goldstar
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I want to say this is a funny story but it really isn't funny. I got a call from an existing customer who said that when the pool guy connected the #8 bonding wire to the pool pump - sparks flew. So, when I got there the first thing she told me was that her BROTHER-IN-LAW installed a duplex receptacle so that she could vacuum the pool without having to run an extension cord all the way to the house (this is an OLD pool set-up that only had 2 # 12's for the pool motor and 1 # 12 ground wire in 3/4" rigid metal conduit). The STANDARD duplex receptacle was installed in a std. 1-gang FS box with a flip cover. When I opened it I saw that he tapped off one side of the 240V motor circuit to one side of the receptacle and because there was NO NEUTRAL he installed his own neutral by attaching a wire to the JB and wired it to the neutral side of the receptacle. Needless to say, I removed that receptacle but will be pulling in a new circuit in the near future.
Now for the "funny" part of this story. There is a metal chain-link fence that runs around the pool. The bonding wire is also attached to that metal fence. The wire connected to the pool motor was only connected at the motor and left hanging freely in open air not connected to anything else. When I tried to connect it to the rest of the grid - sparks flew. So, after tripping the pool circuit I opened the motor housing only to find that ALL the wires in the whip were SOLID #12 AND ALL RED - none marked as a ground wire. Inside the time clock housing that particular RED wire that was supposed to be the ground wire was connected to one of the phase wires on the time clock. I marked the ground wire, landed it correctly but will be changing this as well in the near future.
Anyone can make a mistake but this one could have caused severe injury or even death just because the HO wanted to save a few $$.
Now for the "funny" part of this story. There is a metal chain-link fence that runs around the pool. The bonding wire is also attached to that metal fence. The wire connected to the pool motor was only connected at the motor and left hanging freely in open air not connected to anything else. When I tried to connect it to the rest of the grid - sparks flew. So, after tripping the pool circuit I opened the motor housing only to find that ALL the wires in the whip were SOLID #12 AND ALL RED - none marked as a ground wire. Inside the time clock housing that particular RED wire that was supposed to be the ground wire was connected to one of the phase wires on the time clock. I marked the ground wire, landed it correctly but will be changing this as well in the near future.
Anyone can make a mistake but this one could have caused severe injury or even death just because the HO wanted to save a few $$.