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I am going to put up an electric tape fence and I am trying to figure out a few things. The property that I am going to fence is like the letter ‘C’ and the electric source will start in the back part of the C in the middle. Is this a viable option? All of the diagrams that I have looked at start at an end of a fence instead of in the middle of a fence. If so, where do the grounding rods go?
Thanks,
Scott
Ground rods go near the charger. I have mine in the middle too, and seems to work fine. The better the ground the better the fence works. I use two ground rods tied together to improve the effectiveness of the charger. By the way, do not use or tie into the house ground. It will most likely pop your GFCI's if you do...
Joe
Feeding from the center is better than feeding from one end. Grounding effects performace quite a bit. Multiple ground rods increase the surface area of contact with the earth and lower the resistance (helps improve performance.) You might drive two rods or one long one. How to chose? If the soil is moist near the surface then a couple rods will work well and are easier than driving a long rod. If you have to go deep to get moist soil then a longer rod will work better. It is all about conductivity from the ground rod to the soil. A good charger will deliver only so so to poor performance with a poor ground. An excellent ground will help get all the performance designed into your particular unit.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Scott, just thought I would ask... how much area are you fencing in? 1 or 2 acres it won't make a big difference where you put the grounding rod... Also, what type of livestock, pets, or family members are you attempting to keep in or out?
I am fencing in 5 acres. The electric fence is for my 2 horses, they are destroying my fence by rubbing on it.
Can I run the grounding rods along the fence or does it have to be perpendicular?
Thanks,
Scott
flymutt, The ground rods are for making contact with the actual dirt so the animal standing on dirt will complete the circuit when it touchesthe "hot wire." To reduce electrical resistance, having the ground rods contact moist soil is a good thing. Orientation, other than to access moist dirt, is not an important issue.
If you have lightning where you are you might want to consider lightning protection for your fence charger.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
One thing I did that seems to work well is run a ground strand between the hot strands on the fence, along with the grounding rods at the fence energizer.
That way you tie all the posts ( metal T-posts in my case except for the corners ) in to a large grounding grid. It saves a bit of time and money as well, not having to buy and install insulators for all the fence wires.
twstanley, The ground "strand" is an excellent strategy if the strands are spaced such that the stock in question are likely to touch the ground and hot at the same time. With really dry surface soil conditions, chargers typically lose effectiveness and don't command the respect that is an effective deterrent to fence dammage. The ground strand, of course, does not lose potency due to drought.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Due to the layout of my fence, my charger is on one end. I started with fours strands but when the weather got dry, I had to make the 3rd strand from the ground into a ground strand. The other three rows will still work back to the charger ground, weakly of course. You can increase your charger ground by using more rods. I have three spaced ten feet apart, parallel and close to my posts. When I changed to a grounded row, I added six more rods around my fence. One thing you do not want to do is to locate your charger/ground rod near a water source for your animals. They could get a shock when they drink. Your charger should come with directions plus you can find them on line on several fencing material sites.
We get some serious lightning at our farm. After smoking a couple of chargers, I no longer depend on the lightning arrester. I have those large lever type switches near my charger to disconnect it when we have lightning. In the up position, ground and hot are connected. When in the down position, the charger is isolated and if lightning hits my fence, it gets shunted to ground. I can't always be home to throw the switches of course so luckily, I had not lost a charger since adding them.
Great, thanks for all of the advice, sounds pretty straight forward.
Thanks,
Scott
Pat, that's how I did our fences, the bottom wire is ground, then hot, then ground, then hot.
So if a calf tries to squeeze out, he gets a ground wire below and a hot wire on top, so they don't do that.
Same with a bigger animal. It seems to work real well for me.
twstanley, Sounds good to me, especially for periods of drought when good grounding is so difficult to get.
Lightning protection is shades of grey. There is no ultimate protection that permits the electric fence to be useful. Manual switching is not perfect but sure increases your chances of having the equipment survive. A caution... If you just happen to have your hand on or near the switch when the fence is hit or has a near miss you could be killed. I know it sounds paranoid but a long insulated helper made of dry wood or plastic can be used to open or close the switch. Just because you have walked across the road without looking for cars several times and survived doesn't make it a safe or smart thing to do.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Pat,
Good words to live by.
I ended up putting the ground rods near the watering tank. The freeze proof faucet is near but on the non-horse side of the fence, so I drove the ground rods about a foot away right next to the concrete pad around the freeze proof faucet. I don't use automatic waterers, and am forever spilling 'a gallon or two around the faucet. Also when you shut off the faucet, there is a weep hole a couple of feet below ground level that lets the water in the upper part of the pipe drain back down below the freeze level.
Keeps the ground moist and have had no problems.
Oh Yeah!....Don't water when there is lightening around....