Getting a new spa or hot tub for your house is an exciting addition. Sitting out in the backyard in a nice warm hot tub is a great way to spend an evening. Your new spa will need to be powered from your home and the home electrical part of your spa will be determined from what size circuit breaker the spa needs.
What is a circuit breaker?
Circuit breakers live in the electrical panel in your house. The circuit breaker is what the wiring connects to and what protects the wiring in your home. The circuit breaker allows a safe amount of electrical current (amps) through the circuit. There are two types of circuit breakers that your spa needs.
Standard Circuit Breaker: This gets installed in your panel. It is similar to the other breakers in the panel. This is where the electricity for the spa starts. Here is what a standard circuit breaker looks like.
GFCI Circuit Breaker: This is an ultra safe circuit breaker. A GFCI circuit breaker is much like the outlet in your bathroom, it protects your entire spa. This breaker is usually in the “Spa Panel” near your spa. Here is what a GFCI breaker looks like.
You can figure out what size of breaker you will need by asking the spa store or looking at the spa manual. Its a good idea to ask an electrician about this if you are unsure.
What are common spa circuit breaker sizes?
Although there are some outliers the most common spa circuit breaker sizes are:
- 40 Amp
- 50 Amp
What size spa circuit breaker can I fit in my electrical panel?
There are two ways a circuit breaker fits into an electrical panel; the amount of free spaces in the panel and capacity of your electrical system.
Determining if you have enough free spaces in your panel is easy, just go look at it, your spa breaker will be the same size as the biggest other breaker you have in there (2 spaces). If you have 2 free spaces it will fit.
Determining the capacity of your electrical system is a bit more complicated. You can determine it yourself, click here for a calculator if you are in BC. Or have an electrician come by to do a load calculation for you. If your electrical system is over capacity you may need to do a service upgrade.
Want to do the load calculation for yourself? Check out our how-to article here.
What size breaker do I need for my new spa?
All residential circuit breakers allow up to 80% of what they are rated for. This means:
- 40 Amp x 0.8 = 32 Amp
- 50 Amp x 0.8 = 40 Amp
Why does this matter? It matters because when you’re looking at a spa you want to make sure the spas demand or electrical rating is less than 80% of the breakers rating so you’ll be looking for a spa that’s 32 amps or less or 40 amps or less.
Summary
Most people start with the fancy thing, the hot tub. But the most important thing you can do is to start with determining the capacity of your electrical system and electrical panel, then choosing a great spa that fits into your electrical system without additional unexpected costs.
If you want some more help with determining what size of spa your home can fit before buying your spa then check out our page here on spa installations.
