Solar Electric Fence Charger

[Olpea]

@AndySmith

ot 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.

Andy, that’s with a 5 joule charger, correct?

@Lucky_P

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.

I agree. In our circumstances, we had to crank the tension really tight to try to avoid the electric fence blowing into the grounded field fence. We still haven’t electrified the 12.5 ga. wire. Still working towards that.

Not too worried about a single strand of wire moving the corner/end posts. We sunk mostly 20"+ posts 7’ in the ground and back filled with gravel. They tend not to move, so far.

Some of the ones at the top, took a big track hoe with a 5K lb. hammer to bust through the rock to get the 7’ depth.

I read from fence experts that the depth of the post in the ground needs to equal the height above ground. They said that’s the biggest mistake people make building fence (i.e. not getting their corner/end posts deep enough). So we tried not to do that.

Here’s some posts about 24" in diameter at ground level. I’d estimate they weigh about 1000 lbs.

[AndySmith]

Yes, 5 joule charger.

[Olpea]

Finally got the electric fence hooked up, despite being super busy. I pretty much had to get it hooked up, else coons and possums would once again be tearing through the orchard, destroying bushels of fruit every night.

Here are some final pics.

The post goes 4’ in the ground, backfilled with gravel. The box is screwed with gussets glued in place for extra stability. We stood on the floor of the box and it didn’t budge.

I made a lightening coil out of insulated galvanized wire. I plan to remove the electrical tape and zip tie the coil together, so it will look a bit neater and professional.

The diagram recommends fuses in between the solar panel and the controller, in between the battery and the controller, and in between the controller and the charger. I soldiered in simple 10 ga. inline fuse housings which take auto fuses, which are cheap and easily available. I welded up and drilled holes for the switch bank. I used heavy duty 40 amp dc switches (ac switches supposedly don’t last as long when used on dc).

Actually didn’t hook it up how it ought to be hooked up, in that the ground should be hooked to ground rods. Instead I hooked the ground up to the field fence because that was quicker. The danger in hooking it up that way is that if lightening strikes the field fence there is a risk of frying the charger through the ground side. Plus I don’t really have any lightening protection on the lead side, other than the lightening coil(s)

Because of that I installed knife switches on both the lead wire and the ground wire. The plan is that if I know a storm is coming, just to disconnect both the lead and ground via the knife switches, so that it won’t matter if lightening strike the hot wire, or the field fence.

We tested it the old fashioned way, using a piece of insulated wire to connect the field fence and the hot wire. It produces a nice blue spark which will jump about a 1/4" gap.

One of my field hands dared me to grab the hot wire and field fence at the same time. Said he would do it if I did. Not to disappoint, I grabbed both wires. I was a bit surprised how powerful even a 5 joule fencer can be. I suppose it’s because it’s almost a perfect ground situation, vs simply standing on the ground and grabbing the hot wire isn’t as good a ground, as one’s shoes insulate one from the ground considerably. Anyway the jolt I could feel deep in my bones. I don’t think it could hurt anyone, unless one had a weak heart, but I imagine the jolt would make a kid cry. So at least preliminarily, the 5 joule charger is plenty big enough. I also used the old trick of taking a green blade of grass and touched the grass to the hot wire, while touching the field fence with my other hand. Even that produced a decent pulse through my hands.

We had an issue of it grounding out at first. Eventually I found some sub contractors broke a corner insulator laying fiber optic cable.

So far the solar panel seems to be keeping up to keep the battery fully charged.

[AndySmith]

I really like your set up!

[Steve333]

Nice setup.

Just a caution on your lightning disconnects, there is not much to keep lightning from jumping that gap, after all it made it from the sky all the way down here. It will help but there are a few tricks one can do to dissuad lightning (like make right angles in the wiring with a completion path straight ahead. An earth ground wire that ends near the disconnected end of the line on the switch might help some. There is a lot online about the various lightning tricks…

[Olpea]

That’s a good point I hadn’t considered. Thanks Steve!

Just a thought, I’d like your further opinion on. I wonder if lightening strikes the grounded field fence, what advantage would the lightening have in seeking the path to jump the gap in the knife switch?

What I mean is that, as it stands now, there woudn’t be any ground for the lightening to want to jump that gap, would there, because it would just be jumping to travel through the energizer to the ungrounded hot wire? I’m not challenging your advice, just genuinely wondering how the path of lightening would travel?

Similarly, if the lightening struck the hot wire, I’m wondering if there would be enough attraction to jump the hot wire knife lugs, through the energizer, and jump the ground wire knife lugs, if both switches were open? I almost wonder if the easiest path of the lightening would be simply to travel from the hot wire over to the grounded field fence?

Again thanks for some really good thoughts. I will check online about some of those lightening tricks.

[Steve333]

I am not an expert on lightning nor electric fences. Just trying to apply some of my ham radio antenna “rules” here…

Also, not sure I entirely have your wiring right from your pic. But what I assume is the knife switch disconnects the hot lead(s) from the charger. If so, you’d likely would want an alternative path for the lightning to ground, other than thru the charger. And you may be right that with no earth/ground connection there would be little “attraction” for lightning to travel to ground through the charger, but I am not expert enough to offer an opinion. However if lightning does hit the fence wires, its voltage will be present all along the wire and anything connected or near to it; if just for an instant. Protecting the fence charger (and other electronics) is the goal. To the extent that you can do that with minor changes to wiring, it’s good insurance, IMO. Also not clear what advantages there is to not tying the charger ground to earth; it may add some risks but would seem to increase the potential effectiveness of the electric fence.

The other thing most lightning experts say is you can plan all you want but lightning has a mind of its own. So no guarantees.

[Hillbillyhort]

That looks good , except ,there is no ground wire from the lightning diverter to ground . So diverter is not functional without ground. Also needs the spark gap adjusted.
I would attach a wire to it and attach your other ground fastened to a good ground rod straight under it .
.

One would think using your woven wire fence as a ground would be sufficient ( as you are) especially for a coon climbing the woven wire , encountering that hot wire.!!

But the literature all says the electric fence is only as good as its ground.most recommending several ground rods, which they are not selling by the way.
I see no need for the lower yellow switch on your fence charger ground.
That’s a good looking set up !
I believe in the Lightning arrestor/diverter.
I lost one ~$400 fence charger to Lightning before I figured that out. After which I have had Lightning strikes that melted thick high tensile wire in two , melted it until the end look like a Molten ball.
Used the fuse type arrestors that has saved my charger several times .

[Hillbillyhort]

May be best to have separate ground rods ,
One for the energizer ground ,a separate one for the lightning diverter / woven fence ground.

[Olpea]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Really appreciate it!

The pics don’t show it real clear, but the “hot” wire comes out of the charger, next to the knife switch, next to the lightning choke and diverter, then finally to the intended hot wire which is on the other side of the field fence.

The “ground” wire comes out of the charger, then to a knife switch, and finally grounded on the field fence. My idea for putting a knife switch on both the hot and ground is to be able to disconnect them in a predicted lightning storm to protect the charger. As I see now, the setup may not necessarily protect the charger. So I have some more work to do.

For sure I need to add some ground rods so the lightning diverter is grounded. This would at least accomplish what you guys suggest in diverting the lightning if it strikes the hot wire. Probably the best thing for the ground wire, is to remove it from the field fence and hook it up to it’s own set of ground rods. That way if lightning strikes the field fence, it shouldn’t go back through the ground terminal of the charger.

Thanks again!

[Hillbillyhort]

It seems to me , the last place I would want to be near is that switch on your ground,when a Lightning storm is approaching.
… !

[Hillbillyhort]

I had two near by strikes “ out of the blue “ a few days ago.
A storm was approaching ,some 30 miles away.
Not much sign of A storm here at the time.
Yet there was two very near lightning strikes that sounded very eerie. About five minutes apart.
Enough to keep me in the house, that is protected by lightning rods.

[Olpea]

Read this thread Can't Win, Seemingly which prompted me to post an update on our electric fence. We finally got it energized about 3 weeks ago, so it’s still relatively new and may still have some issues come up, which I don’t yet know about.

So far the fence has worked quite well. This is the first time we’ve ever raised peaches where there was no damage by coons and possums. I actually expected some would dig under the fence (which they might still) so that I would have to trap some of them. But again so far they have been repelled enough by the electric fence to not try digging under the fence.

It’s taken some effort to keep the weeds killed out. If I had to do it again, I would definitely put up a 4’ tall horse fence (with the 2"X4" squares) verses the 30" tall horse fence we put up to save money. An extra 18" in height of the horse fence would go a long way in ease of keeping weeds away from the hot wire.

The tall fence has completely excluded deer

and the electric fence seems to be completely excluding coons and possums, so far. The only issue we have with wildlife is birds, which peck the fruit and eat berries. I know of no solution for that.

We used to have hawks which scared away a lot of birds, but we have so many of those $%&! kingbirds, they chase away any hawks or eagles. I’ve also seen crows chase away hawks. We don’t have time to hunt the crows. Plus they are super smart and hard to kill.

[Olpea]

I wanted to give another update.

An interesting thing discovered is that the aluminum solar panel has become energized based on the pulse of the cyclops fence charger. In other words, it appears the fence charger is backfeeding into the solar controller then to the solar panel. Weird.

I can definitely feel the frame of the solar panel is energized timed exactly with the pulse of the fence charger. It’s if the fence charger is pulsing the aluminum frame of the solar panel.

I am very familiar with electrical wiring and double checked that everything is wired to the correct polarity (at least according to the way the devices are labeled).

It’s a bit frustrating the fence charger is backfeeding so badly. I wonder if the step up capacitor and the transformer are inducing current in the incoming load wires of the controller, which would backfeed. If so, this should be a common problem with fence chargers. But I wonder how many people have checked the frame of the solar panel, while grabbing a good ground?

Another issue I came across is that a coon or possum has found it’s way past the electric fence. Who knows how many will find their way past the fence, but so far the fence has been very effective at reducing deer populations and coon and possums.

[AndySmith]

I have a Cyclops as well, I’ll check the solar panel frame.

[Olpea]

This was the first time I noticed it, and it was after a rain when my shoes were wet. Maybe I have a defective unit?

Here are some pics of the wiring I’m posting in case I’m missing something?

Here are the guts of the charger. The red wire is labeled load on the printed circuit board, which goes through a fuse and becomes a white wire, which I have wired to the positive terminal of the solar charge controller.

The black wire is labeled “battery” on the printed board. I have it wired to the negative terminal on the solar charge controller.

Here is the inside of the box with the cover of the solar controller removed. It’s a bit hard to trace the wires from the pics. But basically all red wires are on the positive terminals of the solar controller and all black wires on on the negative.

Here is a pic I posted earlier of the whole inside of the box. The cover is on the charge controller, but the wiring is exactly the same. The solar panel has two black wires. I re-coded the positive wire with red tape to indicate it was the positive lead. I double checked that wire a couple days ago, and indeed it is attached to what is labeled the positive terminal of the solar panel.

Here is a pic of the solar panel. It’s screwed into wood. No metal is touching it.

I had wondered if the lightening choke/lightening diverter was somehow conducting electricity to the solar panel because the wood was damp. But I touched the bracket of the lightening diverter/choke and couldn’t feel anything. Just to make sure, I disconnected the knife switch to the lightening diverter/choke and still the solar panel was energized every time the fence charger pulsed.

[clarkinks]

@Olpea

Could you be overcharging the battery is that controller working ok? Normally solar lion batteries if anyone goes that way require compression or they start bulging so you want to keep pressure on them. Many will likely use this thread to build systems so it was something worth bringing up. There is truly a lot to learn in solar im trying to absorb it all but it takes time and help. Check out some tips in this video

DIY Off-Grid Solar FULL Install & Wire Diagrams - Powering Our Homestead w/ the SUN!

Its my opinion you need to check the solar controller https://altenergyoptions.com/can-a-solar-panel-overcharge-a-battery/#:~:text=A%20solar%20charge%20controller%20does,of%20a%20solar%20charge%20controller.

My eyes are not the best on these phones i didnt even notice at first the extra hard work you did that looks good overall!

[Steve333]

So I would expect that if the PV solar frame/panel is energized from the charger, the batt and CC would be as well (unless the charge is going over the ground line). (Are your PV frames grounded?) If you have one of those cheap fence led meters, you should be able to see led flicker when testing the PV frame and other points. You might be able to get an idea of the path the high voltage is taking. to get to the frame of the PVs.

Typically the PV frame is not tied to either side of the PV electrical connections, at least not in the panel itself.

[Auburn]

You do good work. Thanks for the pictures.

[subdood_ky_z6b]

I don’t know if you’re inferring it, but I don’t think he’s using a lithium battery here. I thought he’s using some type of lead acid battery (AGM?) so he could put it outside, albeit in a box. You can’t put a lithium battery outside without some kind of heat source for it, it can’t be charged below freezing temps without risking damaging it.