Tuesday 18 March 2008

How to: The Solar Electric Fence

A few months ago, we had to put up a solar electric fence for a horse, fast. (As opposed to a fast horse, unless you're talking about eating speed.)

I went into an electric fence retailer and stared at the shelves of equipment, not knowing I would need:

The energiser, with compatible battery and solar panel, connected to an earth (about a metre long), with galvanised wire:


And connected to the (in this case) 25mm electrical fencing tape:


Wooden posts at each corner, with special corner tape-holders:


Enough plastic spacers to have one every 12 metres (yards) or so (these are a bit rubbish, as the tape-holding bits tend to break - but this is fixable with more wire) - they're utterly unworkable as corner posts:


And a gate kit:


When you run out of tape, you can simply tie on some more, stripping back the plastic to expose the wires, which you can then twist together to keep the current flowing:


We also use the electric fence string and isolators screwed into wooden fence posts, in our Mark II veggie bed that the pigs have nearly finished clearing.


I hope this helps you as much as it would have helped me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello
Thanks for the infor on solare elcetric fencing - very helpful :) We are looking at hot wiring an existing flimsily fenced orchard to house pigs, i'm just wondering how many strings you would recommend for pigs?
cheers
Michelle

the devolutionary said...

Hi Michelle and thanks for the feedback.

It really depends how big your pigs are. But I'd start off with three. When weaners, the bottom wire is very close to the ground and the pigs earth it up and trip the fence as described elsewhere in this blog. You just need to keep an eye on them. And try and maintain a sense of humour. which me and Her Outdoors have failed to do on occasion.

I was round a friend's house the other day and they had young pigs who kept running through the fence, happy to take the zap to the privates if it meant they can run free in the field. This I found hilarious - because they weren't my pigs. They did not find this at all funny.

As a rule, I now recommend the metal posts with plastic isolators. We use wire instead of tape, which works well. "Stonehead" has much more information in his blog. Above all, enjoy!

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It looks really very cool, I will definitely spread the word across my friends!

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