Wiring Outdoor Light From Spa Spool

[z50king]

i just set up a outdoor gazebo for my aunt and she wants me to wire in an outdoor light for it. the gazebo is setup next to where her spa used to be but the spa is gone now.

their is still the control box housing all the wiring from the old spa. it has the timer and all the relays and stuff in it. i followed the conduit back to the house where it has its own box with two 40 amp breakers in it. the switches are tied together with a bar. this box is seperate from the rest of the home circuits.

since the spa control box is still there she wants me to tie this little light into one of the hot lines. i have no idea if this is safe or not. i know how to do electrical work, but i dont know if its safe or not to tie into one of the hot lines going into the box or not. i have access to all four lines before they go into the box.

has two hots, one neutral, and one ground. they are laaaarge guage lines

thanks, and im a newb to this site

[Roger]

i just set up a outdoor gazebo for my aunt and she wants me to wire in an outdoor light for it. the gazebo is setup next to where her spa used to be but the spa is gone now.

their is still the control box housing all the wiring from the old spa. it has the timer and all the relays and stuff in it. i followed the conduit back to the house where it has its own box with two 40 amp breakers in it. the switches are tied together with a bar. this box is seperate from the rest of the home circuits.

since the spa control box is still there she wants me to tie this little light into one of the hot lines. i have no idea if this is safe or not. i know how to do electrical work, but i dont know if its safe or not to tie into one of the hot lines going into the box or not. i have access to all four lines before they go into the box.

has two hots, one neutral, and one ground. they are laaaarge guage lines

thanks, and im a newb to this site

You will need to change the circuit to a 110V circuit at the outgoing panel. In other words change the breaker. The oversized wire will be fine but you must match the breaker size to the circuit. And I recommend a GFCI breaker for the gazebo lights. 15 amp. Unless there's 12-3 feeding the gazebo then a 20 amp I think would be exceptable.

[craighaggart]

i just set up a outdoor gazebo for my aunt and she wants me to wire in an outdoor light for it. the gazebo is setup next to where her spa used to be but the spa is gone now.

...i followed the conduit back to the house where it has its own box with two 40 amp breakers in it.

This is totally do-able. The old spa circuit is 240V, which is why there are two hot wires (L1 and L2), each protected by a 40A breaker. Each 240V leg is 120V to neutral. You can wire up a new little 120V subpanel at the gazebo using either leg and a 15A or 20A breaker. You could also wire up two new branch circuits, one with L1 to neutral and the other with L2 to neutral. But you probably only want one, so use the black wire (L1) and cap off the red wire. In fact, I'd remove the 40A breaker that feeds the red wire and put a blanking plate over the opening, and then label everything at both ends so that anyone coming along after me could easily figure out what's what.

You didn't say whether or not the gazebo light would be a corded unit; if so, use a GFCI outdoor "in use" outlet (one that remains weatherproof when something's plugged in).

You could also do the conversion at the existing 240V spa box, but working just at the downstream end has the advantage of keeping the possibility of once again hooking up a 240V spa in the future if your aunt changes her mind or sells the house or whatever. Plus it doesn't really save you any work, and a true conversion would mean pulling the red wire out of the conduit.

Remember, ALWAYS SHUT OFF THE POWER FEEDING ANY CIRCUIT YOU PLAN TO WORK ON, AND ALWAYS VERIFY THAT THE POWER IS ACTUALLY OFF! No joke; this stuff will kill you.

Hope this helps!

Craig

Sunnyvale, California