Power To Auto-Gate Opener

[heehaw]

my well is 500 ft from the house, i ran #10-2wg direct burial wire, two runs of it, one for the 220volt submersible pump and one for the 110 volt pump that pumps the water out of the sand filter and to the house, this also handles the light, when the 110 volt pump kicks on, the light goes out, but it comes right back on as soon as the initial start current is over..this has worked flawlessly since 1986. i don't know how much the direct burial wire is now, but i would probably use regular wire an put it in pvc or black plastic, if i were doing it now. the separate meter may be the easiest and cheapest way to go, but what will the minimum monthly bill be 5-10 years from now??
heehaw

 

[dmccarty]

Mr. Hiding Okie,

I have a similar problem with the same possible solutions. My gate
currently is about 900 feet from my driveway and another 500 feet to
the transformer that was just put in. When the power engineer was
out dealing with the utilities they just put in I asked about the gate.
As soon as I asked the question I knew I was in trouble.

To run it from the transformer down the road was kinda nuts. The
power company was paying to run the cable but I just barely had
enough square footage in the house to justify the company footing
the bill. So for me to run the power back down the road was
going to cost some bucks. Then you get into power loss. Not worth
it. So it really was not going to work. The cable they laid from
transformer to transformer was really heavy duty. I'm sure it was
not cheap. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

So, then you need a separate meter and service. As you found out
it was going to be about 10 dollars a month. Pretty expensive to
just open the gate. PLUS the cost of running the service to the
meter was going to cost a couple thousand dollars.

So the next solution is solar or using the old fashion gate opener,
The Wife or The Kid! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Later...
Dan McCarty

 

[mbsil]

Solar is the solution.

"I'd bet everything on solar power"....Thomas Edison

Install a solar cell to charge a 12 volt battery. The 12 V battery can then run the gate opener (suprisingly low current draw) a wireless camera ($79.95 for camera, transmitter and receiver) and a wireless intercom as well as a chime to announce when someone enters the gate.


Buy an extra gate opener button to keep at the house. When you do get the intercom call you can look at the gate area via the camera before opening.

There is a device called a modulator that will let you assign a TV channel to the camera then inject the signal into your antenna coax. Now any TV in the house can be tuned to the new channed to view the gate.

The camera and driveway annunciator (chime triggered by a photobeam) will draw current 24/7, however they don't use much. The gate opener only uses current 2-4 times a day when you enter/exit. The battery should be able to run all this for 7-10 days with no sun if you size the battery properly.

 

[akman]

Here's my system: GTO Pro 1000 Low Voltage operators. Low voltage wire can be run up to 1000' from transformer.

Installed myself along with gates in about 4 hours. Including vehicle exit loop detector buried in new asphalt driveway. Ran 400' of AC through buried conduit down to columns providing AC for lighting AND wireless surveillance camera mounted on column. Camera is part of system which runs through my home PC continuosly and I can even remote access from web!

Wife wants the intercom so will add a wireless one soon.

We plan on installing matching fence this year now that we have our new Kubota with a PHD!

Purchased from www.hooverfence.com . Great people to work with. Extremely professional and helpful to the DIYer!

 

[akman]

More photos

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Howdy neighbor,

I agree that Solar is a good choice. It would be fairly easy to upgrade to a larger panel, if the included one doesn't keep up.


Deep discharge,(marine) batteries help, too