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Edmonton Electrician | How to Safely Wire Hot Tubs
What’s up Edmonton Ryan here with Hauer power electrical. And today we’re going to do another video today. It’s going to be about hot tub electrical. We’ve got a lot of questions about hot tubs and how to hook them up. What things to watch out for ampacity upgrade options, kind of what you need to know when you’re buying a hot tub, as far as the electrical.
So we do these videos as a whole, a whole part of our customer service. That’s our whole mission is power and customer service, and that’s why we’re here for these videos. So for hot tub electrical here in Edmonton, there’s a lot of codes that we really have to follow, especially for that Canadian electrical code, a little bit different than the American counterpart, but at the end of the day, it’s all about safety systems and things that are play a similar from the states to Canada has the ground fault circuit interrupter, the GFCI.
Wire Hot Tubs | Hook It Up Correctly
Those are both that’s the main part about the whole hot tub that you’re going to have to have everything else. There is the codes and that they’re there for a reason, and they do need to be followed for a reason. You’re better a thousand times careful than once dead. And that’s the whole reason why you want to hire a professional like us here at Hauer power electrical to have your hot tub hooked up. It’s not rocket science. A lot of people can figure it out and you can probably get by with it pretty safely.
But as a professional, you get to see a lot of parts that get missed. Even if you just land the wrong neutral on the wrong part and energy sci doesn’t work. And the whole point of a GFC with a hot tub is the same way when you watch Groundhog day.
Wire Hot Tubs| Ensure Your GFCI Is Operational
And he jumps in the toaster and the tub with a toaster and it, you know how that scene turns out there. So if you’ve got a margarita mixer go on and you got your hot tub going and things don’t go right, then you got to count that that GFCI is hooked up and operational and and working. And that’s why we function GFCI’s for our, hot tubs, every single install, I would hook up these hot tubs up once every once a week, once every two weeks and the busy part of the summer.
And even in the winter, we get to go once a month there for these hot tub hookups. So they’re pretty common, especially here in Edmonton. That’s a beautiful thing to have. You can have it in summer, have it in the winter either way. It’s nice and comfortable, but yeah, again, back to the electrical park the biggest thing you’re going to want to look for when you’re, when you’re buying a hot tub is the ampacity hot tubs draw a lot of power.
Wire Hot Tubs | Don’t Overload Your Breaker Installing
Now that doesn’t mean that Edmonton Electrician can’t get it. And that doesn’t mean that there aren’t options, but just be ready that it’s not just converting any older receptacle to a hot tub. GFCI receptacle, you need bigger cable, bigger breaker, and a lot more code compliance comes into play. So you got to have a couple of spots free and your main panel. And you got to have a route to get from your panel to the outside of your house, where we have to Mount a spa pack, a GFCI a spa disconnect, whatever you want to call it.
And then out of that spa disconnect, we’re going to have to come to your hot tub with another rated cable and connectors are going to have to be rated as well for that hot tub. And another part you might not be aware of if you’re not working on this stuff every day is a, there’s a certain manufacturer.
Wire Hot Tubs | Professional Installation Will Pass Inspection
I think I’ll leave it nameless, but they allow their temperature ratings to be at 105 degrees Celsius, which is kind of uncommon. It’s a pretty rare temperature rating. However, if that is the temperature rating of the termination part on your hot tub, on your spa pack on your dry board, your circuit board, then your cable must be rated for that. Otherwise you will not pass inspection and you may void your warranty. That part is very important.
As cable gets a tech 90 cable that means it’s rated for 90 degrees Celsius, not 105 degrees Celsius, and it’s almost a moot point, but if an inspector sees that they will not want to pass that and you will have to comply with the Canadian code and you’re gonna have a bad time. So for stuff like that, hire a pro hire professional electrical contractor like us.
Wire Hot Tubs | Installations in One Day
And we can do that for you. The whole point of a hot tub is to relax, to enjoy the hot tub, to enjoy that spa. So save yourself the time and the trouble and the headache, and hire a pro. It, it gets done in a day and they it’s right off your list. But back to the ampacity this is one of the, this is one of the parts that really become a hurdle for a lot of people when they get a hot tub.
If you already have an air conditioner or you have hot water on demand, or you have baseboard heating or in-floor heating any sort of hydro electric load maybe you have, maybe you have a secondary suite in your home with a secondary range. That would be another large hydro electric load. And your range is going to be about 6,000 Watts for a load calculation, as well as all the square footage in your home.
Wire Hot Tubs | Upgrade Your Service For Your Hot Tub
Once you hit 24 kilowatts, once you hit 24,000 Watts then you’re at a hundred amps. So if you go past that, then you need a couple options options that we typically look at is if you have an overhead service, Edmonton Electrician is going to go ahead and reach out to, Epcor see if we can get you a 200 amp service. That’s ideal 150 amp at the very least, but if you’re already spending the money, might as well, just get a little bit bigger cable, a little bit bigger pipe, and a higher rated panel board and breaker, and, and get you up to 200 amp.
We can give you quotes for that to give us a call. If you’re looking for a service upgrade, ampacity upgrade on the panel, but that’s the most common option most recommended option for having ampacity upgrade increase in your home.
Edmonton Electrician | To Wire Hot Tubs Safely Requires Professional Help
Edmonton Electrician says if you want a hot tub and you have an underground service, we might run into some problems. Underground service means that your cable is underground. That means that in order to upgrade the ampacity at your home, that cable that’s underground, it has to be a bigger cable. And that transformer that’s feeding your home from the city might have to be a bigger transformer. That’s up to EPCOR, but they’ll bring from a transformer of your property line.
And from the property line, we bring a cable to your house, and then the splice is performed at the property line. That way it goes from transformer to splice point to your home. And then that’s where we put in a new meter, new panel and a, is it a lot of work? Yeah, it’s typically a day or two, depending on how much we got to do there, but at the end of the day, you can have a lot more options with a higher ampacity panel.
Wire Hot Tubs | Get An Electrical Interlock
That’s one option for getting a hot tub where you only have a hundred amp service, another option when you have a hundred amp service and you want a hot tub that would require perhaps a load miser or a load balancer, or a load balancing disconnect, whatever you might want to call that there’s different brands for it. We have one accepted brand that we typically use, but that in that case, you’re going to have to have a primary load and a secondary load.
And the primary is going to be your essential load. That one would be for example, a range, maybe an air conditioner, and then your secondary load is going to be your hot tub. That means that that load balancing disconnect is going to be an electrical interlock so that not both units can run at the same time, if you’re hot tubs on your range, AC whatever the other load is, is going to be off and vice versa.
Wire Hot Tubs | Ensuring It Operates In Winter
So, yeah, keep that in mind. Cause in those cold winter months, when it’s minus 40, you don’t want your hot tub to really be down for all that long. There are different hot tub manufacturers. Some that are based right here in Alberta that are good for cold weather and they have some really, really good features and they’re really efficient in cold weather. One of those is Arctic Spas, great hot tub company based right out authority in Alberta.
And that those hot tubs are much more efficient than a lot of the other hot tubs that are out there. And if you’re a hot tub manufacturer and you’re watching this, please reach out and I’d love to talk to you about this and see what you might have as well for for cold weather because here in Alberta, in Edmonton boy, did we get some weather changes from minus 40 to plus 40?
Wire Hot Tubs | Get Proper Permits Before Installation
And that’s, it’s a big gap, but anyways, back to the electrical part for those load balancing in your logs that’s an acceptable method, but the city will also need to see a load inspection. And if you’re going that way, where Edmonton Electrician will have to pull your permits, which we have to pull the permits, you’re also gonna need a building current for that hot tub and that’s as per Edmonton jurisdiction as well.
So if you want to get those hot tubs, just know that yeah, you can relax and have a good time with it, but it’s going to be a little bit of work at first. And that’s, that’s why you want to hire us in there and get that sorted out for you. Once your hot tub’s connected. You’re going to need an inspection so we can book an inspection until that hot tub is connected on site and timelines are gonna play a pretty big part for that.
Wire Hot Tubs | To Code
So typically we’ll do it in two phase job phase one, we’ll bring in all the electrical, bring it up, bring out a whip and then phase two, what’s your hot tubs on site. Then we can connect now at the connection. That’s another part that’s really important. A lot of people might just use any connector to connect the cable at your hot tub. Now, again, if you’re hiring a professional electrical contractor like us here at Hauer power electrical, then you don’t have to worry about a thing, but if you want to DIY this, which I wouldn’t recommend don’t use it to screw connector.
Don’t use a Luminex connector, use the right connector for the cable that you’re using and section 12 and the code book wiring methods that it’s going to state certain connectors that you can use with certain cabling. And they’re not all universal and interchangeable.
Wire Hot Tubs | GFCI Is Required By Code
You must pick the appropriate connector for the job. As far as the distances go distances from the hot tub to the spa pack, that plays a major role as well. You can find that in your code book the distances themselves, but you can probably find that on a forum for yourself as well. But again, if you don’t want to have to worry about any of this, and this is too much, and you don’t know what you’re doing with it, give us a call 780 935-0622.
We would be thrilled to hook up your hot tub for you and and help you out every step of the way there. But remember the big top things to remember here is a GFCI that’s required not only by code, but also just so that it’s life safety so that you’re not going to pass away.
Wire Hot Tubs | The Correct Ampacity
When, when electricity and electricity finds you as the shortest path to ground, you don’t want that. And the ampacity of it, make sure that you either have the ampacity or you have an option for the ampacity and we can figure something out that way. So again, Ryan here with Hauer power electrical if you’re going to relax and get a hot tub, get a spa, save yourself the time, relax, save yourself a stress. It’s supposed to be a good, enjoyable experience. Give us a call.
Hauer power electrical is 780 935-0622. You can email us at info@Hauerpower.ca visit our website at Hauerpower.ca. You guessed it and be sure to follow us on our socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Hauer, power Electrical, your Edmonton Electrician. And if you liked this video or you want to talk more about these hot tubs, or you had some questions or concerns, feel free to out we’re always happy to answer questions and calls and, and or omissions power and customer service. And that’s why we have the most Google reviews and all of that.
And give us a call, have a great day guys. And yeah, enjoy those concepts till next time.
