Swimming Pool Electrics.

One luxury many Brits, who live here on the Costa Blanca, treat themselves too is a swimming pool. If you are one of the lucky people that have such an item, then there are some considerations that you should make, to ensure that your pool is safe. Now as we all know electricity and water don’t mix and of course in a swimming pool there is a considerable amount of water. Also connected to the pool there is a pump, to circulate the water through the filter system, often one or more lights and in some cases, a heating element all of which require electricity to work. There are some very strict rules and regulations regarding swimming pools, however, I have often found that many have not been adhered to. I will try and list few things that you should check for, in your pool.

Firstly the earth, the general construction of swimming pools here in Spain is to use lots of re-enforced concrete. This means that there is a lot of steel in the ground, which creates a good earth protection around the pool itself, however, if an electrical fault occurred inside the pool or inside the pump/heater then that fault could potentially make the water live. an example of this could be if the pump/ heater goes wrong or the casing of the pump breaks for any reason and the water makes contact with the electrical components inside of the heater/pump. So to try and protect against any potential fault we must ensure the pump/ heater is connected to earth separately, as this will help divert the fault to dissipate.

Another very important device that is vital, is a local Residual Current Device (RCD) or Diferencial (Spanish). I have often written about the need for an RCD in your electrical installation. In most cases the pool pump is located some distance from the main consumer unit/ fuse box located inside your home. An additional RCD which should be in a closer proximity to the pump/heater provides you with added protection, as any potential fault will be detected quicker due to the reduced amount of time that it takes for the fault to reach the closest RCD

Underwater lights must always be low voltage, in most cases this is 12 volts but can sometimes be as high as 24volts and of course the lights must be water tight. To enable the lights to work the mains voltage, which is normally 230volts, must be reduced to the required voltage via a transformer; in most cases you should have only one transformer per light. One of the contributing factors to bulbs blowing is due to the fact that the transformers are not designed to run more than one bulb. Another reason that bulbs blow is that the cable feeding the lights is too small. Although the bulbs can run on 12 volts they often require a current of 25 amps which equates to a 6mm2 copper cable (not considering volt drop).