We are considering a solar fence charger. We will eventually have about 50 acres included in pasture. Electricity is more expensive than what we are used to at our old home so we are looking for another way to do things. Does anyone have any specific experience with solar fence chargers? If you bought one you loved or hated we'd like to hear about it. How do they work for you? Any special brand to stay away from? Anyone have a used one they no longer use they'd be willing to sell? The woman at the feed store is trying to talk us out of it and stay w/ electric even though the biggest one costs over $300 at her family store! Ideas? Thanks Jacki

-- Jacki (rambrozaitis@snet.net), April 29, 2002

Answers

there was one or two on the lusenet barter board, take a look-see.

-- bj pepper ,in central MS. (pepper.pepper@excite.com), April 29, 2002.

Have you priced out the electric cost to run an electric powered one vs the cost of a battery/solar powered fencer?

If your trying to keep smart or timid animals in, After a couple of shocks and an ocasional re-shock they will avoid the fence then a solar unit may be worthwire. If you have sturburn animals the shock may not be high enough.

How you run your fence wire will also matter. If your running a single top wire then solar can work but if your running multi level wires you have to contend with vegitation draining batteries or shorting out a fence.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), April 29, 2002.

Our local Premier dealer (who runs about a hundred head of sheep himself) strongly urged us to consider using a plug-in charger, even if we had to run a couple hundred feet of extension cord. We do use a solar charger, have used it for years, and mostly it works all right, but it isn't as strong as we'd like (we have goats). Late in the year it gets weaker, because there isn't enough sun to keep i t charged, and also I suspect that the colder weather in late fall/early winter isn't too good for the battery.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (freeholder45@yahoo.net), April 29, 2002.

We use a solar for our draft horses and it works fine. They only take getting shocked once or twice and they stay away from the fence for good. We are real happy with ours.

-- Joanie (ber-gust@prodigy.net), April 29, 2002.

I've not been around the solar jobbies and know nothing about them.

Kathleen, I realize the shorter days would affect the charging, but can you or do you adjust the tilt of the cell array to account for the changing angle of the sun? On solar home panels I understand that for maximum gain they are adjusted monthly. Well the purists do anyway.

Just something to ponder on.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), April 29, 2002.

This may be a bit off the subject or perhaps too much information, but since I know very little about electric fences, decided to do more searching on this subject:

Electric Fence Design, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 922 SPRING 1992, http://www.foothill.net/~ringram/design.htm ELECTRIC FENCE DESIGN, David W. Pratt, U.C.C.E. Farm Advisor, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 922 SPRING 1992, Napa & Solano Counties U.C.C.E., Livestock/Range Management Program

TEMPORARY ELECTRIC FENCE MATERIALS EVALUATION, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 903 Winter 1990 , http://www.foothill.net/~ringram/tmpfence.htm FENCES THAT WORK:TEMPORARY ELECTRIC FENCE MATERIALS EVALUATION, David W. Pratt, U.C.C.E. Farm Advisor, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 903 Winter 1990, Napa & Solano Counties U.C.C.E., Livestock/Range, Management Program

GROUNDING ELECTRIC FENCES, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 914 FALL, 1991, http://www.foothill.net/~ringram/groundng.htm GROUNDING ELECTRIC FENCES, David W. Pratt, U.C.C.E. Farm Advisor, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 914 FALL, 1991, Napa & Solano Counties U.C.C.E., Livestock/Range Management Program

ELECTRIC FENCE ENERGIZERS, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 913 WINTER 1991 , http://www.foothill.net/~ringram/energzer.htm ELECTRIC FENCE ENERGIZERS, David W. Pratt, U.C.C.E. Farm Advisor, LIVESTOCK & RANGE REPORT NO. 913 WINTER 1991, Napa & Solano Counties U.C.C.E., Livestock/Range Management Program

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

Harbor Freight tools sells a solar fence charger for $99 ( 4 Volt ). I don't know if it is a quality product.

-- Marty Palange (MPalange@ahmail.com), April 29, 2002.

I have a solar powered fence charger and my box will hit just as hard as a medium grade electric. I raise cows,horses,goats,and have one donkey. None of them will mess with the fence. I have a 4 wire system and the top one is hot and the middle one is hot. The other 2 strands are wrapped around the t-posts and then run to the ground on my electric fence charger. With the animals standing on the ground and then all the extra ground that they are getting off the posts I probably have as much "juice" as a larger electric box. I also have 3 7' ground rods driven all the way in the ground. The only bad thing about solar boxes is that to fence in 50 acres you will need at least 2 boxes because the only ones I have seen are only good for about 20 acres. Hope this helps. By the way I have had some pretty stubborn cows and bulls and none have ever gotten out. Brad H.

-- Brad H. (FIRE_RESCUE126@HOTMAIL.COM), April 29, 2002.

Would not your location have a great deal to do with it?? Here in Michigan my Amish neighbors tryed some of the better solar chargers and found them to be totally inadequate in the winter months. We just do not have enough sun. For summer temporary pastures they have worked just fine.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 29, 2002.

I've had my Parmak Solar fencer for MANY years. Kinda funny that I bought it from Jeffers 'cause they had the best price at the time and someone this week said that Jeffers still had the best price of those they checked.

With a large acreage, solar fencing is the only way to go. There's no electric plugs out there!!! Plus it keeps on working during a storm when your electricity can go off. It also is very handy for alternating pastures.

My unit works on 25 miles of wire, cuts thru plants life, and will work thru 21 days of no sun ~ it's in the guarantee ~ but I can't prove that 'cause I live in the sun belt! -G-

Here in Texas, it's not unusual to see stock held in with just 2 hot wires and no fencing, be it bovine, equine or other stock. Of course it helps that they're on large properties with pastures, not squished in some small dry lot pen.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), May 01, 2002.

Hi, our pasture fences all have solar powered cells on them. They just power the one wire which is about a foot off the ground. This keeps the cattle from shoving their noses under and lifting up the stock wire. They work great, take a lot of punishment and you can charge a really long stretch of wire with them. These four cells have been in operation for about 9 years and the only problem we have with them is we must be sure and keep any vegetation from growing up and touching the wire. I just spray the perimeter with Roundup each spring. Hope this helps. Oh yeah, and they give a shock that will wake you right up, the cattle respect that wire! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker in OR (carouselxing@juno.com), May 01, 2002.

All electric fence energisers work on the same principle, charge up a capacitor and sense the voltage over it. When the cap is charged it is dumped through the primary of a step up transformer, (just like an auto coil which incidentally make good fencers)usually by triggering a thyristor. Anyone with a basic electronic knowledge should be able to find the RC timing circuit that controls the rate at which the thyristor is fired. By increasing the R (resistor) value you can slow down the rate of firing and hence extend battery life. You could actually have an external switch, one setting for use over the first couple of weeks of use, until the animals get wise to avoid it, and then switch over to a slower "maintainence rate" However if you are in a low sunshine area you just cant get away from the fact the batteries need sunshine to charge.

Best of luck.

-- Ken Duggan (kduggan@mrao.cam.ac.uk), May 02, 2002.

We've had the 12 volt battery operated Parmak for about 9 years now. As long as you own a battery charger, its great. We only have one battery now, when it gets low we just recharge for a short time, and its good to go. Sometimes it runs low quicker when the weed load is high, but no complaints here. Be much better if you had 2 batteries though. No worries about no sun or no electricity!!

-- Suzanne (weir@frontiernet.net), May 02, 2002.