How to Install a Grounding Rod for an Electric Fence

Electric fences must be grounded to work properly.

An electric fence charger must have one terminal connected to the fence and the other connected to a grounding rod. When the connection is properly made, an animal will receive a shock when it touches the fence while standing on the ground, which happens as the electricity passes through the animal to the ground and back to the grounding rod where it completes the circuit. More than one grounding rod may be needed if the ground is rocky and dry or if the fence is very large.

Things You'll Need

• Copper or galvanized steel grounding rods
• Sledge hammer
• Grounding clamp
• Screwdriver
• Copper grounding wire

Instructions

1. Pound a grounding rod 6 to 8 feet into the ground near the terminal of the fence. Pound in one or two more at a spacing of 10 to 16 feet apart in dry, sandy or rocky locations.

2. Pound in another rod on the opposite side of the fence if the fence is very large.

3. Attach grounding clamps to all rods you have pounded into the ground. Tighten these with a screwdriver.

4. Connect the ground rod nearest the fence to the ground terminal on the charger with insulated electrical lead-out wire. Use the proper gauge wire for the expected electrical current that will flow through the system.

5. Connect all ground rods together with insulated or uninsulated copper grounding wire.

Tips & Warnings

• The National Electrical Code (NEC) recommends that the spacing of ground rods be twice the length of each rod. For an 8-foot rod, this would be 16 feet.

• Copper ground rods are more expensive, but they will not lose their conductivity with corrosion as galvanized steel rods will.

• Attach the ground wire to the ground terminal on the charger and not to the fence itself.

References

• University of Wisconsin: Grounding Electric Fences
• Fishock: All About Grounding