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Electricity Options

Dannydet

Dannydet

Danny D Graphic Designer
VIP Member
Need some advice :
So, every summer I set up my inflatable hot tub on my outdoor patio, which has no electric outlets. I have a GFCI outlet on the front wall of the house, which I run a long 75 ft outdoor extension cord along the side of the house, around to the hot tub.
Always works well, never trips the breaker.
I had an electrician come out to quote me a price to install an outlet on the patio, $450....
Im thinking to just using the extension cord.
Thoughts?
 
Is he just tapping off another circuit? I don't know what your code is out there but I would guess romex, rather than EMT.

If I was doing the job, I would install a dedicated circuit with a GFI breaker and outlet
 
$450 isn't bad if the electrician is doing it by the book. If, IF, something were to ever go wrong, and the work were unpermitted and not up to code, then insurance may not cover whatever goes bad, whether fire, injury, or localized aurora borialis. My $0.02, deposit the change with your favorite dog rescue.
 
Four hundred and fifty dollars sounds like a lot for a circuit until you consider just how difficult that circuit is to run in an existing dwelling. Access to the breaker panel that will require a free spot for the interrupt breaker. Then getting the wiring to a newly added GFI outlet. The materials involved are minimal compared to the labor. In my city a permit to alter existing wiring must be pulled and then the end product inspected to insure it passes code.

I added a GFIC to the front and the rear oh my home. It took more of my time than money. My circuits will pass code when I sell the house. However, I didn't have the job done by a licensed electrician. shame on me

If you aren't confident in doing the job yourself... and it MUST be done correctly, $450 is likely a fair price. The Extension cord is a cheap alternative. Be sure to use a heavy gauge wire with that extension cord.

Ouch! you just posted the bad to worse news. If you don't have room for another breaker. their are less than desirable alternatives. They make but are not easily found split breakers. (not sure that's what they are called) Two breakers that take up a single spot in the breaker panel. That would free up a breaker slot for the gfic breaker. just a thought.
 
Dannydet said:
He also wants to do a dedicated circuit, which now adds to the cost, with a full box upgrade, since I have no open breakers. $2315 total amount.
????
Click to expand...
I installed a hot tub on my patio back in the 90's. It was a stand alone 10'x10' with a gazebo top. I just tore it down and cut it into haulable chunks last summer. It was also up the wazoo when it came to power. I had to have a new service installed for my old house was built in the 50's long before the power demands of a modern home. I ran all of the underground and pulled the wiring for the tub including a disconnect that had to be within so many feet of the tub. I then hired an electrician that changed out my panel and made up the breaker for the tub and the disconnect all by code and inspected.
It ran me $800 or so of his time and efforts thirty years ago.

I will say that with that new larger service and panel, it allowed me to add some additional circuits to the home as well as the two I mentioned prior.
 
Can you review the circuits in your panel and see if there are any that are unneeded anymore or duplicitous. I'm thinking like an electric dryer that has been converted to gas and no longer needs a double slot 220. Is it possible to eliminate a circuit in another way?
 
This could work.... 🤔 ;)

Screenshot_20230323_085948_theCHIVE.jpg
 
If you have already used the GFCI with no issues why not put gang box on that plug box and run plastic conduit around the side of the house to the rear and install another plug box ?

As long as you are only using one plug box at a time there should be no issues with it.

I just added a strip light to one of my bathrooms and a camera to the front porch and the romex is what is expensive now ! Might look into using stranded wiring to make the long runs.
 
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