& 40 Amp Electrical Requirements
For a 32AMP hot tub, 6mm² 3-core SWA cable is needed and a 10mm² 3-core SWA cable is perfectly suitable for a 40AMP Hot Tub.
An IP65 45AMP Rotary Isolator Switch is also recommended so that the hot tub can be isolated outdoors in an emergency or for service work. This is simply a rotary on/off switch but should be sited more than 2 metres away from the hot tub so that bathers cannot be in the hot tub whilst touching the switch.
The electrician should fit a suitable weather proof block connector to the end of the tail from the isolator, the hot tub supply can then be directly hard wired into the weatherproof block connector inside the hot tub. Waterproof gland packs should be used to prevent ingress of water on all electrical connections . Ensure that all earth cables are clearly colour coded with green/yellow insulating tape or earth sleeve.
Is Your Portable Spa Installation Location Accessible
In most cases getting the hot tub into the backyard is fairly simple and straightforward. A delivery crew will bring the hot tub to your home and then place the hot tub on its side on a hot tub cart. Then they roll the cart into your backyard and to the spot you would like the hot tub placed.. This means that they need an access point into your backyard that is at least as wide as your hot tub is tall. In some cases, when there is no entryway into the backyard that is wide enough, your dealer can arrange for a crane delivery, where the hot tub is lifted over the house and then lowered into the backyard using a crane. We provide specific delivery and installation planning to help with this.
Hard Wired Hot Tub Electrical Requirements
Most larger hot tubs fall into this category, as well as swim spas and any models which require more power than a standard 110V mains socket can provide.
There are specific electrical requirements for installing hard-wired equipment such as spas in order to remain compliant with the National Electrical Code requirements. In addition to these, it’s vital to check state/local codes as these may be even more stringent.
According to the National Electrical Code , all 220-240V hot tub installation must be conducted by a licensed electrician or qualified homeowner. The details of the procedure also vary between manufacturers, so it’s important to consult the hot tub owner’s manual before having a hot tub installed.
Location
To remain National Electrical Code compliant, your hot tub must be kept well away from any other electrical cables. This includes overhead power lines or any buried wiring .
Cables
Since your hot tub will most likely be outdoors, it’s a good idea to protect the wiring using a non-metallic conduit pipe. The thermoplastic nylon used in an outdoor conduit will help protect from water and physical damage. It can be run around gentle curves and is also a suitable cover if you wish to bury your wiring.
Hot Tub Wiring
Hard wired hot tubs don’t use standard electrical connections. Instead,
the power supply is directly wired from the electrical service panel to the terminals in the control box.
Safety Precautions
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Lay The Conduit & Pull Wire
Install the conduit in a trench. Conduit is a long tube of metal or PVC that will hold the electrical wires. Consult your local building code to determine how deep to lay the conduit. Some conduit trenches must be as deep as 18 inches.
Use a shovel to dig the conduit trench. Carefully remove the sod from the trench location. If necessary, cut it into manageable squares, and set it aside. The trench should extend from the spa panel to the spa and from the spa panel to the electrical breaker panel. Do not bury conduit underneath the hot tub.
The conduit will exit the house near the breaker panel, so use a hole saw to create an opening through the outside wall. Then, measure, cut and cement the conduit and fittings. Your measurements and cuts should cover the distance down the wall from the breaker panel, across the trench and up to the spa panel, then down from the spa panel and across the trench to the spa.
If the underground run is shorter than six feet, you can use a conduit made of liquid-tight flexible metal or a non-metallic material. Conduit sections longer than six feet should be made of rigid metal, intermediate metal, or rigid, non-metallic materials listed for direct burial. PVC is a popular option.
Connect the indoor and outdoor conduits by inserting an LB fitting through the hole in the exterior wall. Next, run the wire.
Tip: Before you dig, contact your local utility company to mark your utilities and ensure you don’t cut into any buried lines, pipes or cables.
Do You Do The Electrics For Me
Not quite. Without going through all the boring legal stuff essentially an electrical socket outside your home, or an adjustment to your electric supply around your home, must comply with Part P of the Building Regulations. Failure to comply is a criminal offence.
Everybody knows that electricity is really dangerous, and only a qualified electrician should do the work. But it’s not too expensive, don’t worry. We’ll go through the costs later on. You can use the button below to find a qualified electrician near you.
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How Do I Ensure Part P Requirements Are Met
There are 3 options when contracting an electrician to install your hot tub which are detailed below:
- ELECSA www.elecsa.co.uk
Either way you will receive a Part P certificate after the hot tub electrical supply work is completed. From 2007 these will need to be kept on file and presented if you sell your house as part of the Home Sellers Pack.
What Is Part P
Part P is a section of the Building Regulations that covers England and Wales and was introduced to reduce the risk of personal injury or damage to a home due to poor workmanship.
Part P applies to anyone carrying out fixed electrical installations in households and states:
reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury
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Hot Tub Base Requirements
All of our hot tubs feature a high impact moulded one piece ABS self supporting plastic base. This spreads the weight evenly over the whole area and allows our hot tubs to be placed straight on to any rm, flat and level base. Slabs, concrete and decking all being suitable bases. Its very important that your base is flat as a twist will put extra strain on the shell of the hot tub.
When planning where to position a hot tub, you need 50cm clearance around the hot tub. Giving you access to operate the cover lifter and for cleaning. This allows our engineers access to every component of the hot tub, should any servicing be required.
If you are planning to have decking, this is not a problem but please ensure the 50cm of decking around the hot tub is completely removable.
This is achieved by xing decking boards in panels and using joist hangers which are brackets that the joists are placed into, making them easily removable.
What Do I Need To Do
You need to get your electrician to install an outdoor, waterproof plug socket with RCD protection
We highly recommend using an MK IP66-rated outdoor socket, available from all major electrical retailers, such as Screwfix.
The socket should ideally be around 2 metres from the hot tub, but definitely no closer than 1 metre. An electrician will charge around £50-100 for this.
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Pvc Electrical Conduit And Fittings
We prefer the protection of buried conduit in a backyard setting where future digging may occur for planting scrubs, etc. PVC pipe is easy to install and inexpensive. 18″ is usually the required depth– check with local authorities. Secure conduit to walls with U clamps.
In our example, 4 wires are used in 1″ PVC conduit, which although a bit oversized, makes pulling the wire easier. For corner bends, wide 90° PVC elbows are used. Threaded PVC terminal adapters are cemented to the conduit for electrical box connections.
Our electrician used short lengths of flexible liquid-tight PVC conduit for the connections to our spa control pack. From the outside wall through to the electrical service panel, he ran LB Condulet. The LB allows easy access for running the wires.
Running Electrical For A Hot Tub
Every hot tub will come with its specific data plate somewhere around the area your electrical will hook up or possibly on the electric motor of your hot tub. So what it comes to hot tub electrical requirements, here are some quick tips.
On that data plate, you will find information that a licensed electrician will read and interpret what will be required for a complete electrical installation.
Things like:
- Electric motor data in case you need to replace it years down the road
- Proper grounding requirements
- Any further electrical information that could be needed
A professional licensed electrician should have no trouble identifying what will be required for your hot tub installation.
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You Picked Your Perfect Model Thoughtfully Designed Your Backyard And Picked Your Accessories Now Comes The Most Exciting Part: How To Install A Hot Tub Or Swim Spa Watch The Video Above To See What You Can Expect And Read Our Tips To See How Easy Jacuzzi Installation Really Is
CHOOSE YOUR HOT TUB FOUNDATION
Creating the right foundation is an important item to check off your to-do list before your hot tub arrives. Here are some options to consider.
Concrete: This is a common choice because it’s often already part of a patio or garden design, and it’s also strong and durable. If you have an existing concrete surface, just make sure it’s level and in good condition. You can also pour a single concrete slab on a custom base.
This can be a good place to put your hot tub, since a deck is usually already level. Just have it inspected before you install your model and make sure you have the proper mounts. Most decks can hold a hot tub, but be sure.
Spa pad: Pre-made spa pads are one of the simplest solutions out there and they look great. All you need to do is clear a level area of grass and topsoil, then lay out the swim spa and hot tub base deck . top quality).
Wires Entering Spa Must Be In Flexible Waterproof Conduit
The wires that enter the spa must be in whats known as seal-tite a flexible waterproof conduit. Those wires need to extend at least 6 inches past the conduct for the final connection to the spa. The diameter of this conduit should be between ¾ to 1 depending on the size of the wire.
The spa control system or equipment bay is where the flex conduit for the power wires is installed. Copper wire should be used as you never want to use aluminum wire.
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Hot Tub Wiring And Conduit
Parts and wiring needed for the electrical installation may include flex conduit, rigid PVC conduit and fittings as well as either #6 or #8 THHN stranded copper wire depending on your spa, length of the wire run and local code. Your electrician may also need PVC cement and electrical tape.
Regarding conduit, for hot tubs, flexible may be used if the run is under 6 feet. The types to use include liquid-tight flexible metal conduit or liquid-tight flexible nonmetallic conduit in lengths of no more than 6 feet.
Flex conduit is typically used inside the spa to run the wire from the exterior wall condulet to the spa pack/controller.
For longer runs underground, install underground wiring in rigid metal conduit,intermediate metal conduit or a nonmetallic system that is listed for direct burial such as 1″ rigid Schedule 40 PVC electrical conduit.
This type of conduit needs to be buried at a minimum depth of 6 inches for metal and 18 inches for nonmetallic conduit. The combination of rigid PVC conduit combined with short length of flexible is used as code permits.
Note that a frost expansion joint may be required at the point where conduit comes out of the ground and enters a wall or wall mounted panel.
Should I Get An Electrician To Install My Hot Tub
Before you install your hot tub, you will need to have the right channel of electricity running from your house, to where you want the hot tub to be placed. To have this carried out in a safe and according manner, you will need to have a certified electrician perform this job. They will follow the correct safety electrical requirement for the installation.
Speak to our hot tub experts on 020 8194 5969 and arrange your free hot tub installation survey to see how we can help.
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Bexleyheath electrician covering Kent & S E London with a 5 star reputation on Checkatrade and Google.
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Can I Install A Socket
Whilst the installation of a socket-outlet is not precluded in BS 7671:2018+A1:2020, socket-outlets installed in close proximity to basins of water are not generally a good idea due to the potential for misuse. In some cases, a socket-outlet could be specified by the manufacturer, in which case it is permitted to be installed in zone 2 if the protective measure automatic disconnection of supply is applied, using an RCD specified in Regulation 415.1. In other words, an RCD with a rated residual operating current of 30 mA is installed.
Best practice is to install fixed wiring for connection of the hot tub, so as prevent misuse of a socket-outlet. An isolator should be provided and installed outside of zone 1, 2 m from the edge of the basin, as seen in Figure 1.
It is important to remember that where containment for wiring, such as conduit is used, it is preferable that it is made from insulating material i.e. non-metallic. .
Installing Our Backyard Spa
Now let’s take a look at a typical backyard installation. In our movie below, we’ve already poured a level cement slab and placed our hot tub on it.
Per the owner’s manual, our hot tub requires a 240V, 50 amp 4-wire electrical hook-up, using AWG #6 copper wire. The electrician is running all buried wiring in 1″ rigid Sch-40 grey PVC electrical conduit. Refer to your owner’s manual for wire requirements.
Select the tabs below to follow the project from Planning through Hook-up:
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How Many Hot Tubs Are Sold Each Year In The Uk
There has been a surge in sales of hot tubs in the UK recently, it is understood that there are approximately 2,500 swimming pools, 25,000 hot tubs and 250,000 portable hot tubs sold each year in the UK. To put this into perspective, these numbers are similar to the numbers of electric vehicle sales from 2016.
Gfci Tripping Due To Miswired Neutral
The most common wiring mistake occurs with 4-wire systems. Unfortunately, we’ve found that even a few professional electricians fail on this one.
Attach the white neutral wire to the spa’s control box directly to the neutral terminal of the GFCI breaker. See our 4-wire diagrams above. Do not attach it to the sub-panel grounding bar. Miswiring it to ground instantly trips the GFCI when energized, cutting power to the hot tub.
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What Are The Requirements For Hot Tubs In Bs : 2018+a: 2020
Hot tubs are not specifically defined in BS 7671:2018+A1:2020, therefore, the designer must consider the risks and make an engineering judgement to select the most appropriate protective measures. Deciding on the required protective measures to apply will depend on the location of the installation and the associated risks.
What Power Supply Do I Need For My Hot Tub
The level of supply youll need for your hot tub can very much depend on what make and model you go for. The same way cars can vary with how much fuel they can take to fill up the tank. So, its something youll need to find what from where you bought/ buying the hot tub from.
A lot plug and play hot tubs will use a 13 amp or 16 amp supply of electricity and with the 13 amp model, they usually have the plugs attached to them so you can easily just plug it straight into a wall socket. However, most hot tubs will require a 32 amp or 40 amp level of supply.
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What Electricity Supply Do I Need For My Hot Tub
We’re often asked this question by potential new customers looking at our range of hot tubs. Whether you’re looking for a 13A Plug & Play model or one of our 32A hard-wired models, we’re here to let you know what you need to do before the wonderful day when your hot tub arrives, including if you’re wondering about hot tub running costs!
Gather Tools & Turn Off Power
The electrical tools you will need to wire a hot tub are:
- If using PVC Conduit, a PVC cutter
- Hacksaw for all rigid metal conduit
Before you begin, shut off the power to your home from the main breaker box. As with all electrical projects, follow local codes and consult an electrician before wiring a hot tub.
The National Electrical Code requires:
- Hard-wiring the spa into a ground fault circuit interrupter -protected 220 to 240V, 50 or 60 amp dedicated circuit.
- Installing a manual disconnect device, often called a spa panel, between your homes electrical breaker panel and the spa.
- All receptacles must be a minimum of 6 feet away from the inside wall of the hot tub and GFCI protected.
- Have the wiring professionally inspected before using your hot tub.
Safety Tip: Electricity and water are a dangerous combination. Most electrical codes require hot tubs to be at least 10 feet from overhead power lines.
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