Electric Fence Question: Grounding, etc.

[allswift]

I am going to be renting a small barn and the pasture that surrounds it from a friend in January. I’m poor and can’t do a ton of fencing upgrades or permanent fixtures. There is woven wire fencing around the perimeter, with one board on top. It’s mostly secure, with a few sections I’m not thrilled with, which I’ll be adding some quikrete to. In addition, I am planning to add a single line of hotwire around the top board, and I’m also planning to section off a small sacrifice area behind the barn. Finally, I’d like to be able to divide the pasture in two with hot wire.

I have three main questions:

1. My understanding is that for a proper electric fence, you need a grounded line as well as a hot wire. Traditionally, that would mean something like a three strand fence with the top and bottom being hot, and the middle line being grounded … I know I’ve seen folks that do a single line along the top - what is the technique for grounding that? Or do they just not bother? Should I plan to run a second wire all the way around as well?

2. The sacrifice area will actually be two fences - one that attaches to the perimeter fence and just goes across a 20’ opening before ending at the side of the barn, and the other that attaches to the perimeter and then makes an “L” and ends at the back of the barn. These two sections do not connect. If I’m running two hot strands and a grounded strand along these sections, and I’m attaching insulated wires that wire the top & bottom strands together (skipping the grounded middle), does it matter that they are essentially dead end lines? Will that interfere with the circuit in anyway?

3. In a similar vein - If I am going to divide the main pasture in half (connecting to the perimeter at each end), and also have those two legs of sacrifice area fencing, are there any issues with maintaining the circuit/voltage? At what point is it too convoluted, or is that not a problem? It’s not a huge pasture, probably 2.5 acres.

Sorry - I have next to no electrical knowledge. :lol: Thanks for any expert advice!

[poltroon]

You don’t need to run two wires on the fence itself to create a “ground.” That’s one technique, but the more typical one is to use ground rods driven into the soil near the charger.

http://www.premier1supplies.com has a very good fencing catalog that comes with a lot of tutorials and diagrams - I highly recommend it.

A convoluted path isn’t a problem - your issues will be the resistance of the wire/total length of the fence, and then load added by grass or other shorts touching the fence.

[Foxglove]

I’m not an electrician but I have been using electric wire fences for my horses for 45 years. I’ve not heard of the “grounded wire” as being part of the fence. What we do is run the hot wire from the source charger around the pasture(s). Then we pound a ground pole into the ground near the charger. On the charger there are two places to attach wire. One says “fence” and the other says “ground.” The wire leading to the hot strands, we attach to the “fence” terminal --the other goes from the charger to the ground post in the ground. My fence works. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but it works great. We have four pastures all hot wired from the same charger and ground. To test the fence, one needs to put the fence tester on the hot wire, and touch the “ground” part of the charger to the ground (literally) or something touching the ground (post). Tester light will flash if fence is working.

As far as circling the wire --I actually do that --I’ve had no problems -but it isn’t a complete circle --the wire around each pasture terminate before they reach themselves at a gate usually. But all my wire IS hooked together. Kind of a pain when something shorts and you have to walk the entire line to find out what’s shorting the fence.

Foxglove

[allswift]

Thank you both. I was originally told that you should have three grounding rods spaced ten feet apart and connected to the charger’s grounding wire. Then, depending on the length of the fence and what the voltage readings were farther out, you could add a grounding rod somewhere along the length by running a grounding wire. Sounds like I may not have to do that - perhaps that’s only an issue for much longer fences.

[NoSuchPerson]

If you have a soil type and/or soil moisture levels that provides good conductance, then the approach described by the above posters works well. You just need a ground rod connected to your fence charger’s ground terminal and a single wire fence. If you aren’t getting a good ground that way, you can try two ground rods, connected fence charger—ground rod----ground rod.

But, if you live in a place where you can’t get good conductance through the soil, then you’re going to have to do at least 2 wires, one connected to the ground terminal, the other to the fence terminal on your fence charger, and arranged such that the horse contacts both wires when he leans over the fence.

I have a few spots on my property now where, when using the ground rod set-up, I can’t even generate enough current to keep the dog in the yard. The soil profile there is sand over lime rock. I’ve completely given up on electric, although at my previous place - a short term rental on reclaimed swampland (typical Florida) - I used nothing but electric tape on step-in posts for interior fencing and it worked great.

[wildlifer]

Best money I ever spent & I LOVE it: Horseguard’s bipolar fence. Even with the most wonderful neighbour ever who has a hydraulic post driver he’ll drive up the hill for free, no way in heck I’m driving 3-5 10’ ground rods into rocky Piedmont soil, and mine is even lovely sandy loam.

I’ve spent 3 decades working, riding, managing, etc at all manner of farms & there are few things more annoying than a bad ground.

Horseguard solved it all & although my property is fenced with perfectly & correctly built hi-tensile (that saved my horse’s life when he jumped through it, eesh), I ran a strand of bipolar around the inside b/c both horses respect white tape.

No ground required, the tape makes its own circuit & I run it all off a great little $85 Parmak DC charger with a deep cycle battery & solar battery charger. Horseguard’s website so needs a professional designer, but give them an email or a call & their reps & service are all wonderful & the tape couldn’t be easier to install.

MAJOR quality difference too, as I cheated & fenced in some areas I wanted to enclose quickly with some cheapie TSC tape. In 50 mph wind, the HorseGuard didn’t budge while everything else flapped all over the place. No more worries about ground moisture levels for a good connection, etc.

Ummm, I really really like it, LOL! Despite its horrific name (whoever chose that one has obviously never experienced anything to do with actual bipolar disorder, sheesh).

[Quelah]

[QUOTE=allswift;7913364]
Thank you both. I was originally told that you should have three grounding rods spaced ten feet apart and connected to the charger’s grounding wire. Then, depending on the length of the fence and what the voltage readings were farther out, you could add a grounding rod somewhere along the length by running a grounding wire. Sounds like I may not have to do that - perhaps that’s only an issue for much longer fences.[/QUOTE]

Where do you live? AKA what’s the soil like? I’ve never had more than one grounding rod for the hot wire charger, but we have clay soil. My husband is an electrical contractor who (bless him) willingly does farm projects so if we’d needed more ground rods, we would have had them.

[Underthebridge]

I have clay and use one ground rod, make sure you can disconnect the fence easily in case of a lightning storm, chargers are expensive, my lightning fuse “external” failed without reason, so my fence is only “ON” when needed, I used to have just a fence handle, but now have the golfball switch, quick and easy if I hear thunder.

[poltroon]

In summer my ground gets quite dry and at that time the fence can get iffy without a big honking charger. You are depending upon the moisture in the soil conducting charge from the animal back to the ground rods.

[saje]

Second double thumbs up for the Horseguard Bipolar fence. Not having to pound in multiple ground rods is a HUGE bonus for me, well worth the cost. Also as we’re in the SC sand belt, I’d have had to water them periodically to keep a good charge on the fence.

I bought one (actually two, I think) of their starter packages and it really was pretty easy to put up, once I deciphered the pitiful instructions. Their website is awful, but the product is great!

[hosspuller]

For the price difference of the “Bipolar” tape, rent an electric hammerdrill and ground rod driver…about $40 - 50 per day

I buried 3 eight foot ground rods in less than a 1/2 hour with no effort. They are in the back of the shed where the roof keeps them watered with runoff. Anything touching the fence becomes energized. Cross fencing for intensive rotational grazing is merely a tape.

[saje]

Meh, the bipolar Horseguard tape runs about 17 cents/foot, the Zareba that TSC sells is about 12 cents/foot (for the 2" tape). That’s an extra $5/100 feet of fencing.

Still worth it to me to not have to rent/pound/return/monitor!

[wildlifer]

Sometimes you really do get what you pay for, though. The “cheapie” tape I referenced IS the Zareba & the Dare normal tape. Flaps like crazy in the wind, the Zareba even tore (!!), & even in your hand, does not even approach the durability & quality of materials of the Horseguard.

I’m not a sales rep, I swear, just a product skeptic who has no money so does a ton of research & want to do it ONCE & try to do it right the first time, preferably working smarter, not harder, LOL.

I’m still begging them to give their products names though, b/c I get so confused trying to figure out if I ordered the BP32 or the H26 or the UFO51…I have to just look at the pictures, haha! Use your words, HG, you can do it! Thank goodness for Paul, my amazing rep who put up with my 400 emails!

[saje]

I am SO with you on that! I swear I spent longer flipping back and forth through the catalog and the website trying to figure out what I needed and then to make sure which part was what when I got it than I did actually installing it!

Again, great product, lousy website, great customer service!