Both of the PV leads are supposed to be electrically isolated from the panel frame, correct? That would apply to any solar panel, wouldn’t it? And, isn’t a multi panel array supposed to have all the panel frames tied to together and earth grounded? I ask this pertaining to this issue, and to the array I’m about to build.
Just curious, but what kind of panel are you using here, Mark?
Yes, PV leads are supposed to be isolated from the frame. But that is likely for the voltage they operate at; they may well leak some at fence charger voltages (5000V or more)
Well done, hope it works out for you.
Sorry so late responding Bob. Missed the topic.
Here is the solar panel I bought.
I haven’t checked that yet Steve. I have more time now and plan to look at that. So far the leakage hasn’t seemed to cause any issues with the electronics.
Thought I’d report on how the electric fence worked after the first season.
Other than the bug I mentioned above, the system has worked pretty well and stayed on all summer.
One thing I would definitely do different, if I had to do it over again is install a taller horse fence. The horse fence I’m referring to is the one with the 2" X 4" openings.
Again here’s a picture of it.
Notice how much shorter the horse fence is compared to the field fence. That’s because the horse fence is only 30" tall and the field fence is 4’ tall.
I tried to save money on the horse fence, so bought rolls of horse fence 5’ tall, then cut them in half, so the horse fence is only 30" tall. The problem is weeds grow too fast in the summer and we don’t have time to keep them all killed down. Then the weeds grow up into the electric fence, which is just above the horse fence.
If we had an extra 18" of horse fence, that would help the situation a lot.
The charger still powered through the weeds, but I was worried that it would eventually run my backup battery dead. Sometimes I would shut it off manually for the day to let the battery charge more.
The solar control has a function to allow the fence to only run at night, but I’ve had some issues trying to figure out how to make it do that, so I ran it night and day. It’s a great controller and gives a lot of info, but trying to make it run just at night is not super intuitive. I really like that the controller has a display. It will tell you how many Kwh the load has pulled for the day, and how many Kwh the solar panel has put into the battery, in addition to the high and low battery voltage for the day. So it’s nice to be able to see the condition of the battery.
In terms of excluding coons/possums, I would rate it 90%. It would have been 100%, but the problem is that possums like to dig under the fence. Coons are climbers and would rather climb. Once a coon climbs and grabs the fence, I dont’ think they are apt to challenge it soon after. Keep in mind we have a tremendous amount of coon/possum pressure because we are just far enough out of the city, that people in the city and suburban areas catch coons and possums in live traps and release them in the “country” aka near enough to our orchard, that they find it.
Possums are less energetic and are content to try to dig under the fence. Part of the problem is that once the weeds are killed, the soil is easy for them to dig. We did kill weeds in the fence line a couple times, which left some bare spots in the fence line, which is where the possums would always dig. A taller horse fence would allow for weeds to remain longer, which would make for much harder digging for possums.
Another option would be to opt for a higher joule charger and bigger solar panels. My little 5 joule charger would plow through some weeds, but I was afraid to let too many weeds grow into the fence. I think with a bigger charger and solar panel, a person wouldn’t have to worry about controlling any weeds at all (at least for the length of fence around my orchard).
We did get some damage from possums this summer because of the digging under the fence. I had to place a live trap in the orchard and caught probably 8 possums all summer. I also caught one big coon, but I think he crawled under where the possums had dug under.
All in all, the electric fence probably reduced damage 90%.
At first, when the possums started digging under the fence, I would just fill the holes in with rocks. But the possums would just find a new place to dig. Then I started simply putting a foot hold trap at the place where possums dug under the fence. I even made the hole bigger, so I would catch them at the point of entry.
This had mixed results. One the one hand, I was catching possums as they entered the fence, but on the other hand, I was drawing them to the hole because of the bait (cat food drizzled with salmon oil on top). I think next year I might try setting several traps at a hole the possums dig and just not baiting the traps, so as not to draw them there, but perhaps catch them if they find the hole.
In terms of trapping, it’s a bit hard to catch coons or possums with a live trap in the orchard, because the orchard is too much area and too many food choices for the live trap to work real well. I did catch several in the live trap, but I had to keep moving it to where I saw half eaten peaches.
The foot hold trap worked some, but sometimes they wouldn’t step into it, or would spring it without getting caught.
I used paper towels to keep the trap disguised and used other paper towels simply placed on the ground as “decoys” so the possums would be more comfortable stepping on them.
I’m sure I could improve my trapping with tips from @TNHunter who trapped for a living, but I’m doing the best I can. Ultimately I’d like to move away from trapping, which was the whole point of the electric fence. But I feel like I need a stronger charger/bigger solar panel, or a taller fence to allow weeds to grow in the fence line, to completely get away from trapping.
I tensioned my wires today and found a bunch of insulators had been knocked off. The deer run at full speed and jump between my 2nd & 3rd wire or 3rd and 4th. If they’re off a bit they hit the wire and knock off 2-3 insulators. I made my way around the fence finding the missing ones and putting them back in place. Of course, I didn’t shut the fence off… I was thinking I would want to upgrade the fence energizer/controller to something more powerful in the future, but after getting zapped a couple times today I think my present charger is just fine !
