The electric security fence has a number of applications. Though it has numerous applications, when it comes to installing them, the principle is the same. Therefore, it is important before I dive in, in explaining how to install an electric fence, you should no know what an electric fence is. What is an electric fence, it is a fence that allows electricity to pass through it with a sole purpose to prevent both people and animals from crossing a barrier.
How does an electric fence work?
For an electric fence to work, you need an energizer and correctly wired fence. The energizer produces electrical pulses that are pushed through the electric fence. The electric pulse is enough to cause an electric shock to either an animal or human being in contact with the fence.
- In case of a security fence, when a person comes in contact with the fence, he makes a complete circuit this, in turn, sends a signal to the energizer that someone has tampered with the fence. This signal will trigger an alarm or and a strobe light. Thus alerting you. I am going to base most of my discussion on how to install an electric fence, on a non-lethal security fence.
A list of materials needed to install a gate electric fence.
- Energizer
- HT cable(High tension )
- Braided wire
- Line clamp
- Ferrules
- Soft wire
- Fence post complete with insulators
- Surge diverter
- Caution signs
- Tensioning springs
- Earth electrode.
- Siren
- Strobe light.
The use or function of the above-listed materials.
Energizer
I can say that the energizer is the heart or engine of an electric fence. It controls all the actions and functions that take place in a complete electric fence. It is the energizer that pushes the electric pulse to the fence.
HT cables.
These are the cables that you use to connect the energizer to the electric fence. All electrical connections that you want to do between the energizer and the electric fence, they should be done using HT(high tension) cables.
Braided wire.
Braided wire is the main wire that you use to make an electric fence or wire an electric fence. It is good to mention that most braided wires comprise of a roll measuring up to 680 meters. This tells you that for an average fence of 20m by 30m, a roll of braided wire will do the job.
Line clamp.
Earlier I did mention that you use HT cables to connect the energizer to the fence. Now at the point where you connect the HT cable to the fence, that is where you use line clamps to fasten the two wires the HT and braided wire. You use line clamps to prevent lose connections between the HT and the braided wire.
Ferrules.
These guys may seem to be small and of no much significance, but they play a very big role in the wiring or installation of an electric fence. This is a component that you use together with the tensioning spring to pull and fix the wire onto the fence post. You use it to join two High tension cables or wires also.
Soft wire.
As the name implies it is a soft wire. You use this soft wire for a number of tasks while you are installing an electric fence, the notable use of this soft wire is to fix the tensioning springs to the fence post. I will talk about tensioning springs I the next few subtitles.
Fence post.
This is support or pole where you put your electric fence. A most electric fence post has five or six lines where to put or run the wires.
Surge diverter.
This is a protective device that protects the fence against lightning or surges.
Tensioning springs.
This spring helps you to tension the fence. Without tensioning springs, it will be difficult to tension the fence accordingly.
Earth electrode.
The earth rode works in conjunction with the surge diverter in diverting the excess voltages and currents to the ground.
Siren.
The sole function of a siren is to sound the alarm when the security fence is tempered with.
Strobe light.
The strobe light is there to indicate the location was the alarm for the security fence is coming from. That is one of the reasons we install it on the highest point of the building so it can easily be seen. Note the strobe light works together with the siren.
Here is a step by step guide on how to install an electric security fence.
I will guide you on how to install an electric security fence, using the following subheadings.
- Mounting the fence posts
- Installing the braided wire
- Mounting the energizer.
- Connecting the energizer to the fence.
Mounting the fence post.
They are basically two ways of mounting.the fence post. The first way is by drilling these fence post to the wall, using fisher plugs and a drilling machine. The other way is to chisel or drill holes on top of your wall fence, then you put in your fence post and cover it with the motor a mixture of quarry dust and cement. I personally prefer to use this method.
Then you let the fence posts dry for a day on the third day you are good to pull in your wire.
Installing the braided wire.
Installing the braided wire is simply an act of fixing your wire to the fence post. They are many ways of doing this job, you can either start by pulling one wire at a time or you can pull two wires at a go. I for one like taking two wires at a time. How then do you pull the wires? The first step is for you to take a piece of soft wire, then you fasten it to the tensioning spring.
Thereafter, you take your tensioning spring, fasten it to one of the insulators on the mounting poles or fence post. Then you are good to go. Now you take your braided wire let one end pass through one end of the tensioning spring then slide your furrow and clip it.
Mounting the energizer
I prefer mounting the energizer in a room or place that is easily accessible to adults. How do you mount the energizer? First and foremost, most manufacturers of energizer make it easy for you to mount the energiser by providing a mounting template withing the packaging. The first thing that you do, is to ask the owner where he prefers to mount the machine. Then after identifying the place where to mount, you take the mounting template and mark the points where you will drill holes. Thereafter you put the fisher plugs and hung your energiser.
Connecting the energizer to the fence.
Now that you are done installing the energiser, its time for you to put the heart of the security home electric fence to action. I believe that the energiser is the heart of any electric fence system.
Basically, an energiser has four terminals that connect to the fence. These terminals two earth terminals and two power terminals.
How do you use these terminals from the energiser?
- You run your high tension cables from of the power terminals, then you connect it to one of the lines of the fence.
- Take the remaining power terminal and run another high tension cable from there to the other line of the fence.
- When you are using a 6 wire fence, I would recommend that you take two lines, and make them as your earth. Then the remaining four as the hot wires.
- You connect the other two power or hot wires, using jumpers from the lines which are hot from the energiser side.
- The two earth terminal, you can either bond them together and connect one high tension cable from the energiser to the earth rode through the surge diverter to the fence. or you can run two separate high tension cables from the energiser to the fence. one being the out going line and the other being the return path.
General requirements for Electric security fences
- An electric fence shall be installed and operated so that they cause no electrical hazard to persons, animals or their surrounding.
- An electric fence shall not be supplied from two different energisers
- Barbed wire or razor wire shall not be electrified by an energiser
- Any part of an electric fence which is installed along a public road or pathway shall be identified at frequent intervals by prominently placed warning signs.
- Gates in electric security fences shall be capable of being opened without the person receiving an electric shock.
You can down load the Wizord 4 installers manual here.If you have any question feel free to ask in the comments section below.
