Posted 2016-05-31 2:23 PM Subject: electric fence box conversion question
Elite Veteran
Posts: 989
Hi there,
Does anyone know how to convert an electric fence box that you plug into your house into one that I can hook up to a battery? My pea brain says I should be able to split the cord and put a neg and positive clamp on the wires and hook it up, but apparently it is not quite that easy.
They have converters both from 12v DC to 120v AC and 120v AC to 12v DC (v stands for volt. DC is Direct current ((battery))..AC is Alternating Current, house/barn electricity) Every hot fence I ran used DC. Some from a car battery and some from House electric. Figure $50 to $100 either way..
(I know this can be hard to understand.... I had to take Electronic Theory to get my HAM license. It took me a week to learn Morse Code... It took me a fricken year to learn theory :/ )
So, can I go into a electrical store and get what I need and do it myself?
You don't have to do that... Go to your local livestock feed store and tell them you want to run a hot fence from a 12 volt battery. Usually they will use a Deep Cell... Like they use on boats... They will set you up. We had one that was connected to a solar charger... Easy Peasy...
Use the KISS system and go buy you a solar powered fence charger ...
UNDER $100................
To attempt to convert one of the cheap AC units to a DC unit is costly and a PTA!
DC to AC takes an INVERTER
not a Converter .. which is AC to DC
If you try .. you will need a deep charge battery fully charged $120, Inverter $49,
a limiting coil $29 (to limit the power to the fence) and your AC unit is probably not waterproof and will run your battery down very quickly if your limiting coil is not properly set ... and then you spend all of your time unhooking and hooking up your battery to re-charge it ... lol
TIPS: The secret to a good electric fence is a good ground and no weeds shorting out the fence.
Make sure charger is out of reach of your horses ... they will tear it up ..
Weeds ... spray fence line with roundup to kill weeds and grass that may interfere/touch your wire/ with your electric pulse on your fence ..... another way is to only have your top wire on your fence as the hot wire ... (this will work for horses but not cattle)
Buy you a small roll of 12 gauge single automotive wire to be used as your ground wire and to connect the hot charger wire to your electric fence line.
There are cheap screw on clamps to connect the fence and charger ..
GROUND: I use a Tpost that also holds the fence charger .... drill a hole in the vane of the tpost one foot from the top of the post to fit a self tapping screw in or a bolt & nut to attach the ground wire from your charger ... wrap the wire and screw it down tight ...
If your ground is very dry ... use 2 tposts ...1st post... drive the ground post with the drilled hole as deep as you can (3-4ft) .......... then drive the 2nd post a normal depth and as close as possible to the ground post ... to hold your charger on ..
Now setup up your charger to 2nd post and ground wire to the 1st post .. let it sit there for 2 days and charge the internal battery to a full charge so it will run all night too ... now wire your hot wire (red side of charger) to your electric fence ... fence should be working if it is not shorted out by weeds or touching a post or another wire ...
electric fence box conversion question
