Installation guide
Aqua Spas Gold TV Spa Installation Guide
Aqua Spas 6
Electrics
You don’t need a permanent water supply
for a hot tub or garden spa but you will
need a suitable electrical supply to run the
tub. Hot tubs have a specific section in the
16th Edition IEE (Institute of Electrical
Engineers) Regulations and fall into the
same category as swimming pools.
When appointing an electrician to prepare
your hot tub electrics check that they are
suitably qualified electrician. Do not
attempt to install hot tub electrics yourself
if you are not a fully qualified electrician.
The Government introduced a new law in
January 2005, which demands that most
electrical work in UK households is only
carried out by a competent person. This
law means that Electrical safety
requirements have been included in a new
Part P of the Building Regulations.
The law states that anyone carrying out
fixed electrical installations in households
in England and Wales must ensure that
electrical installations are:
Designed and installed to afford
appropriate protection against mechanical
and thermal damage, and so that they do
not present electric shock and fire hazards
to people
Suitably inspected and tested to verify that
they meet the relevant equipment and
installation standards.
It is now against the law to have a new
circuit installed in your home without
having it inspected and tested to ensure it
is Part P compliant. This can be achieved
in 2 ways:
1. Appoint an electrical contractor who is
registered with a competent person
scheme.
2. Appoint someone who is not Part P
registered but contact you local
authority’s Building Control
Department first. The work will have
to be inspected and tested by your local
authority before it can be signed off.
There will be a charge for this service.
Either way you will receive a Part P
certificate after the hot tub electrical
supply work is completed. From 2007,
these will need to be kept on file and
presented if you ever sell your house as
part of the new home information packs
(HIPS).
Your Spa Dealer can liaise with your
electrical contractor regarding the exact
specification for your spa but it must meet
the following specification:
The hot tub must be hard wired on its own
fused spur back to your household
consumer unit. (i.e. the tub should not be
sharing a supply with any other
appliances)
The hot tub should be protected by a
sufficiently rated MCB (mains circuit
breaker) and should cover the maximum
amperage pull of the spa PLUS 25% to
allow for brake torque (i.e. the extra rush
of current when pumps are first started.)
So a hot tub that has a maximum current
draw of 20 amps should be fitted with a
25amp MCB.
The hot tub should also be protected
against earth faults by an RCD (Residual
Current Device) This is a trip switch
which prevents danger of electric shock
from damaged or waterlogged cables and
connections. A suitably rated 30mA RCD
is recommended.
Outdoor cabling should be protected from
damage by either laying protective ducting
(pvc pipe) below ground or by using Steel
Wired Armoured (SWA) cable. Your
electrician will calculate the size of cable
required depending on the loading and the
distance from the mains supply. 6mm2 3-
core SWA cable is perfectly suitable in
most cases but always consult an
electrician first.
An IP65 45amp Rotary Isolation Switch is
also recommended so that the hot tub can
be isolated outdoors in an emergency or
for service work. This is simply a rotary
on/off switch but should be sited more than
2 metres away for the hot tub so that users
cannot be in the spa whilst operating the
switch.
The hot tub supply can then be directly
hard wired into the load box inside the
spa. Waterproof gland packs should be
used to prevent ingress of water on all
outdoor electrical connections (2 at the
isolation switch and 1 inside the hot tub)
Ensure that all earth cables are clearly
colour coded with green/yellow insulating
tape or earth sleeve.
Once the hot tub is filled with water and
the electrical supply is installed, your hot
tub installation team should commission
the hot tub and check that everything is
fully operational before “handing over” to
you with a thorough training of how all of
the hot tub features work.