Permanent Electric Horse Fence, continued
Insulators: The multitude of insulators, splicers, tensioners, and clamps available today can create confusion, but in fact your fence’s insulators and their kin need do only two things: 1) keep the conductor from touching anything that is not insulated, and 2) keep enough tension on the conductor to keep it from sagging. Almost any collection of insulators, splicers, tensioners, or clamps that will do these jobs should work fine. To find the right insulators for your fence, go to insulators in our product listings, choose the type of post you plan to use (wood/vinyl posts–a category that includes T-posts covered with vinyl sleeves; steel T-posts; or round fiberglass posts). Then select the insulators for that post which will fit your chosen conductor. In general we list two types of insulators, those that will support the insulator along a more or less straight fence line and those that are suited to providing support on corner, end or gate posts. In addition, a number of other items, some insulators and some not, will help to maintain mild to moderate tension on the line. These are listed separately in the products section under the imposing heading of Electric Fence Tensioners/Tighteners, Splicers, Joiners, and Clamps. Fortunately, despite its long name, this section is much smaller than the insulators section and easy to explore.
Grounding: It’s easy to plan proper grounding arrangements for a permanent electric horse fence, because the fence is staying put. In the case where grounding conditions are not good, because the soil is dry or frozen much of the year, the classic answer is to alternate actively charged runs of conductor with runs that are not charged but are tied into the ground system by being connected to the ground rod or rods or to the ground terminal on the charger. One can also install a single double-throw switch (product 06-13) on the line in a way that makes it simple to change the conductor runs from all actively charged in seasons with good grounding conditions to alternating charged and grounded conductor runs when the ground is dry or frozen.
If grounding conditions are reasonably good (the surface soil generally contains some moisture), the prime factors influencing how you ground the fence are the fence’s length and lightning control measures. If moisture is generally present in the soil but is sometimes marginal, or if the fence is long, use several ground rods (see products 06-02 thru 06-06) hooked up together and spaced at least 10 feet away from one another. If the fence is very long, consider locating a ground rod every quarter-mile or so along its length and stringing a ground wire low on the fence that is NOT in contact with any electrified conductor but instead connects all these ground rods and the ground terminal on the charger.
