[Yota Bill]

installing a hot tub, so I need to add a 40 amp GFCI circuit. My house has 100 amp service now, but the breaker box needs to be updated anyway, which I intended to do while doing some other renovations later. My pole barn, on the other hand, has completely seperate service (there is a meter on the house, and another one on the barn, I get two seperate bills). The barn is much newer, has 200 amp service, only has a few circuits ran at this time, and not much need for many others in the future, and is all GFCI protected.

What would you think about adding a breaker in the barn, running a cable underground approx 150' or so, to a sub panel, to run the hot tub? Any reason that cant be done per code? Is there a limit to the distance that a cable can be run underground?

Dont really want to update the panel in the house right now, because that would also mean tearing out some of the laundry room and moving some walls to make it work with my future plans (converting the garage into living space) and it wouldnt make much sense to me to do the work to update the box now, and have to redo all of that work later.

If I did run the cable from the barn, that would be the permanent solution, I would not be looking to redo it to wire the tub into the house later.

 

[BlooMule]

As long as the wire size is sufficient for the amp draw, (according to my little book, you'd want 6 gauge for that run) you should have no problem running from the pole barn.

 

[Nuggets]

I don't see a problem. I'd call the electrical inspector to verify your plan.

 

[clarkstoncracker]

You're asking for major amounts of nuisance tripping if you use that long of a run on the load side of a GFCI. You should put a 40 amp fusible disconnect off the barn (non-gfi), run your wire length to another fusible disconnect near the tub (this is code anyway) and mount your 40A GFCI in there.

This is what you will want to use near the tub: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


FWIW, you will pay more for the trenching and underground wire and dual disconnect switches then if you were to just do it right and upgrade your existing panel.

 

[Yota Bill]

I think I worded that slightly wrong...the panel in the barn is not GFCI itself, but the existing circuits are all GFCI protected, so if I ran off the barn, it would not be on the load side of a GFCI, but directly off of the panel that's there (standard type panel)

as for the cost of trenching and laying the underground cable, that wont cost me anything other then materials...I can do it myself, and getting a trencher wont be a problem

I knew I needed to add the disconnect at the tub anyway, I had looked up the code, I think its 5-8 feet away, or something like that, but that needs to be done either way.

the cost of upgrading the panel in the house will be alot more then the cost of the materials to run it off of the barn, since it would mean starting some of the future renovations now, which would also mean losing about 1/2 of one bay in the 2 car attached garage, framing, plumbing (moving the water heater and laundry hookups as well), etc...and some of that would have to be redone later anyway, since the existing door between the house and garage currently comes into the kitchen, but my plan is to move that door into what is now the living room, and will later become the dining room when the garage is turned into the living room. I wouldn't be able to move that door now, because my existing living room is just too small to have it there now

anyway I look at it, trying to run it off of the house means replacing the existing panel, which either means alot of extra work now, or alot of re-work later, and I just don't like either of those options, which is the only real reason I was thinking of running it off of the barn

 

[RockyMTN05]

I'm by no means an electrician... but I do have a hot tub, and can offer a little advice.

Do it right the first time. I had a "friend" who said he could wire it, and we had tons of issues with it. It would regularly shut off, and screw with the electricity in my house. Ended up calling a true professional to come in and re-do all the stuff that was previously done.

Do not half ass anything to save money, or you will be paying again to have it done properly. Do it right from the beginning to alleviate headaches.

 

[jeepitupyo]

I'm not sure if this idea would be to code as I've never encountered it before. What if you put a panel outside the house connected to the meter and then ran a line from that to the hot tub. If it would meet code then you might reduce the amount of wire you would have to buy and would also prevent you from doing any updates now.

 

[trailtwister]

AS long as you use #6 underground wire, if you do it from the barn, it will be ok with disconnect at tub. Screw the electrical inspector!!!

 

[RyeBread]

priced 150' of 6 ga wire lately?

 

[clarkstoncracker]

priced 150' of 6 ga wire lately?

:sonicjay::sonicjay:

That is why I told him it would be cheaper to do the panel upgrade.

 

[Yota Bill]

well, if I ran it off of the house, I would still need about 60 feet of the cable, the new circuit panel plus all the breakers, plumbing supplies to move the water heater and washer about 15 feet, cable to rewire the dryer and move it about 15 feet, lumber to frame in a couple of walls and hang the drywall, and a building permit for all that work, which I doubt it would fly anyway, since that would be taking up almost half of the first bay of the garage, just to have to redo some of that stuff in a year or two when I do the rest of the remodeling...I dont think an extra 90 feet of the cable is going to cost more then all of that.

all I was asking was if there was a reason a run underground that far cant be done per code...nevermind, I'll just call the building commision next week

 

[Suta99]

you will need to run a bigger gauge wire for the 150 foot underground(6 instead of 8) which will cost substantially more.

 

[Yota Bill]

never even considerd anything less then ufb 6/3 w/g

 

[clarkstoncracker]

all I was asking was if there was a reason a run underground that far cant be done per code...nevermind, I'll just call the building commision next week

I answered your question...