electric fence energiser

[Neddy flanders]

any recommendations for an energiser (battery or solar) for 10km of 2.5mm high tensile galvanised wire?

looking at PEL ??

 

[Will Blackburn]

Voss, that’s quite a distance for a battery, any chance of mains power?

 

[Generally01]

Always get a bigger one than you need, it may hurt the animals more at first but then they will no longer dare even get against it and won't get hurt at all.

 

[Tarw Coch]

I’ve now got several pel 705’s which are rated for long distances and they never give me any bother.
Unfortunately they’ve stopped making them this year although there is a replacement but I don’t know what it’s like, indeed I’m so pleased with my 705’s I managed to get a couple of new, old stock ones recently which I didn’t really need but would rather stick with what I know.

 

[HarryB97]

I bought a voss one and it only lasted a year compared to our Rutland ones which are over 15 years old and on every day of the year. You really want a mains energiser for that distance or need to put some breaks in the wire and reduce the length and have several battery energisers. I have some Speedrite ones from Rappa which are okay but my favourite our definitely the Hotline Buzzard energisers.

 

[Cow1]

Gallagher S100, solar, I bought 2 last winter and they have been faultless. One powers 3 strands of poly wire around 2 field boundaries. I’m not sure of the distance but must be 7 or 8 km

 

[Bury the Trash]

Voss dual one good value for money big power.

get a solar panel and charge controller separate from ebay amazon or somewhere battery or 2 will be fine ideal flexibility no need for lead out cables or siting near mains.

its been a revelation on keeping sheep in here.

 

[Timbo]

Voss dual one good value for money big power.

get a solar panel and charge controller separate from ebay amazon or somewhere battery or 2 will be fine ideal flexibility no need for lead out cables or siting near mains.

its been a revelation on keeping sheep in here.

^^^^^ exactly what i've done - An Ebay 100w panel, mounted to old roadworks sign A frame, with a charge controller siliconed to the back of the panel, a cable with croc clips on and a leisure battery.

Use Electric Sheppard ESB 275 2joule battery unit set to auto (fast in day, slow at night) Will Run a single strand all summer without any recharging at all, and in winter on 3 strand sheep reels about 3 to 4 weeks.

 

[JohnGalway]

mounted to a old roadworks sign A frame

Fixed it so it works for me here.

 

[A Sales representative]

Have a Gallagher 2800i running my fences, ouch!! It’s got a kick. What ever you buy earth it well, I’m using 4x1m posts 4m apart from each other.

 

[shields kaiser]

My neighbour bought this Speedrite Solar powered one for land he couldnt get mains to in the Spring. keeps in store cattle, so must be a decent kick in it - https://www.galloway-macleod.co.uk/index.php/speedrite-s1000-solar-energiser.html

 

[Timbo]

My neighbour bought this Speedrite Solar powered one for land he couldnt get mains to in the Spring. keeps in store cattle, so must be a decent kick in it - https://www.galloway-macleod.co.uk/index.php/speedrite-s1000-solar-energiser.html

1.0 joule output is fair going for a solar energiser- would do a single solid wire pretty good.

 

[shields kaiser]

1.0 joule output is fair going for a solar energiser- would do a single solid wire pretty good.

Yeah, could be, the guy i kow was running 2 HT wires, dont know what length but over upwards of 20 acres roughly

 

[Fencerfixer]

I fix energisers so a look at my "waiting repair" shelf will give you a pointer to reliability. The truth is it seems to go in waves. Sometimes it's full of Rutland and a few months later it can be mostly Hotline. Rutland changed hands last year and the new owners will not supply boards to repair agents anymore. Hotline are by far the easiest to repair and I have useb both the Buzzard and the Falcon since they first appeared in the 90's and are therefore thoroughly biased. I also find the older Gallagher and Electric Shepherd and the Speedrite nice to work with. the newer Gallaghers I find have a cheap feel and lightweight switches as do some of the French imports that I come across.

hope this helps anybody in choosing.

 

[Fencerfixer]

When choosing fencing remember the fundamentals of electricity. The more metal you have between the source and the furthest point the lower the resistance will be and the performance will be sustained over longer distances so a solid wire will have less resistance than a braid or wire rope also a thicker wire will perform better than a thin one.

When it comes to laying out your paddocks the distance on the box of the energiser remember that if it says 18k it's assuming a straight line of fence. farms are not like that. Assume that it's a collection of interconnected boxes which share sides. draw it out and the distance from the furthest point following the shortest path will be the measure to use. If there are multiple paths then more to the better, remember that the more metal between the points then the lower the resistance of the whole and the better the performance. If you want my advice add 20% to that to allow for the odd leakage through poor insulators and encroaching plants.

 

[Generally01]

What are the pros and cons of battery/solar vs electric? We have a battery/solar and all summer it wasn't to bad but now that we have less sunshine and it don't seem to have much power.
Basically my question would be which do you prefer and why?

 

[Fencerfixer]

some panels are pretty powerful but even the best will only double your time between charges. They help but with the more powerful energisers you will still need to charge the barrettes but not so regularly. Where they really help is in keeping the batteries at least a little charged which is important with a calcium leisure battery. If they drop to zero charge you can expect them to be written off. A solar panel can help to avoid this.

An anecdote. I have a customer who is the gamekeeper for a large estate. He chose the Hotline Helios as the preferred energiser for his pens they have a small calcium battery in them, about the size of a small car battery. Every year he brings all six of them in for a service and each year it costs him for six batteries at about £80 each. No matter how many times he is told he never charges them. All he needs to do is have a spare and leave it off in the sunshine to keep charged and maybe swap one out every three weeks. But with some of these estates it is easier just to replace.

There is now a range of Agricultural batteries that can also avoid this but only available in the regular 80ah or 120ah sizes.

With regards to choosing a panel the wattage is king the bigger the watts the more the charge the longer between bench charges. Also take a look at the ones for sale for caravans or camping that is a much bigger market than fencing and any new developments appear there first also their market is more competitive so you can get better deals you may have to jury rig your own stand though.

 

[Fencerfixer]

Sorry I missed the what would you prefer bit. No real preference except personally I would avoid buying an "all in one" solution. I only use one, that is a Buzzard with a generic 10w panel both connected to a 80ah leisure battery. 1 get 6 weeks between bench charges. The panel is old though. If I could be bothered to get a 20w or greater panel I would get 8 to 10 weeks between charges.

 

[Generally01]

So like i would still need to charge the battery in an all-in-one fencer that we have?

 

[Fencerfixer]

Remember. A solar panel I see only an aid . It will help but you can't leave them alone all summer without using a really big panel and they are exorbitant in price.