electric fences

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hockeyoligist2 said:
Good one! A transmission repair shop close to where I work has a sign on their fence...."Warning!! This fence is electrically charged and it will kill you if you touch it!"
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Actually, one of our local prisons is adding an electrified fence to their perimeter.

In Wisconsin, electric fence controllers must be UL Listed.
 
hockeyoligist2 said:
Good one! A transmission repair shop close to where I work has a sign on their fence...."Warning!! This fence is electrically charged and it will kill you if you touch it!"
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There is nothing wrong with putting up the sign, the question is what is actually hooked to the fence, if anything. At lunch time today, bet your boss $50 he doesn't have the courage to walk over and grab the fence. Let us know what happens.
 
elec. fence- still puzzled

elec. fence- still puzzled

was curious about any type of electric fence- people and/or livestock. thanks to all for your input.
 
I don't think the NEC says much about electric fences. Generally, the local AHJ can require the fence controller to be UL listed, and then it has to be installed in per its instructions.
 
most electric fences ive seen and worked with are installed at farms and just plug in to a 15 or 20 amp receptacle. they must be UL listed so 110.3B would probably apply if your the one installing the fence.
 
electricalperson said:
most electric fences ive seen and worked with are installed at farms and just plug in to a 15 or 20 amp receptacle. they must be UL listed so 110.3B would probably apply if your the one installing the fence.
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What about the ones in Jurrasic Park???
 
kd5ufw said:
was curious about any type of electric fence- people and/or livestock. thanks to all for your input.
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While electric fences put out some times as much as 2000- 4000 volts.
The power is pulsating. I think this gives you a chance to pull away.
Perhaps like a taser gun. May be some one else who knows more about how these with such high voltage are "safe".
For the fence the 4000 v . may be the nominal voltage and the 2000 volts on the same line could be miles away.
With an electric fence the power goes through you or cow etc... back to the source. In some case if the ground is real dry. The manufacture suggest moistening the soil for better conductivity. You must have a couple ground rods every thirteen hundred feet depending on the type of system you use.
 
Electric fences typically put out a short pulse at about a one second interval. With modern electric fence energizers, those with electronics in them, if the energizer thinks something is touching the wire many models increase in agressivness, so the fence is still effective despite much of the charge being bypassed to ground through foliage or whatever.

Voltage can be in range of a couple of thousand volts to 10KV, or for really big units 20KV. Big units can run many many miles of fence, providing the insulators are all present and the fence doesnt have grass touching it.

You need a decent ground rod where the energizer unit is.

The NEC doesn't cover fencers as they are an appliance. Some dont even plug in to mains, they run off batteries, sometimes solar recharged. If you have a fence in poor condition and the energizer is getting all agressive then the battery life is substantially reduced.

Electric fences can play havoc with telephone services.

One for Marc - there are some special funky intruments one can get for testing and locating faults on electric fences, some of which appear to work by black magic. Of course, some old timers just grab the fence to check its working or touch it holding a long blade of grass as a resistor.

Of course, the electric fence was invented in New Zealand, we do extreme sport and extreme fences :) Many countries have limitations on electric fence power, but we dont...

My missus has sampled an electric fence and informs me they hurt. She certainly yelped and jumped when she touched one by accident...

Electric fences kill. A single belt wont, but a trapped animal will die. So probably would a trapped person.
 
dbuckley said:
One for Marc - there are some special funky intruments one can get for testing and locating faults on electric fences, some of which appear to work by black magic. Of course, some old timers just grab the fence to check its working or touch it holding a long blade of grass as a resistor.
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It's not that fancy of an instrument. They sell them at hardware stores and Tractor Supply. Looks like the neon tester old-timer electricians used, and has a neon at 5,000/10,000/and 15,000 volts. Costs about 5 bucks.

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dbuckley said:
I was thinking more of these types of tool: link or link, $100 up.
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They would be pretty cool if you had miles and miles of fence. The farms aren't that big around me. The 10 dollar tester does pretty well. Just walk the fenceline and take measurements here and there.
 
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