Grounding rod Q for electric fencing

[Soundguy]

On my electric fence.. I have the plastic insulation posts and a top and bottom wire.

makes a complete loop around the property. I have the fence grounded by rods driven in at various locations, and tied to the fence. The idea being.. I don't want the fence ever to be accidentally hot.. though i know that is almost impossible due tot he fence in contact with earth. With the multiple rods I get good high voltage from wire to earth at all points on my fence. When i had only the ground rod at the fencer, I had less kv at the furtheset point from the fencer.

That's my setup anyway..

Soundguy

 

[Varmintmist]

If you an get a good ground at the fence, then put them at the fence. Send the rods down at a angle so that most of it is buried. Put 3-4 rods in and try it. Worst case is you nave to run another field at the pond and bond the two together.

One way to make your ground better is to salt it. If you give your critters salt blocks, set the block on top of where the rod is.

Anyhoo, you may be better to do a separate return strand and not worry about sinking a large single ground field.
...................

Inspector, you are right, however include outbuildings bonded to MGN also. They are normally connected to the main house in some way. Power will go a heck of a ways to chase the path of least resistance. You tie it ALL together or you are asking for problems.

http://www.foothill.net/~ringram/groundng.htm

http://www.geocities.com/blitzent/introp.html

 

[heehaw]

i think thats the best way to put a fence in, the gnd running along with the hot wire gives a much better chance of getting a good jolt to the critters..when the soil gets dry, it will not conduct electricity well enough to keep an electric fence working, in this area anyway. we just put in a swimming pool, dug the deep end over 8 ft deep and still didn't hit damp dirt...i have done some gnd checks for cell phone towers/buildings with a meggar, many times, driving the test rods in, and connecting to their grounding system showed the resistance way to high...thats when i started cutting the gnd wire on the power poles, about 3 ft up from the dirt, and connecting to the gnd wire going to the bottom of the pole..checked good almost every time. or if you want to cheat, do the testing early in the morning, while the dew is still on the grass, and you can lay the test rods on top of the ground and it test great.
heehaw

 

[Varmintmist]

FYI, the salt thing is a cheat also. The salt in the ground will help retain moisture around the rods, making it a better conductor longer.

Cheaper than drilling a grounding well /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[daedong]

Peter,

I am not familar with this type of netting. but as for controling sheep you will be much better off running 6-8 strands of wire on pickets and use every second wire as an earth. I also wonder whether your voltage drop is nothing to do with your earth just to small a output unit.

Using alternate - + wires is by far the bet way to control all larger animals and aslo addresses the dry soil problem.

In oz we run 10s miles of multi strand wire fences through country that i would think is much dryer