- An underwater pool light is designed to provide enough light to illuminate the pool for swimmers and make it visible for those outside the water. At night, a swimmer can safely see his way around and a lifeguard can see through the water to make sure no one is in trouble. Traditionally, underwater pool lights were made with incandescent or halogen bulbs, which produced a lot of heat. To dissipate this heat, the bulb would rely on the water around the light fixture to cool it.
- Underwater pool lights are tightly sealed and carefully designed to keep water out. The lamp has a gasket to keep water out and a thick glass lens to protect the lamp and diffuse the light. The lamp is held in the bottom of the pool by a clip or a screw. A cable runs from the light through the ground to a terminal in the pool shed.When the bulb in the pool light needs to be replaced, the cable is disconnected and the light is unlatched and pulled to the surface.
- Although the lights in older pools can be dangerous, modern pool lights are designed to make the risk of electrocution almost nothing. First of all, the entire light is well-sealed. If it is properly assembled, water can not get in and electricity can not get out. Even more important is the Ground Fault Circuit interrupter, or GFCI. The GFCI is an extremely sensitive circuit breaker which detects when electricity is going somewhere it shouldn't, and turns off the circuit immediately. Even a tiny leak letting a bit of water into the light will trigger the GFCI, which will turn off all the pool lights. As LED pool lights catch on, they may improve pool safety as well. LED lights, besides being more efficient, are also less likely to give a fatal shock. They use only a small fraction of the power that conventional lights use which means that, even if a swimmer were to be shocked, she would be much more likely to survive it.
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