 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, PAGE 8 Expert Recommendations and Common Sense: The electric fence experts whose conclusions appear in catalogs, instruction manuals, etc. recommend everything from a little two-foot ground rod to a series of massive six to eight-footers grouped in a cluster or strung out at regular intervals along the electric fence line (for our catalog offerings see Electric Fence Ground Rods). In reality, the most important guide to use in purchasing and installing ground rods and ground wires is common sense. What carries the electric fence charge from the feet of a target animal to the electric fence ground rod is not soil and rocks but rather the water in the ground. Water in liquid form is not nearly so good a conductor as metal in any form, and so it is essential to ensure a good connection between the metal ground rod or ground wire and whatever soil moisture carries the charge to it through the ground from the feet of the target animal. This means that the minimum requirement is for an electric fence ground rod in good permanent contact with moist soil. If the fence is short, and if it protects a well-watered summer garden, then a two-foot ground rod may well suffice. However, if multiple fences are involved, or if there is any question about soil moisture having good access to the rod for the entire time the fence is working, then a six-foot ground rod should be considered. In dry areas, three or more rods should be placed in a moist location and wired together. Even better, the whole issue of soil moisture may be evaded by stringing multiple wires on the fence, alternating positively charged wires with neutral wires, and grounding the neutral wires by connecting them to the charger's negative terminal. Then the target animal will get a shock whenever it touches a positive and neutral wire at the same time. This setup works well in a high-tensile fence, where the alternate wires are easy to keep separated, and where the array is robust enough so that a shocked animal's retreat from between two wires is unlikely to uproot the system. For one example of such an arrangement see About Our 6-Wire (6-Foot High-Tensile) Kits. Other points worth noting: In the traditional setup using ground rods, if the fence system extends out more than a quarter-mile from the fence charger, then additional ground rods should be placed at quarter-mile intervals along the fence line and connected to the rest of the ground system by means of a neutral (uncharged) ground wire. Also, even a short winter electric deer fence braving any sort of deep cold must cope with snow, ice, and frozen ground, none of which are good conductors. In these circumstances it is wise to get the metal grounding system as close as possible to the target animal-which is why we recommend stringing a 12.5 gauge wire (in the catalog see Conductors: Aluminum Electric Fence Wire, product 2-7) on or just under the ground along the electric deer fence line and connecting it to the charger's ground terminal. One may also wish to consider alternating positively charged and neutral wires, as described above, in order to avoid dealing with frozen ground. And it may be wise to remove some of the snow and ice buildup along the electric fence line in winter-either manually or with a de-icer-in order to improve the grounding of the system. Replacing Ground Rods: Ground rods and ground wires in contact with the soil take a lot of punishment. Especially where there is a significant weed burden, they are almost continually receiving some electric current, and the passage of electrons, through a process of ionization, strongly stimulates corrosion. Such corrosion attacks both the actual rod or wire and the ground system's connections, eventually reducing the system's effectiveness to nil. For this reason it is wise to inspect any ground wire periodically for corrosion and to replace ground rods every two years. (It is not necessary to dig up the old rods, but new ones need to be installed and connected to the charger's ground terminal with fresh connections.) Alternatively, one can test the fence system regularly with a digital fence tester (see Electric Fence Voltage Testers in the Product Selection Guide) and can replace the rods when significant voltage reduction not attributable to other causes is observed. |