Every Pool Owner Should Know
Swimming pool electrocution may be a rare occurrence, but that’s small comfort to the families that have been forever changed by it. Electrical Safty for your pool is very important.
Swimming pool electrical safety
The CPSC has reported 14 deaths from electrocution in swimming pools during 2003-2014. The cause can be faulty pool light wiring, improper bonding or grounding of equipment, failed Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI), or dropping power tools in the pool.
Underwater Pool Lights
Pool lights are naturally seen as the most obvious risk area for pool electrocution, being a light that’s underwater. When Calder Sloan, a 7 yr old Florida boy, was fatally shocked by a pool light in 2014, there was a great debate over whether 120V pool lights should be banned. But the Sloan pool had low voltage, 12V lighting, which can also be unsafe when mis-wired, and when GFCI’s fail to interrupt the circuit.
An electrician should ground the light niche, to protect against any stray voltage. Inside the wet niche there is a grounding lug that must have a bare copper wire connected to it, normally this a continuous ground around the entire pool. An electrical potting compound is put over the grounding connection, the termination encapsulated in a wet niche potting compound. This helps protect the connection from the possible deterioration from water and chemicals.
Pinnacle wants to remind you to be careful around your pool, and if anything ever looks fishy to call an electrician!
Source: Inground Pool Electrical Safety
