On Jul 12, 4:25*pm, gregz wrote:
dpb wrote:
On 7/12/2012 10:39 AM, wrote:
I have a piece of rebar, 36" long, 1"dia. that I want to use as a
grounding rod for an electrical fence.

This rod has a lot of rust on it so my questions are, should I wire
brush, or sand this rust off, so as to maximize conductivity?

How deeply should I bury the rod?
...

'Pends on where you're located--if it's only 3-ft, drive most of it,
anyway. *If it's enough, you'll know it when you grab 'hold the fence to test it...

The minimum you can get by with (but why worry about it, anyway; it's a
trivial exercise) will depend on how damp a climate you're in so how much
the top of the ground and how deeply the ground dries out to the point of
not having good enough conductivity. *Here it needs to be pretty deep for
mid-summer when things get very dry, but 3-ft will generally work even then.

Secondarily, how much ground you need depends on the length of wire, the
power of the charger and what you're trying to keep in as well as the
ground conditions. *If it's very dry the critters don't has as good a
ground, either...when it's damp they'll get a much better jolt.

It would not not be power or wire length, it's high voltage low current.


So, the same charger that puts out say 3000 volts
at 5 milliamps on 5 miles of wire will have the
same effect as a charger that puts out 3000 volts
at 20 milliamps on 200 ft of wire?


It's not how deep, but how good a ground. The critter is only on surface
level the current must travel through the ground to get any shock. Nec
guidelines apply to high current safety.

You don't pound ground ground rods unless you hit thin rock, and can get
stuck, and have to cut off and work another if it was not deep enough.

Greg- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

If you don't pound ground rods unless they hit a
rock, then how are you supposed to get them in?
Talk to them?