Alpo Posted February 16 Posted February 16 (edited) You run power through an electric fence. I don't suppose it matter how much power. Let's say you got 20 zillion kilowatts running through this fence. Something touches the fence, but it does not touch the ground. So it is not grounding the fence. Will there be electrical sparks? Arcing? Television show. There's an electric fence over there. Bored security guard is walking along throwing rocks at the fence, and every time the rock hits the wire there's a spark and a zap sound. I don't think it would do that. I think that's television. But I could be wrong. So I thought I would ask. If the rocks would cause the fence to spark by hitting it, then it seems like those birds standing on the hot wire between those two poles across the street should get fried. But they don't. Because they're not grounded. I've seen squirrels run along that wire. No problem. Because they're not grounded. Yes / no? Edited February 16 by Alpo Quote
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted February 16 Posted February 16 There are two types of electric fencing that I know of. One has Hot wiring as the fence itself, and the earth is the ground. The other has every other wire either hot or ground. Neither will spark with only one wire in contact with something like a rock. 1 2 Quote
Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted February 16 Posted February 16 I have an electric fence. When birds land and sit one one of the wires, they are not shocked. As you pointed out, they are not grounded in that case, as opposed to the horses who are. So, no, nothing happens. Quote
watab kid Posted February 16 Posted February 16 17 hours ago, Alpo said: You run power through an electric fence. I don't suppose it matter how much power. Let's say you got 20 zillion kilowatts running through this fence. Something touches the fence, but it does not touch the ground. So it is not grounding the fence. Will there be electrical sparks? Arcing? Television show. There's an electric fence over there. Bored security guard is walking along throwing rocks at the fence, and every time the rock hits the wire there's a spark and a zap sound. I don't think it would do that. I think that's television. But I could be wrong. So I thought I would ask. If the rocks would cause the fence to spark by hitting it, then it seems like those birds standing on the hot wire between those two poles across the street should get fried. But they don't. Because they're not grounded. I've seen squirrels run along that wire. No problem. Because they're not grounded. Yes / no? you mean like a bird landing on it ? no , but they will feel the current vibrating through the wire , not sure how that might affect them , Quote
Oak Ridge Regulator Posted February 17 Posted February 17 Warning about electric fences, my last fencer was an 8 joule unit for portable fence and was hooked up to standard fencing instead. On a dry day the spark would jump a 1/2 from the fence to the goat. On a wet day a bit more. It hurt like hell and would leave your hand numb. Coyotes and the neighborhood dogs learned very fast not to even approach the fence and deer hitting it at night made interesting blatting noises. The problem is you never know what kind of fencer the farmers running until you reach for that wire ! 3 Quote
Pat Riot Posted February 17 Posted February 17 Movie fences spark as do movie bullets hitting cars and buildings. In my limited experience with electric fences the ones I have touched or gotten near did not spark. The ones I touched did zap me good though. Quote
Buckshot Bear Posted February 17 Posted February 17 When the kids were young, we used to hook up battery pack electric fence energisers to anything metal that we could hide the energiser leads to, they'd get me and I'd get them......in the end we were all too scared to touch anything metal without a checker.....it's been years now......hmmm I could get 'em good!!!!! 3 Quote
Earl Brasse, SASS #3562 Posted February 18 Posted February 18 I used to live on an old farm growing up. They had the electric fence amount of "Zap" controlled by a board with about 5 different watt light bulbs in sockets on it. You changed the power on the line according to the wattage of the bulb you screwed in. far enough to light it up. Quote
watab kid Posted February 18 Posted February 18 dont recall a spark from them but my last experience with them was the 60s , the deer would jump over them , the birds would not land on them and yes if you touched it you got a jolt - dont pee on it 1 Quote
Buckshot Bear Posted February 18 Posted February 18 3 hours ago, watab kid said: dont recall a spark from them but my last experience with them was the 60s , the deer would jump over them , the birds would not land on them and yes if you touched it you got a jolt - dont pee on it Cattle and sheep dogs usually only do that once! 1 Quote
Cheatin Charlie Posted February 18 Posted February 18 5 hours ago, watab kid said: dont recall a spark from them but my last experience with them was the 60s , the deer would jump over them , the birds would not land on them and yes if you touched it you got a jolt - dont pee on it 1 1 Quote
Alpo Posted February 18 Author Posted February 18 When I started this thread I thought about the MythBusters episode about peeing on the fence. And how they said it couldn't hurt you because it's not a solid stream of pee. They had extreme close up footage of it and it came out in a little spurts with spaces between them. But I put a hot wire around the bottom of the dog pen because we had one that was a digger, and one of my dogs went over there to Christen the fence posts. He went into the northeast corner and he peed and he jerked, then he went to the northwest corner and he peed and he jerked and he yipped, then he went to the southeast corner and he went to pee on the post and he kiyied, and then he went to the southwest corner and he screamed. And then he just went and sat in the middle of the pen and shivered. I'm pretty sure when you pee on electric fence you get shocked. The mythbuster guys, they can use all their dummies and technical scientific nonsense they want to. But if you want to find out if it can be done, pee on the fence. 3 Quote
Cheatin Charlie Posted February 18 Posted February 18 The Mythbusters said you could get shocked if you stood close because your stream was solid, if you stood back aways your stream brock up. So can you get shocked from an electric fence the answer is, It depends! I also think it would depend if your feet were grounded to the earth. Charlie As a child my brother told me to pee on the fence and it would not hurt. Even at a young age I knew never trust an older brother. He always lied! Quote
watab kid Posted February 18 Posted February 18 10 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said: Cattle and sheep dogs usually only do that once! yup , they learn quick , i remember some of the kids growing up that got a jolt more than once tho , slow learners Quote
watab kid Posted February 18 Posted February 18 8 hours ago, Cheatin Charlie said: busted , but it was always in your head growing up 1 Quote
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