How to Install Electric Fence

Use special steel wire for your electric fence project.

To install an electric fence you will need a few supplies, but you will be able to contain or keep out a variety of animals once you have the fence complete. An electric fence is straightforward to install that can be readily moved and put in any location. Install an electric fence to keep farm animals in the fields or pastures, or install an electric fence around your garden to keep rodents and creatures out.

Things You'll Need

• 1/4 or 1/2-inch steel hot wire post
• Screw-on insulators
• Hammer
• Roll of high tensile wire
• Fence charger
• 12 volt battery
• Pliers

Instructions

1. Hammer the steel hot wire posts into the ground around the perimeter of the area you want to install an electric fence. Space the electric fence posts out about 10 to 30 feet depending on the slope of the ground.

2. Screw the plastic insulators onto each electric fence post at the height you want the wire to be positioned. The first wire should be placed at about 6 inches from the ground to keep small rodents out of you garden, and to keep livestock in place, mount the wire at about 2 to 3-feet from the ground that will keep animals such as cattle or horses in an area.

3. Run the wire through every plastic insulator and around the entire perimeter of the area you hammered electric fence posts in. Cut the wire and tie it to the end insulator where you started to wrap the wire around.

4. Cut a two foot piece of wire off the roll of wire. Wrap one end to the wire strung around the perimeter of the electric fence. Wrap the the other end around the positive terminal on the fence charger. Cut another two foot piece of wire off the roll of wire. Wrap one end around a hot wire post and hammer the post into the ground. Wrap the the other end around the negative terminal on the fence charger.

5. Hang the fence charger on the post you just hammered into the ground. Connect the black clamp from the fence charger to the negative terminal on the 12 volt battery. Connect the red clamp from the fence charger to the positive terminal on the 12 volt battery. Turn on the fence charger to put electricity into the electric fence.

Tips & Warnings

• Check the electric fence occasionally to ensure the wires are all still off the ground and there is an electric charge on the fence charger meter.