Premier 1 folks, whats your voltage like?

[StinkyAcres]

It might be better to ask Premier1 directly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Talking directly to Premiere1 is an outstanding excellent idea. They can answer these questions much better than I can.

I could be wrong, but I feel anything higher than 5,000 volts would be too much for a chicken.

It is not the voltage that is the issue, it is the amps. If they were putting out a product that could damage people or pets they'd have legal issues.

The way they protect people and animals is that it is not a continuous current. It pulses about 50 times a minute. That gives people and critters a chance to turn loose. With a continuous current they could not turn loose, which would be dangerous. My tester confirms the voltage is above 7,000, it does not say how high it actually is. I've accidentally touched it several times and am still alive. When my chickens get shocked they jump back and squawk, then go back to pecking and eating.

To be shocked they have to complete the circuit. That means they have to touch the ground and hot wire at the same time.

Are you talking about electric netting or a metal mesh fence? Those work differently. With electric netting the horizontal wires above the bottom wire are the hot wires. The bottom horizontal is not hot as that would ground it out. The soil is the ground so the critter has to touch the ground at the same time it touches a horizontal hot wire. With a mesh fence the soil and the mesh fence are the ground and you install hot wires on insulators. The set-up is different but Premiere1 can help you with that.

The grounding rods do not work that well in very dry soil. The current doesn't really travel in the dirt, it travels through the water in the dirt. Some soils, like clay, hold moisture very well. Dry sand can be an issue.

You can always ask Premiere1 but I would not worry about a septic system. It will not see any current unless it is in a direct line between the grounding rod and the hot wire that is touched. Even then I'd think the amount of current would be tiny. My electric netting was somewhat near the leech field from my septic system which helped keep the soil moist.

 

[Echelontheory101]

Talking directly to Premiere1 is an outstanding excellent idea. They can answer these questions much better than I can.


It is not the voltage that is the issue, it is the amps. If they were putting out a product that could damage people or pets they'd have legal issues.

The way they protect people and animals is that it is not a continuous current. It pulses about 50 times a minute. That gives people and critters a chance to turn loose. With a continuous current they could not turn loose, which would be dangerous. My tester confirms the voltage is above 7,000, it does not say how high it actually is. I've accidentally touched it several times and am still alive. When my chickens get shocked they jump back and squawk, then go back to pecking and eating.

To be shocked they have to complete the circuit. That means they have to touch the ground and hot wire at the same time.

Are you talking about electric netting or a metal mesh fence? Those work differently. With electric netting the horizontal wires above the bottom wire are the hot wires. The bottom horizontal is not hot as that would ground it out. The soil is the ground so the critter has to touch the ground at the same time it touches a horizontal hot wire. With a mesh fence the soil and the mesh fence are the ground and you install hot wires on insulators. The set-up is different but Premiere1 can help you with that.

The grounding rods do not work that well in very dry soil. The current doesn't really travel in the dirt, it travels through the water in the dirt. Some soils, like clay, hold moisture very well. Dry sand can be an issue.

You can always ask Premiere1 but I would not worry about a septic system. It will not see any current unless it is in a direct line between the grounding rod and the hot wire that is touched. Even then I'd think the amount of current would be tiny. My electric netting was somewhat near the leech field from my septic system which helped keep the soil moist.

Right that's exactly what I thought. And yes it is the netting not the mesh I'm not sure if you're talking to me or him though and my soil is very clay like and moist and the grounding rods are going to be at the edge of my leach field anyway, so I don't have to worry about lack of moisture for mine. I understand how all of these fences work I was originally just asking folks what their fences run at to make sure that I bought a powerful enough energizer and long enough grounding rods since I couldn't really find any stats online about the specific fence stats. Its nice to hear that your set up is over 7k Thank you!

 

[Nonafel]

I wonder if your energizer is the problem overall.

For reference I use one Solar IntelliShock® 100 Energizer with 225ish feet total of fencing.
Normal readings on volts are 9k towards the start, 1k less on the other end.

I've never had a single problem with mine and I have two seperate energizers just in case a swap is needed. The fence was closer to 7k and it audibly zapped a friends large dog that got too close.

Echoing the suggestion to contact premier directly.
Edit: I'm also using the poultry plus, so we have the exact same fencing. Even down to the gate.

 

[Echelontheory101]

I wonder if your energizer is the problem overall.

For reference I use one Solar IntelliShock® 100 Energizer with 225ish feet total of fencing.
Normal readings on volts are 9k towards the start, 1k less on the other end.

I've never had a single problem with mine and I have two seperate energizers just in case a swap is needed. The fence was closer to 7k and it audibly zapped a friends large dog that got too close.

Echoing the suggestion to contact premier directly.
Edit: I'm also using the poultry plus, so we have the exact same fencing. Even down to the gate.

I'm not having any issues with it, it hasn't even been delivered yet I purchased it the day I posted this. I was just posting this to ask people like you that have similar setups what kind of voltage I can expect so I make sure I put/purchased enough grounding rods etc since i couldnt find a clear answer online. But based on the responses I'm getting I probably didnt explain what info I was looking for well haha! Thats awesome to hear your results with your set up thats exactly what I was looking for and sounds like our setups are very similar which means I'll likely have plenty of punch for the type of predators I'm dealing with, thank you for the info!!

 

[Echelontheory101]

So I called premier 1 today and had the most baffling conversation I think I've ever had in my life

I was explaining to her my coop set up and how the fence we need to go over the chicken tunnel that would be coming out of the back of the coop that they can run to the other fenced run in without getting eaten and she could not understand what a tunnel was... she's like I don't know what you mean by tunnel it's an underground tunnel that the chickens will go through? and I'm like no it's like a tunnel a 18-in high u-shaped tunnel covered in mesh like an upside down U, and she's like I have no idea what you mean its underground? I'm like no, well do you know about like the play tunnels for cats? and she goes no.... I was like well what about like like dog shows you know like the tunnels they have to run through? and she was like No... And I was like well okay what about like Garden tunnels you know like those upside down u-shaped Hoops that you put in the ground for bug netting for gardens? And she was like No... and ny last try was imagine a fallen tree sitting on the ground, its that shape on top of the ground but wire mesh instead of tree....and still no...

And I was like I don't know how else to explain what a tunnel is to you maybe I need to talk to someone else? And she was like well no I know what a tunnel is I just don't know what you're saying your tunnel is, and I was like okay never mind that's fine how about instead of thinking of it as a tunnel I need the fencing to go over a big rock put the tunnel completely out of your head since that's confusing you pretend it's a rock that I need to get the fence over how would I go about turning off the lower strands to scrunch the fence up over that like what?

And I know sometimes I explain things weird so I totally understand but after saying a U-shaped tunnel made with semi flexible tubing in a U-shaped staked into the ground with hardware cloth over it like a cat play tunnel like a dog show tunnel like a garden tunnel would be enough to someone who sells Farm fencing for a living

For context

 

[Nonafel]

You're refrencing something similar to a hoop house or high tunnel in structure. Just saying tunnel is confusing. Even calling it a garden hoop tunnel or it's like an ivy covered canopy over a walkway.

On that note your "tunnel" doesn't need electric fencing, just cover it with hardware cloth. 1/2 inch if it's for itty bitty chicks, larger is fine otherwise.
A simple extension of said hardware cloth to a post of some kind works best in this case. You put two posts down like you're making a gate for the tunnel, the electric fence posts can butt up against the outsides, the insides connect to additional hardware cloth. Everyones happy.

For your rock problem the hardware cloth extension can do the same thing.

 

[Echelontheory101]

You're refrencing something similar to a hoop house or high tunnel in structure. Just saying tunnel is confusing. Even calling it a garden hoop tunnel or it's like an ivy covered canopy over a walkway.

On that note your "tunnel" doesn't need electric fencing, just cover it with hardware cloth. 1/2 inch if it's for itty bitty chicks, larger is fine otherwise.
A simple extension of said hardware cloth to a post of some kind works best in this case. You put two posts down like you're making a gate for the tunnel, the electric fence posts can butt up against the outsides, the insides connect to additional hardware cloth. Everyones happy.

For your rock problem the hardware cloth extension can do the same thing.

I don't have a rock problem as i wrote, I had to tell her pretend it's a rock because she couldn't understand what the shape of an upside down U was. I also am not trying to Electrify the tunnel I was talking about putting the fence over the tunnel (its also already built and I used 1/4 inch 19 guage hardware cloth and dont need any education on it) and I think the five different examples I gave her (including a garden hoop tunnel as you suggested which was also pointed out in the post youre replying to and clearly didnt fully read) to try and explain what the shape of an upside down u was was more than enough for an adult to be able to understand what I was talking about like if you can't understand the shape of a tree trunk then I can't help you but thank you for your input!