Many electric fence problems can be traced back to a poor grounding system. Insufficient grounding prevents animals from completing the circuit and receiving an effective shock.
Check the grounding system by following the instructions in the energizer’s owner’s manual. Install additional ground rods if your site has sandy, dry or rocky soil.
How to Install an Electric Fence
The first step is to install the wires. Start with the corner posts and carefully unwind the electric fence wire until you reach the next post. Then hook the insulated end to the built-in plastic hook that is on each post. Then secure the hook with a connector clamp.
Once the wire is in place, it’s time to connect to your energizer. Attach the positive and negative clips on your energizer to the pos/neg net. Then attach a wire from the ground terminal on your energizer to a ground rod.
Once everything is connected, check your voltage with a digital voltmeter (Dare #2411). Your fence should be delivering a strong shock if it is functioning properly. It is recommended that you walk the fence line on a regular basis to look for poor connections, broken insulators and other problems.
Volts
When a wire is connected to an energizer and touched by an animal, it completes a circuit and transmits a short high-voltage pulse that causes a painful shock. The shock is just strong enough to deter livestock from touching the fence, but it’s not lethal like a welder’s current.
Modern electric fence energizers convert mains or battery power into a high voltage pulse that’s sent along an insulated wire. The pulses are released at a rate of about 1/300th of a second.
Checking the pulses with a digital voltmeter (like the Dare #2411), will ensure that your energizer is producing a sufficient amount of electricity. A poorly grounded system can leak current through insulators or the ground, and weeds or other vegetation growing on wires can drain the voltage and render your electric fence ineffective.
Amps
Voltage gets the animal’s attention – it hurts. But it’s the current or “amps” that kills. Modern energizers reduce the deadly amps to around 120 milliamps (it varies by manufacturer). This is a fraction of the amperage used to power household appliances.
If your energizer is producing low joules you should consider upgrading it to a more powerful model. This will also save money in the long run, as you’ll be able to use the same wires and insulators.
If you’re planning on expanding your fence in the future make sure your energizer has enough output joules to handle the additional load. Otherwise you might end up with shorts in the fence line which can be dangerous. Check the owner’s manual for grounding instructions.
Joules
During the powering process, a transformer converts stored joules into output joules. However, the transformer is not 100 percent efficient, so the actual joules transmitted to the fence will be less than what is actually stored.
This is why it is important to know the difference between stored joules and output joules. Joule ratings for electric fence energizers are usually listed as a combination of stored and output joules.
When it comes to longer fence lines, thicker vegetation or larger animals, a higher joule rating may be required. For this reason, it is important to plan ahead and purchase an energizer with sufficient output joules to cover your entire fence line. A knowledgeable fence supplier can help you determine the appropriate joule ratings for your application.
Grounding
A well-designed grounding system is crucial for an electric fence malaysia to be effective. During an animal’s contact with the fence, a pulse travels through the animal, into the soil and then captures the moisture in that soil to complete its electrical circuit back to the energizer (via the negative wire).
The negative (ground) wire is connected to galvanized metal rods driven into the ground. The recommended number of ground rods varies depending on the energizer joule rating and soil conditions.
A good guideline is to use 3 ft of ground rod for each joule of output from the energizer. This helps to ensure that the grounding system is as conductive as possible, which reduces the voltage that must be delivered to the animal to startle it rather than burn or injure.