Installing the Ground System
As noted above, the most important thing in dealing with the grounding issue is to keep every part of the grounded system (including the electric fence charger’s ground terminal) out of contact with all the actively charged parts of the system. The numbers and sorts of ground rods needed by any electric horse fence is discussed in the ground rod portion of the products section. One or more ground rods should be located near the electric horse fence at a place that is relatively moist most of the year and where people and animals are unlikely to trip over the few inches of ground rod and clamp that remain poking out of the ground after installation.
The rod or rods should be pounded into the ground with a sledgehammer or manual post driver (product 15-05) until only a few inches remain above the ground. A wire (which need not be insulated undergate and hookup wire) should be attached to the electric fence charger’s ground terminal, and should then be run over to the nearest ground rod and attached securely (usually with a clamp). If more than one ground rod is being installed, this wire should then be used to connect all of the rods together. Also, if alternate conductors are not being charged and instead are being grounded, those conductors to be grounded should be connected by a wire to one or more of the ground rods or directly to the ground terminal on the charger.
If these alternate conductors are to be electrically active in moist seasons and grounded in times of drought or frozen ground, install a double-throw electric cutoff switch (product 06-13) to make this change. If only one double-throw switch is to be used, connect all of the switchable conductors securely to the switch’s middle terminal; connect the charger’s positive terminal (via undergate and hookup wire) to a terminal on one side of the throw switch, and connect a ground rod or the charger’s ground terminal to the terminal on the other side of the throw switch. In this way, when the switch is thrown to one side the switchable conductors will be actively charged, and when the switch is thrown to the other side they will be uncharged and grounded.
Installing Protection against Lightning
The dangers lightning poses for an electric fence and the various sorts of devices that can help reduce that danger are described on the Lightning and Surge Protection page of the products section. The only point that needs to be emphasized with regard to installation is that one class of these devices, the lightning diverter (see product 01-35), must be better-grounded than the rest of the electric fence. Therefore, if there is one ground rod in the electric fence’s ground system, there should be at least two ground rods of comparable size grounding the diverter.
Installing Electric Fence Warning Signs
Warning signs should be positioned at all places where people unfamiliar with the electric fence stand some chance of coming in contact with it. Such signs are typically hung from an electric fence wire or nailed to an appropriately situated board or post.
Once the entire fence has been installed and plugged in, a pulsing light on the electric fence charger will indicate whether the charger and nearby portions of the electric fence are working properly. If the light does not flash, turn the charger off, disconnect all wires from its positive terminal, and turn it on again. If the light still doesn’t flash the problem is with the charger, and one should call the charger’s maker for guidance. If the light flashes the problem is with the fence. Check to make sure that no actively charged portion of the electric fence has been inadvertently connected to the electric fence charger’s ground terminal. Then examine the fence carefully to determine where some actively charged element along the fence has come into contact with something that is not insulated (thereby grounding the fence) and proceed to fix this problem.
Once the turned-on electric fence charger is hooked up and its light is flashing, you know that the charger and at least the undergate and hookup wire or fence section to which the charger is immediately attached are working properly. At this point take a fence tester (used by FIRST grounding the little pointer attached to the tester by sticking it into moist ground and then touching the tester’s other terminal to the actively charged element being tested) and employ it to test distant charged elements in order to determine that they too are working. This same procedure should be repeated periodically as a part of proper electric fence maintenance.
