Electric fence grounding question

[OkieDavid]

Scenerio- VERY sandy soil. Fence charger is properly grounded using three 8 foot ground rods with proper spacing and wire gauge per the manufacturer recomendation. Fence charger is fed from a detached shop. Shop is fed from the customer side of the meter (same meter feeds the house) and grounded back at the service pole.

Issue- Sufficient current is being induced into a chain link fence to give a mild "thump" when touched. The hot wire from the charger is run on insulated connectors designed for chain link fence useage. Proper spacing is maintained between insulators. Watering the ground rods seems to have no effect. Using a "tic" tracer I can even get flash indications of voltage inside the house consistent with the cycling of the fence charger. Chain link fence never comes into contact with the house although it does go over an underground phone line.

Question- Is this some form of "step voltage" as everything is grounded separately? Would tieing all the grounds together (house,shop,pole) eliminate this? This one has me stumped. Recommendations?

[dave_p]

I have a friend with a couple of burros who has the same problem, sandy ground, three properly spaced 8 food ground rods....seemed pretty redundant to me when he told me it was per directins to use three rods.
I had my horses fenced with a solar charger several years back that I bought used and didn't get any directions with it and only used 1 rod and it would strike fire from the spark if you got too close.
It may not work. but try one rod.....with the watering as well it should do the job. My dirt wasn't that sandy tho.
I'd be worried that my house ground was the same.
Not much help Iknow, hope you find a fix and post here....my friend will be glad to know too! dave_p

[agmantoo]

Ground the chainlink fence to the same ground as the charger and see if the charge on the fence disappears.

[Bearfootfarm]

It seems to me that there has to be a short in the fence itself, since there should be NO power going back to ground ( or anywhere else) unless something touches the fence
Something has to be completing that circuit to get voltage somewhere else

[agmantoo]

It is induced voltage. Your hot wire and the fence are behaving as a transformer. The hot wire is the primary and the fence is the secondary. With the fence voltage as high as it is the air gap between the hot wire and the fence is not large enough to prevent the power being induced into the fence. If you get the fence grounded as good as the charger I think the voltage on the fence will not be felt by a person. The ground on the fence at this time IMO is not as good as the one on the charger. A potential (voltage) on two different grounds(one inferior) can create a shock between the grounds. This is part of the reason mobile homes have a 4 wire mains setup and stick built homes have a 3 wire feed.

[red hott farmer]

I have the same problem. I have a 15' section of 2 iron gates in ground with metal poles and cattle panels on T-post. ANd when closing the gate I have to squeeze them together. and I get a low shock wnen pulling he gates together. About 30' away 3 -8' grounding rods at base of building where down pours come down. So ground is damp now. and a 7 joule 100 mile charger hooked on it. Same problem as you have It sounds like. top. 1 foot to 2 foot is sandy loam with Ga. red clay under needth it and lots of big oaks around.
Sould I try to hook the small section of cattle panels and iron gate to grounding rods to stop the shock That I feel when I close the gate. I put my tester on the gate. and it is not a constant voltage thru it. but spratic. maybe between .7 and 2 kilovolts sometimes in it. The gate no where touches the Electric wire. Nowhere.

[Nancy_in_GA]

We have a very similar fence mystery. We used extenders to add two hot predator wires at the top and bottom of our field fence. The fence is set up as the ground. The three rods at the charger loop back to the field fence, and we sunk 4 additional rods hooked to the fence at low wet spots around the permimeter.

I'm getting at least 7000 volts using the fence as a ground, but barely 600v using the soil as a ground. We are in serious drought conditions here right now, so I expected that.

I was sitting on the barn floor (clay dirt) about 50 feet from the fence/charger, using an electric drill yesterday. The metal screws on the end of the extension cord were touching my arm, and I could feel a slight shock going tick, tick, tick, at the same speed the fence charger was ticking. The drill has only a two pronged outlet, if that makes a difference.

The charger is run off a subpanel installed in the barn, but the electrician did not put in a ground rod for the electric service at the barn. The receptacle for the drill is on a separate circuit from the fence charger.

Something grounding out the fence in this case, too, or a problem with the wiring?

[rambler]

Originally Posted by Nancy_in_GA

Something grounding out the fence in this case, too, or a problem with the wiring?

I'm not in a position to guess the problem, but look up 'stray voltage' and it's effect on dairy esp & other livestock in general. Very serious to the critters, they will avoid water & etc.

Something you need to work out & solve, if you have critters.

--->Paul

[OkieDavid]

Update: Grounded the chain link fence to the charger ground with 10ga bare copper and the problem went away. As I explained in my original post, I could also pick up stray voltage in the house with a tic tracer. Ran a piece of copper on top of the soil and tied the house ground to the charger ground and the stray voltage in the house disappeared....next step is to catch a cool day and hand trench it underground. I consider myself a competent electrician and electricity is electricity but the high voltages you are dealing with on fence chargers can demonstrate some of the basic concepts to the extreme LOL.

I developed a new mantra when it comes to these rascals.....when in doubt, ground everything again LOL

[agmantoo]

With the charger and the fence sharing the same ground, then you no longer have a difference of potential between the two grounds, hence no shock.