I replaced my 30W polychrystaline solar panel with a 50W monochrystaline panel and it appears this may have solved my problems with the battery getting low on charge. @Olpea , I think your choice of a 50W panel for your set up is the way to go.
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Andy, can you tell me what brand 50W solar panel you bought?
I still haven’t got mine completely installed yet. Too busy this summer. I haven’t yet bought the solar panel. That and the deep cycle battery are the last two electronics to buy.
I ended up getting a Renogy off Amazon. The other change I may make is the charge controller. I like the idea of being able to turn off power to the load during the day as I have no pressure then. That would also allow the battery a chance to catch up. Switching to the Cyclops fence charger made a huge change as well.
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Just wanted to update.
We finally got our additional single strand fence up, ready to be electrified.
Here are some pics.
We had to put the electric fence on the outside of the regular fence, so we used “reverse” t-post insulators for the single strand high tensile electric fence.
The next three pics are of brackets I welded and pre-drilled holes for nails, for the fence to go down through ditches and out. In other words, the cheap plastic insulators won’t tolerate vertical forces from significant changes in elevation (ditches and rapid climbs). I don’t know how most folks string high tensile electric fence over ditches/waterways, but I suspect they just don’t stretch the fence very tight, otherwise it will pull the insulators up or down, because of vertical forces.
This is how we arranged the fence around corners. Like all the brackets I made, I just cut a small piece of T-post, welded it to a radius plate, so the plastic insulator made for t-posts would clip on.
This is the connection we made to cross the gates underground.
This last photo is just how the fence looks with the final electric wire.
One thing I neglected to photo is the small hand cranks we installed to keep the fence tensioned in the future.
If I get time, I’ll take a pic of that.
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Looks great, fingers crossed it keeps those racoons out.
I used porcelain insulators for the corners, they have a lag screw they’re cast around to secure them to the post. I found two worked the best unless I beveled the corner, and that was just too much for all the corner posts I had, so two it was. I also added some insulator over the wire, a belt and suspenders I suppose. Toughest part with installing these is the fencing wire has to be pulled through each section:
These insulators worked really well and provided a secure connection. The back is curved so it will form to a round post as well, and when applying to a flat surface the screws pull them down flat. They hold well even with the fence tensioned:
I have had issues with changes in elevation and tensioning the wire as well. The T-Post insulators I used don’t wrap tightly around the T-Post and therefore don’t use the nubs on the T-Post to keep them from sliding up or down. This was causing some of the insulators to pop off or to slide up or down changing the spacing between rows of wire. Where I have a significant change in terrain (hill crest or gully) I’ve switched to the tighter T-Post clips:
Gates I did with wire only. The spring lines are positives and the regular wire is a negative line. They are only attached to one side and the screw in gate holders are insulated. They work well even though it’s only attached on one side as the ground serves to complete the circuit. I carry current to the other side of each gate with an insulated wire connected to the positive lines, down to the ground, and run under the sod to the other side and connected to the two positive lines again. I also have the negative lines grounded with 4’ rods near each gate.
Even a slight knoll like this will cause the lines to pull down with tensioning:
Two of my lines are negative lines, connected to the metal T-Post with a metal clip. This essentially uses each metal T-Post as an additional grounding rod in the fence line. If an animal touches both the negative line and a positive when trying to get in, they get a good jolt. Contact with just a positive and the ground will also cause a shock.
This is the style of tensioner I chose to use:
One thing I learned when putting this fencing up was the difference in high tensile (hard) fencing wire and softer wire. Most if not all of what I used was 12 gauge. The soft stuff was nice to work with, especially securing insulators to the gate posts and bending the wire around those plastic transitions from post to wire. The high tensile stuff was a bear to bend around and secure. At the end of this build I finally caved in and bought the wire taps/sleeves and crimping tool and I should have started with it.
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Thanks Andy for the pics! Very cool!
One thing that you have reminded me is that there are numerous ways to approach a build.
We all use the experiences we build on. I like your system. I especially like the snowmobile 
For my system, I had to do things a bit different. With our wind, and the proximity of the electric fence to the grounded metal field fence, I had to have the electric fence “bow string tight” so that it wouldn’t blow into the field fence. The distance between the two is only a couple inches.
I had to use the very stiff 12.5 ga. high tensile electric fence, then tension it very tight, so it wouldn’t move. I had to always be cognizant to keep it away from the other grounded field fence around corners, and keep it super tight at the same time. Seriously, this fence is so tight you could almost play it like a violin 
It was actually a chore to tension it tight enough over such a long distance. Most people don’t realize just how much drag occurs over distances till they tension fence. With something like field fence, one can have tension so tight, it risks breaking the fence at the tensioner, but still have it sloppy loose at the other end.
Once we had to tension field fence so tight to move it around the corners, we had the tractor locked in 4wd on all tires and were spinning them. This was a 7000 lb. tractor.
I do like crimp slices. It makes a nice neat splice which holds a lot of tension.
Yes, with all that grounded metal in your fencing, preventing a short is critical. As I progressed with my build I started questioning if I even need high tension, and in reality I probably don’t. My fencing is split into three sections by my gates. I currently have the two longer sections tensioned and the short one isn’t. I purchased the tensioners but haven’t yet added them. This spring I intend to add two additional hot lines and will consider if I want to ad T-Post caps with a third additional line.
We bought the snowmobile to break trail in winter on our roads through our wooded lots. It gives us 6 miles of trail to cross country ski. We get a bit stir crazy in winter.
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Very nice fencing job!
You mentioned raccoon in a response to someone else, is that a varmint you’re targeting with this fence? Is there something higher up to prevent their climbing the 6X6(?) posts over those insulators and shielded wire at the corners?
Or is it more deer, maybe moose, or other larger animals?
Thanks.
Hi thank you the original poster Andy Smith for ADDING THE PRICE of Unit!!!
I have read about half the posts here, but
A little over whelming to try to figure this all out , and make plans as well
for $300 what is the length of the fence ?? Square footage ?
would be a time saver knowing all this instead of going on a wild goose chase of tons of links.
It is Great to learn of this sort of thing
I hope to make estimates for various Idea’s
Not to easy not Knowing much about it
yet not knowing if your talking about electric fie ing a fence 100 yards ;long or a 1/3 or a acre
Or for something for a tiny garden ?
Thanks you already for the help on this product
Just not sure if you mean a small garden plot or a long fence line to prevent intruders.
Also thank you Fusion_power for the tip on the spark plug on the fence to make popping noises to scare Deer ,
I am still young, but in other things in my life
I have weigh out the hassle , and estimate my cost , and time
( to Buying things online – like traveling to a auction I have to know is it worth it so I research , but since you have experience it’d be nice to know Since this skill is not my thing thank you.)
(edit decided to add anyway for the humor of it all
After bidding over a 100 bucks from a multi (13) million dollar estate auction on a nice looking golden microphone
(no name) I call for serial number or info and its worth 12 bucks on ama con lucky I didn’t win the bid.
Sorry I hope this doesn’t make me sound like a jerk
I am just uneducated on this sort of thing
(I am a helpful person in person , but do not understand the length for 300 bucks)
No, my set up is to address deer. Check out Olpea’s set up for ideas to combat racoons.
If you look at the most recent photo’s I posted you’ll see my orchard in the background of some of the photo’s giving you a idea of the space I have fenced. But, to answer your question, this is fencing for approximately 6 acres which would be 261,360 square feet. Each strand of wire covers approximately 2,750 linear feet and there are 4 lines for a total of 11,000 linear feet of wire, and I plan to add 2 additional lines and possibly a third. I have a much smaller system to protect my vegetable garden (approx 6300 sq ft). I use a 5 strand fence there with a solar fence energizer from Tractor Supply. As I upgrade this system at the orchard I’ll probably use these old components to change the vegetable garden fencing over to a system like this. For clarity, $300 is for the orchards electric fence energizer only, not including the other necessary components. I have about $4,000 invested to fence the 6 acres.
thank you Wow six Acre in fencing material
so if the fencing was free what do you think 60 acres would cost (in electric solor alone)
Sorry for the simple question I know math , but I have no idea how this stuff works ?
any forumula’s
edit you know some municipalities will pay to remove the fence
but this would not work for ( a ferous metal ) aluminum would it .
I don’t know. 60 acres would require a much larger solar system and a larger battery bank. For 60 acres I’d want a 110v electric fence energizer connected to the grid for reliability. If I had grid electricity at the orchard I’d use a plug in energizer.
I had another question on the solar electric fence setup. I’m still plodding along on ours, working on it in spare time.
I’ve got all the components bought, except for some odds and ends (i.e. connections, fuses, switches) and am now building the box to house them. My question is whether or not to paint the box? It may seem a silly question, but there is a deeper reason for it.
I used treated lumber, so technically it wouldn’t have to be painted. I have some Thomson Water Seal on hand that I’d probably apply, if I didn’t paint the box, just as an extra level of weatherproof protection.
The disadvantage of painting, is that paint doesn’t stay on very long. So every few years I’d have to repaint the box, which sort of builds in a maintenance that I don’t want to build in. I hate built in maintenance, if there is a choice.
On the other hand a white painted box would be considerably cooler than an unpainted brown box. We once had a wooden deck painted red. In the heat of summer, it was too hot to step out on, with bare feet. We painted it white which made it quite comfortable to walk on in the heat of summer.
The issue with heat is with the controls. The charge controller says the max operating temp is 60C (140F). It will of course generate some heat by itself. It has a passive heat sink located on the back side of the controller. The mounting instructions say if the controller is located in an enclosed cabinet, the cabinet should be ventilated. I don’t plan to ventilate the box to house the controller, but it is a fairly big box. I’ll also note that the boxes Cyclops fence builds for it’s controllers and chargers are made of white plastic, which I’m sure would be cooler than my unpainted box.
The fence charger which will go in the same box, doesn’t generate heat to any significant degree, so I’m not as concerned about it.
So am I being OCD about the temp of the box? Or should I do everything possible to keep the box cooler? I don’t think the box would get to 140F, even with the added heat of the controller, but will it get hot enough to shorten the life of the components? I’m a believer that if machinery runs at max operating parameters it doesn’t last as long as machinery run less than max. @LordRatner you seem to know a lot about electronics. Any thoughts on this?
Here is the box I’ve built so far. It still needs the roof and face/door put on. @AndySmith if the box looks a lot like the one you built, just consider imitation is the highest form of flattery
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I’d be surprised if you had any issues with the box that big. Also in my experience unpainted wood doesn’t warm up too much.
You could also consider:
- mounting in a shady area
- only painting the most sun-exposed pieces
- a double layer roof with air gap
- foam insulation only on the sun-facing sides
Or just ventilate the damn thing. Cut a hole and line it with screen door mesh. Spray the inside with insecticide once a year.
My usual area of expertise is over engineering something, but I also am a proponent of trial and error. If by some surprise you end up with a heat dissipation issue, it will be very easy to resolve with any of the above ideas.
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I painted mine white only to keep heat down. I knew I wanted to have the battery in there so I could have it locked and secured along with the fencing components. I did not do anything for ventilation. Some 45 degree plunge cuts with the circular saw would probably work well and keep water from running into the cabinet. I suspect you would be fine without painting. I don’t recall if the plywood I used was an exterior grade or not, so that may have been another reason I wanted it painted.
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Thanks for the constructive advice. Some really good ideas.
I’d forgotten to mention I was also planning to put the battery in the little house. I hadn’t thought about the battery gassing at higher temperatures.
By 45 degree plunge cuts, do you mean horizontal plunge cuts in the plywood aimed upward at a 45 degree angle?
Those are some really great ideas. I like the idea of the insulation and ventilation. If you notice from the pic, the little box I’m building has a little “attic”. I wonder if it would help to stuff that full of insulation before putting the “roof” on? That’d be easy to do. The solar panel will attach to the slanted roof.
Yes, exactly. But plunge cutting @ 45 degrees isn’t fun, and getting some nice
parallel lines is even less fun. If it was pre-assembly you could do it on a table saw and just crank the blade up…
Insulating your “attic” probably isn’t necessary as you’ll be directing the pitch to the south and the solar panel will block sunlight from the rooftop.
Not sure if I posted this, but I switched from a 30W polychrystalline panel to a 50W monochrystalline panel and it made a world of difference. Now I suspect my charge controller is crapping out so I’ll replace that, a PWM should be sufficient, no need to go to an MPPT.
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Admitting up front that I’ve not read every word of this thread.
I’ve worked with electrified high-tensile fence on our cattle farm for nearly 30 years. Have built & maintained tens of miles of it.
If you’re using electrified HT as a ‘psychological’ barrier, rather than actually physically excluding animals - which would require very close wire spacing, close post spacings, and signficant height… you don’t have to crank the tension up to the 200,000psi that 12/5 ga HT wire can take… all you need is enough to keep the wire from sagging.
Crank it really high, and it shifts corner/endpost assemblies unless they are incredibly well built/sunk.
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