My friend wants to attach a 240 v fan forced heater to the outside shrouding on my hot tub. He wants to use the wiring from the hot tub. I feel this is unsafe, (water and electricity close together), but he tells me that the gfci’s are made for this, and I’m being silly to worry. The hot tub is indoors in a sun room, windows all around, so its difficult to find a good spot for the heater, and to get near 240 wiring. What’s your advice?
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would a propane heater work?
I seriously doubt that's OK. Around here you are not allowed to locate the shutoff for the hot tub any closer than 5' from the high water line inside the tub. Obviously, the do not want you to be able to reach for the switch when you are in the tub. Attaching a heater to the outside of the enclosure seems very contrary to that idea.
I take it that the sunroom needs heat and your friend "wants" to do this to help you out?
My advice is to polite decline the generous offer and find another way to add some heat to the space. As Dave noted, any electrical device, like a portable electric heater or an electric baseboard heater needs to be provided with GFCI protectioon as well, if it is within that same 5 ft. Ground fault circuit interrupter protection are intended for people protection from electricity in wet places, but tapping into the spa wiring to add a space heater seems a little ill-conceived.