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Thread: Electric Fence Specs

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    Electric Fence Specs

    Am looking at having an electric fence installed around our property.

    Any advice on specs, etc so I don't get BS'd by those quoting ?

    Our property boundery is 50% pallisade fencing ( and drive gate ), the rest is pre-cast concrete walls. On the pre-cast side, 60% is on a slope, with a drop in height of about 1,5 panels for each horizontal panel.

    So what should I be looking for ?
    Best way to connect the drive gate to the rest of the fence ?
    Thickness / quality of wire, insulators, posts, etc ?
    Battery backup ? Specs of 'controller' ?

    Totally clueless at the moment, so need to be educated by those of you in the know.
    Watching the ships passing by.

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    Your best energizer on the market is a Merlin or a Wizord 4 - Both these units have battery backup. If this is a normal domestic application I would recomend 1.1mm galvanized braided wire which is quite difficult to cut with a normal sidecutter. The fence itself should not be less than 6 strands. Reason for this is if you had to use 5 strands, you are only monitoring 2 lines, whereas with 6 strands you monitor 4 lines. Some people prefer to go full size with precast wall and palisade because it is possible to break the precast and / or bend the palisade pales to gain entry. You should use galvanized poles - either square tube poles or flat bar poles - some people again prefer the square tube poles because they think that you can bend the flat bar poles - I have never had this. Do not go for round bar - they are the cheapest and give the most hassle - the bobbins on a round bar crack after a while causing shorting of the live wire thro the bobbins. There are a number of ways to connect the sliding gate - the best is with a heavy duty in-line gate contact which cuts the live when the gate closes and completes the circuit on top of the gate when closed ie if the wire is then cut on top of the gate it will activate the alarm. A sliding gate contact series also works but only takes the live wire to the gate.

    Do not have too many poles too close together - the whole idea of an electric fence is to warn you of an intruder - if the poles are too close and they put a blanket over, it will not let the wires touch and therefore the alarm will not activate. Ideal pole gap is around 3.5m - 4m.

    Hope this helps for now. Am more than happy to help if/when you have more questions as you go forward with the project.

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    AmithS (07-Jun-12), Dave A (04-Jun-12), daveob (04-Jun-12)

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    Gold Member Martinco's Avatar
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    Kevin................for the price, will stainless not be better ? The reason is that my fence is now 8 years old and the galv braided wire has rusted to the extent where the strands are breaking one after the other. The difference in price is not that great. Admittedly, you cannot get the same distance with stainless than what you can get with galv. but in my opinion it could be worth your while to go for stainless.
    Other than the above I agree 100% with your suggestion.
    Last edited by Martinco; 04-Jun-12 at 09:23 AM. Reason: Typo
    Martin Coetzee
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    We solve your fastening problems.
    www.straptite.com

    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

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    Many Thanks Kevin

    OK, so I have a Q/A spec sheet for the quote so far as follows :

    Energiser :
    Make
    Model
    Battery Backup Y/N
    Battery running time
    Battery type / size for replacements
    Alarm output signal Y/N
    Separate alarm signals for shock and cut ?

    Earthing Rods
    Quantity
    Spacing
    Length
    Material

    Wire
    Thickness
    Type ( stranded / solid )
    Material ( Stainless / Galvanised )

    Strands
    6 or 8
    Quantity of Live wires / Ground wires

    Poles
    Round, Square or flat bar
    Material
    Bobbins Material
    Bobbins life span
    Spacing ( 3.5m pref )

    Gate
    Heavy Duty inline contacts ?
    Underground link between gate posts


    Warranty on each component of the system.
    Watching the ships passing by.

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    @ Martinco - stainless is also good and you can get the distance with a good energizer. There was a problem a few years ago whereby the galvanized wire that was done was a very bad batch - you probably got some out of that .

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    dave - send me the quote that you have been given and I will have a look at it. I cant do anything with the above without knowing distance of fence and if it is walltop or full size.

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    Gold Member Martinco's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevinb View Post
    @ Martinco - stainless is also good and you can get the distance with a good energizer. There was a problem a few years ago whereby the galvanized wire that was done was a very bad batch - you probably got some out of that .
    My luck !!!!!

    As it is now I have to redo the whole fence.
    Also the contractor that did the job overtightened some of the bobbins with the result that many of these started cracking where the bolt goes thru the bobbin. These I am replacing as needed..............but still a schlep !
    Martin Coetzee
    Supplier of Stainless Steel Band and Buckle and various fastening systems. Steel, Plastic, Galvanized, PET and Poly woven.
    We solve your fastening problems.
    www.straptite.com

    You may never know what results will come from your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results... Rudy Malan 05/03/2011

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    Email problem daveob's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevinb View Post
    dave - send me the quote that you have been given and I will have a look at it. I cant do anything with the above without knowing distance of fence and if it is walltop or full size.
    Thanks Kevin. Will do once I get some - am just making a checklist first of what I should be wanting.
    Watching the ships passing by.

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    Hi Kevin

    OK. Got the first 2 quotes in.

    Kept the Specs the same for both

    Wall-top.
    Energiser M28 - 8 joule, 2 zones
    143 meters ( 36m palasade, 15m flat wall, 92m on slope )
    Square Bar
    6 strands
    extra 2 strands on 2 sections ( 46 meters each ) where wall is on a slope ( to cover the gaps in the steps of the wall )
    2 x 20m HT cable and conduit ( from energiser to each zone )
    12 core comms cable from garage to house
    Keypad / control unit
    Heavy Duty Gate Contacts
    Buried cable across gate posts
    Earth Spikes
    Sundries

    Price R 20664
    Watching the ships passing by.

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    Great specs, but seriously wouldnt go for a M28 ..... far too big for that distance. An electric fence current is like a water pipe - if it is such high pressure with such a short distance it is busting to escape - so any little rain it might short out to something if too close. An energizer that size you would use on a 5km complex.

    That price is very high - I would charge 143m x R50 per metre = R7150.00
    Energizer - around the R5000.00 mark
    Cabling, conduiting trenching around the R1000 mark

    Total: R13150.00

    Not entirely sure how many gates you have but you can add around R500 per gate plus R400 per gate contact.

    This is for a 6 strand fence as you have stated with square tubing.

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