Anyone use solar powered battery for electric fence?

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Scummycat

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I’m looking at buying a solar energiser to run my electric fencing. They sound great but they would, wouldn’t they! Does anyone have any experience of using these please? Are they any good? Any specific companies to use? Many txs in advance.
 
I've been using them for years and they are really improving. I have a Gallagher that was reeeeeeally expensive about 4-5 years ago and a VOSS that was about £170 or so, also 4-5 years ago. Both have a small internal battery for cloudy days and have done well on my smaller circuits. I also have a VOSS with an additional 9V battery for longer rainy/cloudy times of year, and I run a fairly large circuit off that and never have a problem. I replace the battery once a year at the start of winter "just in case" but it is usually still working at that point.
 
I have a hotline Fire Drake, ( i think thats what its callEd It is very easy to use and obly need re charging in mid winter. Been using it for 4 years at least, no escapes here!
 
Thanks very much for the details. Glad to hear such positive experiences. It’s only a small circuit so don’t need mega power but obviously keen for it to be reliable. The back up internal battery sounds like a great idea, I hadn’t realised some of them have that too.
 
I keep 2 car batteries in a box and have a small solar panel stuck to the top of the box. I keep 1 battery on the fence and 1 on the panel and swap them over every week or so. Obv in winter they dont last as long but this system works well on about 500m of rope and is a lot cheaper. I was too worried about the expensive units being stolen or trodden on!!
 
My YO is using one on our external fence line and I'm not convinced it's hugely effective, mainly because it has never zapped me when I've accidentally forgotten and touched the fence! It's a really big boundary though.
 
I use Voss. I have two. One for each side of the field. In winter I take home and charge over night. But in summer hardly have to think about them I'm going to buy another one soon for another area, but they are really easy to move around and I think they were only about £120 a couple of years ago.
 
MyBoyChe said:
I keep 2 car batteries in a box and have a small solar panel stuck to the top of the box. I keep 1 battery on the fence and 1 on the panel and swap them over every week or so. Obv in winter they dont last as long but this system works well on about 500m of rope and is a lot cheaper. I was too worried about the expensive units being stolen or trodden on!!
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Thanks MBC, that’s a clever idea.
 
HashRouge said:
My YO is using one on our external fence line and I'm not convinced it's hugely effective, mainly because it has never zapped me when I've accidentally forgotten and touched the fence! It's a really big boundary though.
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Interesting. Clearly I need to make sure it’s big enough for the job. Fortunately the area I want it for is quite small.
 
BSL2 said:
I use Voss. I have two. One for each side of the field. In winter I take home and charge over night. But in summer hardly have to think about them I'm going to buy another one soon for another area, but they are really easy to move around and I think they were only about £120 a couple of years ago.
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Thanks BSL2. Looks like Voss are pretty popular, and reliable. Decent price too.
 
I just bought a tiny little solar panel from ebay for about £15 and it worked really well to charge the battery and a lot cheaper than a solar energiser
 
I have this one Rutland ESS400 Solar Electric Fence Energiser
It’s lovely and the battery is very lightweight which means it is easy to move from field to field. The only time I’ve charged it from a socket apart from right at the start is when I had put it away for awhile when I didn’t need it so I topped it up.
 
I have a Gallagher for the field where I would have to get the mains cable across the drive to power that field .
It’s great a super easy way to get powerful fencing anywhere .
The only issues I see is snow and extremely poor weather and theft because they are not cheap .
 
Sussexbythesea said:
I have this one Rutland ESS400 Solar Electric Fence Energiser
It’s lovely and the battery is very lightweight which means it is easy to move from field to field. The only time I’ve charged it from a socket apart from right at the start is when I had put it away for awhile when I didn’t need it so I topped it up.
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That’s great SbtS, thank you. I’ll have a look at this. Sounds ideal.
 
Goldenstar said:
I have a Gallagher for the field where I would have to get the mains cable across the drive to power that field .
It’s great a super easy way to get powerful fencing anywhere .
The only issues I see is snow and extremely poor weather and theft because they are not cheap .
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Many thanks Goldenstar, I’ll investigate.
 
I bought a cheaper ended one of Amazon probably near £100. Its great in sunny weather but very quickly runs flat in rainy weather, so I expect I'll be back to leisure batteries through the winter.
 
We had a similar set up to MyboyChe, which did get stolen. Now we have a solar powered panel on the top of the roof of an old caravan that is parked up at the edge of the field. The batteries go in the gas locker with a wire leading to the fence. Seems to work perfectly over the 4 strands and 1 km that is our perimeter length.
 
Dexter said:
I just bought a tiny little solar panel from ebay for about £15 and it worked really well to charge the battery and a lot cheaper than a solar energiser
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This certainly a easy way as well just less integrated ,trickle charge a leisure battery with a small solar panel.
Those cheap panels often don’t work in ambient light so you need to check that out as you get into winter .
.
 
We have Gallaghers too, another livery had one, then I bought one, then the YO bought three more because we all liked them so much! I managed to get mine on a bit of a sale and it knocked a few tenners off the normal price. So worth shopping around for them.
 
Thanks so much everyone. Loads of great advice. I’ll definitely have a look at Gallaghers, as well as Voss, and also at more home made solutions. As a concept though it’s obviously do-able and works well.
 
I also have a Rutland Solar Electric Fence Energiser , and have had it for probably 4 years now. I love it. Mind you, I do have ponies that are scared to death of electric fencing and wouldn't go anywhere near anything that remotely ticked, so perhaps not a true test.
 
I’ve got a Gallagher unit. Ended up electrifying the entire livery yard with my unit (about 6 acres with electric rope and rail). Over summer and winter with it never been turned off and only using solar power.

3 friends bought one after seeing mine.

Gives a fair shock and highest reading on reader.
 
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