ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area another pool q

A friend had an in ground pool installed with extra low voltage (12v) haywood lights.Gfci protection was installed and does not trip .A rather large shock can be received if you lean over the edge of thr pool and dip you hand into the water. The company that did the install has been working at it for a week now and after trying to blame the fault on the poco now says the problem is that the haywood lights have ground wires that should not be connected. They’er reasoning is that they have been installing this type system for years and the fixtures never had ground wire before. They now have disconnected the grounds and say they are waiting for haywood to send a letter that states it’s ok without ungrounded .This company has called the poco and demanded that they come out and lower the voltage because the lights are rated at 110v and the power to the house is a whopping 125v.Im still lmao and the poco won’t deal with them for obvious reasons .As it stands now the pool can’t be used until this gets figured out. Im not involved and want it to stay that way especially since im sure there was no inspection work industrial exclusively and must say this is not my area of expertise’s. I think that the fault may be under 5 ma and not tripping the breaker( could the ground and neutral be bonded by mistake ?).Any ideas would be appreciated as the installer is asking if I can help because their electricians can’t figure it out. I have told them they had better get it inspected before using it or they will be liable period. thanks

Is everything in, around, and under the pool bonded together, including all electrical devices, per NEC? Galvanic action can set up some pretty good currents. Do you get the problem when the power is off to the lights?
One side of their LV x-fmr (or the center tap) should be tied to ground otherwise you can get a floating voltage that can be very high, especially if there is a problem with the windings in their x-fmr. (Don't change their product, just investigate) Is the x-fmr listed for such a use? I have found many in the past that aren't...

Yes the problem only occurss when the lights are energized.I mentioned the xformer center tap to them but don't know if it has been checked.Will also mention the bonding issue as well.thanks again