Low voltage lighting near inground pool

[wageoghe]

We have an 18x36 inground pool. It has a concrete deck. This deck is approximately 3 feet wide on one side. Directly adjacent to the deck is a decorative wood fence, then shrubbery, then a privacy fence. On the back end of the pool ( farthest from the house ) the deck is probably 8 feet or more wide, with similar decorative wood fence, shrubbery, and privacy fence. The privacy fence is near the property line. The other two sides of the pool have a 3 foot concrete deck and 6 foot concrete deck bounded by a 52" aluminum fence ( Jerith ).

I would like to add some lighting near the pool and one idea I had was to install low voltage fixtures ( like surface mount fixtures made for decks ) to some of the posts of the decorative fence.

There is a gfci protected outlet with bubble cover attached to the pool subpanel. The outlet is within 3-4 feet of the pool pump and filter and within 15 feet of the pool. This outlet is also within about 15 feet of the decorative fence that goes along the 36 foot length of the pool. At the other end of the pool the decorative fence makes a right-hand turn and continues across the 18 foot width of the pool about 8 feet or so from the water.

I would anticipate putting 4 or 5 fixtures along the long side of the pool ( 3 feet from water ) and 3 or 4 along the short ( farthest from the outlet ) side ( 8 feet from water ). For extra safety/robustness I have considered running the low-voltage wires through conduit that I would attach to the back of the decorative fence. Junctions from the main wire to the fixtures would be made using wirenuts rather than the wire-piercing connectors.

I have questions in two areas:

Is it a bad idea to have even low voltage wiring and fixtures this close ( 3' to 8' ) to the pool?

Assuming it is not a bad idea, how can I minimize the voltage drop to the light fixtures. I have done some reading about the various methods for wiring low voltage landscape lighting ( series, loop, T ). It seem that I might be able to use one T on each of the two sides of the pool, with the "supply" wire being 10 gauge to minimize voltage drop.

Thanks for any help or suggestions that anyone can offer.

[sitelights]

I have in front of me an installation sheet for a low voltage luminaire acquired recently that states "LUMINAIRES ARE NOT TO BE INSTALLED WITHIN 10 FT. (3.05M) OF A POOL OR SPA." This follows UL1838 closely; the difference being that 53.3 states 10 feet (1.52m) and adds the word fountain. That said, homeowners can do as they damn well please.

If a homeowner decided to ignore UL1838 53.3 he could also ignore the voltage drop issue when using 10 gauge cable, short runs and low lamp loads (20w per fixture). He could also forget the conduit and wire nuts (see the pierce-point post by keying in that word on the site search function).

This theoretical homeowner should check the transformer to insure that it has a circuit breaker on the secondary (12v) side and good separation between the 120v input and the 12v output; if these are in the same wiring compartment a Faraday shield designed to prevent contact between the 120v and the 12v wiring should be firmly in place. Look for a UL1838 label on the transformer.