goin to CO-OP

[Dixieangus]

i have managed to hold off this little shopping because i always spend at LEASTa hundred dollars everytime i go in so the shopping list is as follows:
6 16 foot wire cattle pannels at 22 a piece= 134
6 wooden posts at 4 a piece=24
bag of insulators=7
grounding system=?

so the grand totale is 165..... ok so the question is for a grounding system what exactly do i need to buy and how much will it be. background on fence chargers: 2 6 mile boxes 1 running two strands the other the other two strands and can i ground the two boxes to the same grounding system.thanx

 

[agmantoo]

Ground is just a term for using the earth as a common carrier to give the charge a path back to one side of the output transformer of the energizer. You cannot connect the hot side of the energizer to where it is shared by another energizer. If you do in time it will damage the energizer. However, you can share the earth ground. Do not use the earth ground of the electrical meter or the incoming power ground. Lightning can come in to an energizer via the AC power or via the fence itself. Lightning is going to take the path of least resistance to earth ground. You do not want that path to include anything associated with the house ground because of the potential damage.

As for a ground, most energizer manufacturers want you to install 3 earth rods that are 6 ft plus in length and 8 to 10 feet apart. This recommendation is to avoid having a poor electrical earth ground due to the type of soil or the absence of moisture. I would buy 3 each galvanized steel rods at less than $10 each and I would clamp a galvanized wire* from the energizers to the 3 ground rods that are driven as deep as possible using 3 galvanized ground clamps. When electricity flows through different types of metal it creates a situation to accelerate corrosion which you do not want. Corrosion is less conductive and could create resistance in your fence system. Always buy grade 3 galvanized products. * NOTE(use a continuous length of 12 1/2 gauge galvanized wire from the energizer to all 3 ground rods)

I do not like your choice of energizers as their output is marginal at best. You need not less that 3500 volts at the far end of your fence to contain the animals.

 

[Dixieangus]

ok well didnt follow on a bunch of that but thanks for your post....Does this mean the same as what you said the two chargers can share the same ground system? I got the grounding products down btw thanks alot for that.. and i agree the chargers arent that strong but they were free since my grandma already had them. the fence isnt that big at all maybe 3 acres with 4 strands but the boxes not that much energizing thats why i would use both but i know that you cant connect them but they would be running independently from each other other than being connected by the same grounding system . i will find out when i get home exactly how big the fence is all the way around using the 4 wheelers odometer.