Hi All Firstly - sorry for the long post. I’m going to be installing a hot tub shortly and would like to run the electrical plan past the experts here. The preferred location for the hot tub is outside at the other end of the house from the electrical panel. Probably at least a 130ft run from the panel. The panel has a spare 50amp 240V breaker (due to an old range that was replaced with a Gas Range). The panel is located in the garage. The hot tub will be on a concrete pad (6in thick with rebar) approximately 10ft from the house outdoors. I had thought of re-using the wire that runs from the panel to the kitchen to supply the hot tube but its only 6-2 plus a ground. I need a neutral according to the spa manufacturers guidelines so I’m going to have to run a new wire the entire way. The plan is to do the following: Run around 130ft of NM-B 6/3 from the panel as follows: [LIST] From recessed panel to the roof (finished) of the garage across the garage roof, down the (finished) wall of the garage to my basement. This would all be behind sheetrock. I am going to have to cut a few holes and repair to achieve this. [/LIST] [LIST] Run the wire thru the basement to the location of the spa. First 30ft of basement is unfinished. I would run the NM-B thru the joists (the existing wire for the house runs thru the joists - they are parallel chord wood joists) Next 70ft of basement is finished. I would run the NM-B thru the joists again (finished with sheetrock) – this might be a pain but I have recessed lights in the basement which may aid this process. [/LIST] [LIST] Then thru the wall to the outside into the Spa Disconnect (1 x 20amp, 1 x 30amp – both GFCI). A junction box on the inside of the wall would switch to THHN in EMT thru the wall to the spa disconnect. [/LIST] [LIST] From the Spa Disconnect run EMT down to 18 inches underground, 10ft across and up thru the pad into the spa housing. Wire would be 6 cores #6/#8 AWG THHN in a 1 ½ inch EMT. [/LIST] So my concerns / questions are: [LIST] Is 6/3 large enough for this type of run or should I go to 4/3 ? [/LIST] [LIST] Is NM-B Ok to use in this scenario ? – I think its ok in the walls and garage ceiling but not so sure in the unfinished basement (all of the existing wiring for this size amps is Grey in color – so I think it might be UF perhaps) – although from what I read inside UF offers the same level of protection as NM-B. The basement is not wet / damp. [/LIST] [LIST] The other option here is to avoid going thru the finished basement and instead exit the house in the unfinished section of the basement and then run EMT attached to the exterior wall under a deck to the spa disconnect (using THHN rather than NM-B). I think it might be less frustrating than running thru the finished basement. The EMT under the deck visually is ok with me. (Around 80ft of EMT approx). [/LIST] [LIST] For the EMT from the spa disconnect to the pad are there any other options other than bending the EMT (Don’t have a bender -- as yet) – Can I use 90 degree elbows underground ? I’m worried about water entering the joins underground ? [/LIST] [LIST] I was going to bond the rebar to the spa bonding bus as well – is this necessary ? Can I bond it to the EMT ? or should I be using PVC 80 for this run ? [/LIST] [LIST] I’ve read that a separate GFCI 120V outlet is required within X ft of the hot tub as well. On my deck (around 6ft off the ground) I have external GFCI outlets which would be within 20ft (as the crow flies) from the Hot Tub – is that sufficient or should I just add another one above the spa disconnect on a separate circuit (probably the same as the deck circuit) ? [/LIST] [LIST] Is there a minimum height for the spa disconnect above the ground ? If I put it on the basement wall it would be about 5ft above the ground – well above any snow or water. [/LIST] I'm in NJ, USA. Thanks

Good morning, Have a Jason spa tub with a 104° flow contolled heater. At times I would like to turn off the heater and still have the jets running. Right now heater is on whenever spa is pumping. Does anyone have a circuit that would allow a low voltage switch to turn on\off the 120 vac heater? Thought about maybe a 12 volt or 24 volt doorbell transformer with a simple toggle switch. Thanks for any ideas. DJ