who has to service spa--water and electricity bad combo---i wired mine just over 5.5' and it is a disconnect at spa and GFCI at breaker panel in house, in return the whole run from spa to outside disconnect and cable to breaker panel is protected from GFCI not just spa and and small piece of cable from outside switch to spa --i do live in Ontario
http://spasupport.com/electrical/main/installguide.html