Mounting spa panel guts in control panel

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kevink

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I guess this is a question for all of the electricians here...

I just bought a spa panel with a 50 amp gfci breaker in it and I'm laying out/designing my control panel. Rather than have the spa panel somewhere between my house's electrical panel and my control panel, can I just mount the innards of the spa panel inside my control panel? If I do it this way, I will have 10-4 wire feeding the control panel from a 30 amp breaker in my main electric panel. The neutral will be isolated in the panel and a ground bus will be attached directly to the control panel. Everything will be grounded there.

The control panel is all steel, but not as thick as the steel of the spa panel. Is that a problem? Are there any problems or dangers in doing what I want to do? Anything else I should look out for?

I found a picture of what I'm thinking about doing, except my control panel will not have any wood in it. I will use all of the insulating material that came out of the spa panel.

14827d1267566722-control-panel-power-distribution-control_panel-1.jpg


The thread that this picture came from:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/control-panel-power-distribution-166017/
 
No takers?

Here are some photos of my actual control panel with the spa panel guts inside of it. Electrically it seems totally fine to put the breaker, neutral bus, etc. in the control panel, but I would still like to hear some feedback if possible as this seems to be rarely done. Does anyone see any problems in doing this?

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IMO, I want the GFCI away from my control panel.
If you end up with a current leak, the GFCI will trip, but you could still have power in your panel feeding the GFCI if the breaker doesn't.

I guess I'm thinking of a catastrophic problem like hosing down the inside of your control panel...

Ed
 
Assuming you have the skills to do it properly, I see no problem with it. I am planning on doing the same thing myself. Assuming everything is securely mounted and insulated and grounded (the parts that need it...) you should be fine.

Once I build mine, I'll post pics. It'll be a while though...
 
I want my spa panel on the post in the garage. That way I can use it for any other thing that comes along. I'm not even going to offer any advice on the safety aspect, since I know little about the technical details.
 
Ever think about why they don't built the SPA Panel / GFCI right into a Hot Tub?

Or why the GFCI built into the cord of a hair dryer is at the plug and not built into the blower?
 
IMO, I want the GFCI away from my control panel.
If you end up with a current leak, the GFCI will trip, but you could still have power in your panel feeding the GFCI if the breaker doesn't.

I guess I'm thinking of a catastrophic problem like hosing down the inside of your control panel...

Ed

Wow, that's enough of a reason for me not to do it. Things occasionally go wrong when I brew, and I wouldn't rule out a hosing down of the control panel.

Mounting the GFCI in the panel is not for me because my panel will be relatively close to my brew kettle. If things go wrong, it's almost like not having a GFCI at all, and that's when you really need a GFCI.

Thanks, Ed!
 
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