Electric Fence Earth Stake Spacing

Fortunately this is easy to rectify.

Electric fence earth stake spacing. Small and nimble species like rabbits for instance need more lines than larger less agile animals like cattle or horses. And i continue to see folks make many of the same common mistakes. First you need to create a dead short on your electric fence line at least 100 metres away from the earth stakes by laying an iron bar across the wires to ground. Larger energizers with large fence lines require more earthing rods.

When i put in our electric fence unit 15 years ago i rammed in 2 earth stakes into a bit of swampy spring connected these with no 8 galvanised wire and connected that to a. Does power fence cost more to build than barbed wire. The moral of this story is that the simplest thing can cause a failure of an electric fence. Isn t power fence intended to be a temporary fence high tensile power fence is every bit as permanent as barbed wire.

Make sure your earth stake is pushed into the ground as far as you can get it. The earth system consists of a number of earth rods the provide an effective low resistance path for the current to return to the energizer s earth terminal. And do not forget to miss the walls and trees. Don t place your earth stake next to trees.

With 30 years of experience building hundreds of km of electric fence i ve seen just about every fencing mistake possible. I still make mistakes myself because i m constantly challenging myself to make fencing easier faster stronger and safer. The fence charger or energizer is designed to alter the electric charge into a power that is safe for animals and people. With a voltmeter measure the voltage between the earth stakes and the ground.

The ground constitutes 50 of the electrical circuit but 90 of all problems originate at poor earthing either at the earth stake itself or on the fence. Which is picked up by a series of earth stakes connected to the earth terminal unit creating a circuit. The grounding circuit is a critical component of your electric fence and is essential to its proper functioning. Remember push your earth stake well in.

Additional earth stakes may be added by driving them into the ground 1 2 meters away from the existing stake and joining them together. A common strategy when people wire an electric fence and arrive at a gate opening is to tap off one live wire run it under the gateway and then spread it into two wires on the other side. The number of lines in your electric fence and their spacing depends on the size and agility of the animals you want to contain or deter. But when conditions become dry mike says.

If your fence is very long then the earth will have to be better than if it is short because the circuit is much bigger from the electric wire back to the earth stake s.