Electrical Install ?

[patty]

We're planning on having a man from our church install electrical for our new hot tub (Optima).  He's a commerical electrician.  He came out last week to look at the site.  Our house is 15 years old and there are no major 'issues'.  He's planning on installing metal conduit.  At first my husband thought this was great (professional job), now he's thinking it might be overkill.    The spa is going on new deck directly behind our (attached) garage.   We are paying him an extremely reasonable hourly rate + materials.  FWIW we are in NY, Monroe County.  

Has anyone else installed conduit?
Is this overkill?

Looking for any feedback/recommendations that you all could provide.    

TIA. Patty  

[jfish63]

There should be no problem running metal conduit(use compression fittings outside). At some point he will probably switch over to flexible liquid tight. The choice of metal conduit is probably due to him being a commercial electrician and can get it for free.  

[Brewman]

If he's a pro, he should know what he's doing.  
 There are two types of metal conduit- EMT tubing is the thin stuff, and if I recall it isn't approved for outdoor exposure.  The thick walled stuff is, and I'm sure that's what he's got in mind.

 You'll get a commerical quality install- that's nice.

The Optima has the option to run with a 60 amp breaker, which allows all of your pumps to run at the same time your heater does.  The factory standard is 50 amps, which will not allow you heater to run if both your pumps are on.  
 You might not care, but it's something your electrician should be aware of if he's to correctly wire the spa.  
 If you choose the 60 amp route, your dealer has to set a jumper on the control board .  
If the cost between the 50 and 60 amp installation is close (in my case 60 was actually cheaper) then I'd consider the 60.

[lagator43]

I am also looking at getting electrical hook up.  I am amazed at the cost of the breaker and wire. One electrician quoted $1000.00 for parts and labour.  I payed more than I wanted for my tub and now the electrical is making this a costly venture.  I cannot wait to soak in my tub and everything has been paid for.

[lskarp]

Over the past 2 years the cost of copper anythign became stupid high.  The material itself has approx trippled!!!  I paid $1000 in June to get my spa wired and I had all of the power availabel in the pannel!!

[Brewman]

Copper scrap is selling around here for a high enough price that people are stealing copper wire from constructions projects, and taking the time and energy to strip the insulation off, just to get the scrap price.

[badval]

Mine was $750 & everything outside was done in metal conduit all the way to the tub.  At the corner where the conduit goes it (opposite from where it hooks up), it goes from metal to flexible PVC conduit.  The PVC is only inside the the frame & you can only see metal conduit.  They ran about 50ft +/- of wire in conduit, installed the breaker in the box, installed the provided GFCI box, & made the electrical connections inside the tub.  I think I got a fair price for the amount of labor & materials involved.  Took 2 guys pretty much all day.

Your code might require metal conduit for an outdoor, above ground installation.  Mine didn't & one electrician quoted the install using the PVC the whole length for about the same price.  I figured I'd be better off with the metal - less chance of tearing it up with the weed whacker or some other dumb thing.

[TN__HOT_TUB]

You can probably save some cash if you help dig the trenches. Paying a professional, certified electrician $75/hr to do a $10/hr job is crazy.  Since he's a friend, he shouldn't have any problem with you lending a hand to speed up the work.  You just want to pay him for his expertise.

I have some conduit, but it's not metal.  It's the underground/gray PVC type.

[Brewman]

Your code might require metal conduit for an outdoor, above ground installation.  Mine didn't & one electrician quoted the install using the PVC the whole length for about the same price.  I figured I'd be better off with the metal - less chance of tearing it up with the weed whacker or some other dumb thing.

 There are two grades of electrical PVC- schedule 40 and 90 (or is it 80- it's been a while).  Schedule 40 is the lighter duty, and is okay for most uses unless there is potential for physical damage.  The heavier stuff is needed for anything that may be subject to the physical damage.  And that schudule 90 stuff is very strong.  
 And it's much easier to work with than the heavy walled metal conduit.  

[In Canada eh]

There are two grades of electrical PVC- schedule 40 and 90 (or is it 80- it's been a while).

Brewman,


   I think you are refering to PVC pipe (schedule 40 & 80) standard electrical conduit is thinner walled then schedule 40 pipe

[Brewman]

If you are referring to what I know as EMT, that's the really thin walled metal conduit- and it's not approved for outdoor use.  

There is also that really heavy walled metal conduit that's threaded, and need special connectors, and looks to be really hard to work with unless you have the right tools.
That stuff is approved for outdoor.

Schedule 40 pvc conduit is also approved for outdoor use, unless the run is subject to physical damage.  This stuff is thicker walled than the EMT conduit.

Schedule 80 pvc is for outdoor use, when physical damage is possible, and is much heavier than the schedule 40.  

I used a combination of 40 and 80 to do my spa wiring.  I was required by local authority to have my entire run of spa wire in conduit, all the way from the main power source to the spa.  Indoors I used the schedule 40, outdoors the 80, then transitioned to the weathertite flex for the last few feet.

[jfish63]

I haven't done electrical work in about 6 years and EMT was approved for outdoor use then if compression fittings were used.

[Brewman]

Could very well be the case.  I found out that the local inspectors have the final word regardless of the NEC- so it certainly could be true in some places, and not in others, like mine.  It wouldn't have been allowed in my area- I asked.  
 But I don't mind working with PVC, so not a big deal to me.  
And my wiring was done maybe 3 or 4 years ago.  

[Styx555]

Patty, we are having an electrician run the wiring from the tub into the house and hook everything up. He is also installing a breaker in the tub. We will be digging the trenches and burying the wire once he is done. We need about 85 feet of wire. His cost is about $575.

Hope this gives you an estimate.

[pg_rider]

Patty, we are having an electrician run the wiring from the tub into the house and hook everything up. He is also installing a breaker in the tub. We will be digging the trenches and burying the wire once he is done. We need about 85 feet of wire. His cost is about $575.

Hope this gives you an estimate.

We're doing a similar install (ours is 60 amp), although I'm not digging anything or helping out, and our quote is $740.  FYI, we got another quote for the same job for $950...