Dogs and Electric Fences

[Kusanar]

I'm interested in utilizing solar to charge a fence. What are people's experiences with it? What type of setup do you use? How expensive was it to set up?

I do not have chickens, but I do have horses in an electric fence. We have a solar charger, it's got a little solar panel about a foot square on it and it keeps the fence HOT. It also has a little meter on it so you can tell how much juice it has available to it. Now, we did have to re-wire ours a bit as the battery that it came with kept dying for unknown reasons, so, we simply set a truck battery at the base of the fence and wired it into the charger. It now holds enough to stay HOT through several cloudy days, and, if it ever dies, we can actually run a drop cord and hook it up to a jump box for cars for a few minutes and charge her back up.

One thing you REALLY have to watch with a solar charger is that you need to keep all weeds and branches off of the fence, every time something gets zapped, it uses up some of your battery, if a branch falls on it and gets zapped every second or so 24 hours a day, it's going to drain your battery. Not QUITE as essential with the ones that you plug into a socket because they won't run out of juice they will just get expensive.

As for cost, I can't help you, we have had the charger for years so I don't know what they run now, but there is a fairly easy way to price it out.

Step 1) Figure out how long the length of your fence is (100 x 100 area is 400 feet).
Step 2) Decide how many strands of wire you will use and multiply length of fence by strands (400 ft x 4 strands = 1600 feet)
Step 3) Fence chargers are generally sized by the mile, so determine how many miles of fence (1600 feet of fence / 5280 feet per mile = roughly .3 miles of fence)
Step 4) Price out a fence charger that is rated for about 2 times or more than you need and enough fence to fence in your area. Regular wire has more bite to it and is least expensive. Tape is more visible but doesn't bite as hard as regular wire, it also breaks fairly easily. Rope fencing is visible and stronger than the tape, but is more expensive.

 

[Hivoltage]

Good stuff. We are getting a chain link fence installed 12 X 24, 6' high and buried a foot. Also covered with chain link for hawks. We plan on putting hardware cloth 2 or 3 feet high, and electric around the outside. 1 strand or 2? Could use some help on what I may have wrong.

 

[Howard E]

In my mind, solar chargers work best with remote locations where you have no other power source nearby. In my setup, a solar charger would cost about 2X to 3X what my fencer did:

https://www.amazon.com/Parmak-Solar-Pak-Impedance-Operated-Electric/dp/B00099FAJI

The Parmac 12 I use sells for about $100, more or less. But I also then needed a 12 volt deep cycle battery (which I had) and a charger (which I had). If you have to buy those things, the two equal out.

I have to charge my battery, but as long as I keep the fence clear of any weeds, etc, a charge will last 2 or 3 months. A solar charger should keep it going all year long.

So unless you have the stuff already, it is 6 of one and half dozen of another. And better in my mind to buy the solar charger already setup than trying to assemble one from components on your own.

Also, DC chargers seem to suffer less from lightening strikes than AC powered ones. Damage coming mostly from the AC line itself, not from a strike on the fence.

And most DC units are protected from weather and can be installed outside. AC units mostly need to be installed indoors, out of the weather.

 

[Folly's place]

HV, your chain link won't discourage small diggers like rats. You can add a hardware cloth skirt around the area, in addition to the hardware cloth on the chainlink wall.
I'd use two strands or more of electric; it's cheap and easy to add strands of wire or rope once you have the charger. Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I use the plug-in chargers rather than solar, because we have about a mile of horse fencing too! Our fences run at about 8 or 9 joules, and it hurts! Mary

 

[Howard E]

Good stuff. We are getting a chain link fence installed 12 X 24, 6' high and buried a foot. Also covered with chain link for hawks. We plan on putting hardware cloth 2 or 3 feet high, and electric around the outside. 1 strand or 2? Could use some help on what I may have wrong.

As you have described it, not sure what the electric wire is going to add? Sounds pretty tight and bomb proof as is. Unless you are in bear country, in which case nearly all poultry setups should have a hot wire perimeter.

BTW, to stop diggers, my preference runs 100% towards aprons laid flat on the ground vs. buried wire. More effective and far less effort. IMHO.

 

[Howard E]

Mary brings up a good point. Some folks say their electric fences won't stop dogs, but then they go on to describe their fence and it is a fence built for horses or cattle. Fences where the lowest strand may be nearly 2 feet off the deck.....fences built to confine livestock, not to keep predators out. A fence where a dog, fox or coyote could pass under it without ever getting zapped. Electric fences for poultry need to be tight to the ground. A fence that a predator is going to have to negotiate (touch) in order to get past it. Very few try to jump it. Most will try to crawl under or through (see video before). Once zapped, few will risk it to jump it.....not knowing what awaits them if they leave their feet.

 

[Folly's place]

x2! Mary

 

[theoldchick]

I love my Parmak:

I bought one 35 years ago and it is still in use. I also inherited one 10 years ago and I still use it. The batteries last about 3-4 years.

 

[Hivoltage]

HV, your chain link won't discourage small diggers like rats. You can add a hardware cloth skirt around the area, in addition to the hardware cloth on the chainlink wall.
I'd use two strands or more of electric; it's cheap and easy to add strands of wire or rope once you have the charger. Mary

How high should the 2 strands of electric be ? I like the idea of hardware cloth. 2' should do it.