Electric Portable Fence

[chandasue]

Does anyone use these ?

Normally I would not do electric fence but I have a mellow nigerian dwarf buck that I need to bring home soon and husb is too busy to put in a real fence until later this fall. So I was thinking that the 3.5' version might be an easy temporary fence that I can put up myself. If so how powerful of a charger will I need to get. The car battery type will work best for our set up but I might be able to use a plug in type. Solar is too expensive.

 

[jodief100]

I use it and I love it. This is the charger I use. Wide impedence, peak output .27 Joules.

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=377&cat_id=43

I have the solar panel attachment but it works well on regular batteries. You need a hot charger for goats.

 

[patandchickens]

I'd be real leery of running electronet on anything that puts out less than half a joule -- previous poster may be fine with it, but quite often it's not enough (those electronets foul *so easily*, even just on a windy day, even with extra posts/tiesbacks).

(I love electronet, mind you, it's just that it has its idiosyncrasies)

I use Premier's version, the 42" stuff I believe, for my sheep and it's great. I run it off the 1.1 joule charger that also powers some other hotwire, you wouldn't need quite that big a charger for just one section of electronet but if you were going to get *several* then I'd
say not to go much smaller than that.

If your grid service is reliable and virtually never conks out, plug-in is A LOT better than battery-operated for yoru charger. Especially for electronet. REason being, if the fence grounds out badly and you don't notice right away, you end up draining the battery so far it will never hold a proper charge again. Those $50-100 batteries (you need deep-cycle marine type) really add up with that kind of "oops". Whereas with a plug-in charger, you're paying less to buy the charger (for a given size charger), it costs less to operate, AND if you discover the fence has grounded out badly all you have to do is fix the fault (mow, put in extra posts, whatever) and bingo you're back in business immediately.

The main knock against plug-in is simply that you have to be within reasonable access of a suitable electric outlet; and that, very rarely, if lightning hits the fence it can blow your charger (even WITH a lightning choke on, sometimes) and that can start a fire which can affect the building the charger is housed in (unless you've got buried service to a little outdoor hut) and affect house wiring. With a short fence the lightning risk is negligable though, IMO.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[chandasue]

Thanks both of you. Just the info I was looking for.

 

[dhansen]

When you use the electric netting, do you have to have a grounding rod?

 

[jodief100]

When you use the electric netting, do you have to have a grounding rod?

Yes, but unless it is dry it deosn't need to be very long, about a foot or so. If it is really dry, you will ned to go deeper.

At least this is my experience.

 

[Goatherd]

Yes, but unless it is dry it deosn't need to be very long, about a foot or so. If it is really dry, you will ned to go deeper.

Ditto. I live on property that never gets dry no matter what the season so I don't have to go as deep.

 

[patandchickens]

Obviously if you're tapping off a permanent electric fence there is no grounding issue since that has its own ground rods. But, if you're running ONLY the electronet off a charger (e.g. I sometimes use my solar charger to run JUST a section of electronet, when it's somewhere inconvenient to tap off the permanent fence) then I just use a 2' length of rebar pushed maybe halfway into the ground. This is in pretty moist soil, but really the fence is so short that unless your soil is bone-dry I don't think you'd have to do much more. Although if you run a longer fence, e.g. multiple sections of electronet, then you might need more or longer grounds, I dunno.

Pat

 

[jodief100]

I have (4) 162' nets running alone, no permanent electric fence. I use a galvanized ground rod. Our propety stays pretty wet so about 1' deep was all I ever had. Last summer we had a bad drought, my creek dired up which it never has. I had to go about 3' deep at that point.

Just check it regularly and adjust as needed.

I just bought two more nets and bigger charger so lets see what happens this year!