POOL’S MALFUNCTIONING ELECTRICAL SYSTEM COULD PROVE DEADLY

Question: Have you ever heard of people getting shocked while swimming in a pool? I took my daughter to a pool party on Saturday and I kept feeling this funny tingling in my fingers and toes. At one point I pulled myself out of the water and reached down to touch the water and experienced a bona fide shock.

I told the homeowner. She said they had been experiencing shocks since the pool was installed a year ago and nobody knows what is causing it. I was just wondering if this is a common thing.

Answer: This is a rare but serious situation. As we all know, the adage "electricity and water don't mix" is right. First and foremost, do everything you can to persuade the homeowner with this pool to call a licensed electrician immediately. The situation could be deadly.

If the pool was properly permitted and built to rigid electrical codes and municipal inspections, this situation indicates something has changed.

"The National Electric Code goes to great lengths to prevent this situation from occurring," says Larry Brown, master electrician and electrical division manager of Mid-Florida Pools in Orlando.

Depending on what type of pool you have, the electric code requires two or three backup grounding and bonding systems to prevent what is called transient voltages from entering the water or any connected metal conductor such as a handrail or a ladder, Brown says.

In this case, we would suspect that the tingling you are feeling is coming from the underwater pool light, if it has one, or the pump motor itself. If the electrical system of the pool was installed to code, this would make it impossible for the light or pump to cause the shock. Therefore, we believe that the grounding and bonding was either not installed to code or a subsequent set of unusual circumstances — the pool equipment or light is no longer grounded or bonded — has led to the tingling.

There are other possibilities, such as an ungrounded metal screen enclosure or lights and extension cords added in the pool area. The electrical codes are specific and multilayered when it comes to swimming pool wiring to prevent a shock even if all the above possible causes were to occur.

We cannot stress enough the seriousness of the situation. Please don't hesitate to advise the pool owner to seek professional electrical help immediately. If the pool owner won't take this advice, notify your local building department. You may save a life.

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