sstterry, I take it back. I read it and I thought you were calling me out as a dummy, which at times I let the same thought run through my mind, so I now see that you were not doing that, and I apologize.
Dang I wanted to pick up one of those cheap cords, I must admit, but I did buy the one that tax and all cost me $50 for a 25 foot extension cord for all the heaters. I thought, this ought to be safe. I brought it up to the house; plugged into a GFI recepticle in the garage, and sunk it in a bucket with a real heavy duty 100ft construction cord that looks like a small snake, and it still read the same voltage in the water.
I also plugged it directly into the recepticle with no extension cord, and it read the same when I stuck it in the soil. But then I drove a short piece of conduit in the ground, and it flattened it out. So, that worked.
So now I am thinking of exactly what Twisted is trying to tell me. That, the current is higher in the water, so I start trying to ground out from the water by going through the horse. I took two tall pieces of thick conduit and drove them in the ground 3 ft as they were about 6 ft tall, as I was afraid to get them too short around the trough; worried about the horses getting on top of them, and my horse Joe is going to find a way to move any and everything. I had some aluminum wire that the electric company uses, and tried that as it was all I had on the late Sunday afternoon. It lowered the voltage. But if I change the aluminum wire to copper, will it make a difference? Seemed when the first ground was put in, it made the voltage go higher. But the second one lowered it.
On this Voltage meter, it has a fan dial. It starts out with -20 then goes to 0. Doesn't there have to be to just stick that voltage meter in a puddle of water on the ground, does not move that needle to 0. But where the heater is, yes, it moves it to 0. So, what is the deal with -20 to 0? I left the tanks plugged up and when I go out there, if no water is gone, then I will just unplug them while I am feeding and they will have to drink until I get this figured out.
The voltage shows slightly higher in the water, but on that ground pole, it shows lower. I wonder if it is the wire I am using?
If this was a metal water trough, would it ground itself out because it is sitting on the ground and is conductive to the earth? Would it be equal then? Is it because it is rubber or plastic?
I know I am asking a bunch of 2nd grader questions. I am going to start back at the top and re-read what everyone has wrote, and see if I have skimmed over something important. What Twisted said made a lot of sense to me, but how to get that equal around the trough so that the shock stops is what I am trying to figure out. Maybe the copper wire is where I am messing up.
