Solar Electric Fence for Garden: Battery-Powered 3-Wire Setup
I built a solar electric fence for my garden using a battery-powered fence charger, a 12-volt battery, and a 20-watt solar maintainer. The setup uses three hot wires around the outside of my existing garden fence and is meant to help deter rabbits, raccoons, woodchucks, deer, and other critters.
This was for a relatively small garden perimeter, about 500 feet total of 3-wire fence. Below is the exact setup I chose, how I installed it, the wire heights I used, how far I offset it from the existing fence, and what I would do differently next time.
Quick specs for my garden electric fence setup
- Power source: battery-powered fence charger
- Battery: 12V lawn and garden battery
- Solar charging: 20W solar charger/maintainer
- Fence layout: 3 hot wires
- Total perimeter: about 500 feet
- Low wire height: about 6 inches
- Middle wire height: about 14 inches
- Top wire height: about 24 inches
- Main deterrence animals: rabbits, raccoons, woodchucks, deer, bear
Why I added an electric fence around my garden
I put in a lot of work and seasonal care into the garden. Wild animals have natural instincts, one of which is sourcing easy food. I don’t blame them. Rather, it is my responsibility to protect what’s mine, so up goes the electric fence. It won’t hurt the animals, but it will prove an excellent deterrent from the ‘bite’ they may receive if they touch it.
Battery-operated electric fence charger I chose
The electric fence charger is the heart of the system. So lets start with that. There is no AC power near my garden. Rather than running an extension cord (and risking accidentally mowing over it during the season), I opted for a DC-powered fence charger that would work with an ordinary car battery.
I did my research before choosing an electric fence charger for the garden. I figured that I didn’t need anything really powerful (it’s not for a field perimeter). Therefore I hoped for a nice simple compact unit. I noticed that there were a number of them – what I would call “all in one” solar powered – battery operated – electric fence chargers. In other words, stand-alone units with solar panel and battery built in.
The problem was, many of the reviews cast doubt that these small fence chargers would perform the way I wanted them to. There were complaints about breaking down. Charging. Batteries not lasting.. That was discouraging.
So, even though the total perimeter length of my 3 wire electric fence would only be about 500 feet, I ended up choosing a better rated 5-mile DC battery powered electric fence charger from a popular and well known brand. Was a 5-mile fence charger overkill for my small garden needs? Maybe just a little… However now I have a quality unit and it’s one that could charge a much longer fence if I ever need that in the future.
UPDATE: Zareba makes a 5-mile, 15-mile, and more. Although my 5-mile fence charger has been fine, I would not hesitate to get the 15-mile instead, which has a bit more ‘bite’ (bears?)
I know that the marketing terms “5-mile” or “15-mile” sounds like way more than you might need for a small or medium garden, the real jolt comes from the joules rating. You don’t want a wimpy electric fence. Instead, one that will deliver a memorable jolt…
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Best Battery-Powered Electric Fence Charger for a Small-Medium Garden
The Zareba EDC5M-Z is rated for 5 miles and outputs 0.25 joules. Needs 6 or 12-volt battery.
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Best Battery-powered Electric Fence Charger for a Medium-Large Garden
The Zareba EDC15M-Z is rated for 15 miles and outputs 0.8 joules. Needs 12-volt battery.
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Regarding the fence charger that I purchased, what a nice unit. Good reviews, and just what I was looking for in a stand-alone externally powered DC-battery unit. Zareba says that their 5-mile electric fence charger will work on either a 6 volt or 12 volt battery. It’s spec’d output is 7.3 KV, 0.25 joules, which is plenty!
I’m using a 12 volt battery, because that’s what I had on hand. When I measured the high voltage on the fence, the meter pegged at its maximum reading (9.9 KV). So I suspect that a 12v battery may double the specified output voltage when used with a 12-volt battery.
By the way, no, these do not harm or kill animals. High voltage, but low current. Kind of like getting a static ‘carpet shock’ at home, but on steroids! A serious jolt though – don’t touch it!
I bought a Fence Tester that measures the voltage – to verify things afterwards. As I said, it maxed out the meter!
ALLOSUN Electric Fence Tester Fault Finder Digital Electric Fence Voltage Tester Max 9.9kv, (EM555)
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Solar panel and 12V battery setup
Right now I am using a 12-volt ‘lawn-and-garden’ battery, an EverStart U1P-7, from Walmart. So far I haven’t needed to upgrade to a ‘car battery’ or deep cell (because I have a solar charger connected to it).
The following photo shows the 12 volt battery in a battery box (for weather proofing). The solar panel charger cable that I’m also using did come with attached battery clamps, while the Zareba electric fence charger cables only had pigtails. So I attached the bare wire pigtails to a pair of spring clamps which I had on hand.
Battery Clamps. You can purchase the battery spring clamps separately. I like these by Mueller because there is a screw to fasten the wire rather than relying on a crimp. They are rated for 25 amps which is plenty for this purpose.
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Battery Box. I suggest using a plastic battery box to protect your connections from weather. An example is the Attwood 9067-1 Vented Battery Box:
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What Size Solar Panel to Charge a Garden Electric Fence Battery?
Obviously, the electric fence charger runs 24/7. When close to the Zareba I can hear it ‘pulse’ inside the unit about every 1-second. I could not find exact specs on battery drain, however, I’m sure that it’s not much. It will basically run forever on a 12-volt ‘car’ battery with a solar panel trickle charger hooked up to it.
I decided upon a 20-watt solar charger panel with 3-stage ‘smart charging’ and a built-in MPPT controller chip (which can make a big difference for solar efficiency). Specs indicate bulk charge approx. 1A, float 0.15A (at 13.8V). Seemingly plenty of trickle charge for my application.
I have purchased several of these for around the homestead (trickle charging tractor battery, snowmobile battery, electric fence, etc..).
Sun Energise 20W 12V Solar Powered Battery Charger & Maintainer
Related Article: Solar 12v Battery Charger and Maintainer
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Best Wire for a Solar Electric Fence Around a Garden
Next, choosing the fence wire and the connectors to attach wire to the fence charger feed.
I chose the Zareba Polywire. They also call it fence rope. Or polyrope. I’m glad I bought this as opposed to standard (stiffer) solid wire because it was so easy to string along and work with for my garden electric fencing perimeter. It has 6 conductors wound within it.
Here’s a closeup picture of the electric fence polywire strands:
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Poly Rope Connectors
Poly Rope Connectors. I used this type of connector to feed from the electric fence charger to the poly rope that goes around the fence perimeter (one for each of the three lines that I have). You can also use them to splice additional poly rope if it ever breaks or you need to make an adjustment.
Here’s what Zareba offers:
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I simply daisy-chained the individual electric fence lines to one feed which I connected to the RED terminal on the charge unit.
Electric Fence Supports – Corner Posts and in-between Posts
I installed a 4×4 post at every corner for solid support. Having solid corners enables pulling the wire good and snug so it won’t sag or droop at all. I hesitated using T-posts on the corners, figuring that they might lean in with the tension of the electric fence wire. In retrospect, this probably would have worked well enough with the polywire since it doesn’t have to be pulled real tight. But I over-engineered the corners :-)
Here’s a picture of one corner post with electric fence screw-in insulators (for wood) that I used for this.
Electric Fence Insulator Screw-in Insulator Fence Ring Post Wood Post Insulator:
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After the corner posts were set, I strung the electric fence wire all the way around to each side of the garden swing gate (which also had 4×4’s on each side of the gate (to attach the gate). I double looped the wire at each corner ring post insulator – to get it good and snug as I worked my way around.
Afterwards, along the taught wire line, I spaced out plastic fence support posts about every 6 feet. With these posts, I did not have to purchase separate insulators because they’re plastic, and the wire notches are built-in, sort of similar to that of a T-post. This made it easy to hold the polywire (it just snaps in).
UPDATE: In my view, these extra posts might not be necessary every 6 feet as long as the electric fence wire is snug enough to each corner post (assuming well set corner posts). This will depend on how long the distance is between your corners. You will know if you need them if it sags too much.
There are various support posts that you can get for electric fences. I only needed something lightweight and good enough to just hold the wire, since the corner posts were taking all the tension.
Electric Fence Posts Assortments:
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Best wire height for an electric garden fence
I used wire heights of 6 inches, 14 inches, and 24 inches. I’m curious about your opinion.
The support posts that I purchased are only 30 inches tall. I had not realized that 6 inches of that was the spike end that’s pushed underground. So the top wire is only 24 inches high. But that’s good enough for a typical garden in my opinion. Even if a deer edges up to the fence, the legs are going to rub against a wire.
In retrospect, maybe I would’ve sprung the extra $ for 48″ tall supports. But again, I really don’t think it will matter. Bears and deer are still going to get ‘stung’ on what I’ve put up if they try to get in.
The low wire. My main concern are the woodchucks, raccoons, rabbits and such. It’s the lowest electrified wire that I thought about the most. And how low to put it. You see, if it’s too low, and if grass, weeds, etc.. grow up on the wire, this will start shorting out the electric fence to some extent. So I decided upon 6 inches. Additionally, I regularly weed-whack around the fence line. And, ((gasp)) I used some RoundUp on the perimeter to keep grass from growing directly underneath the wires.
I also had an existing plastic mesh fence just inside this perimeter (the original cheap fence). How far away from the existing fence did I install the electric fence? I’d say about 8 inches, to ensure the plastic garden fence material (which is floppy in places) would not interfere with the wire (though it’s plastic, so it wouldn’t short out anyway).
Grounding the electric fence charger
A ground rod connection to the BLACK terminal is required for the electric fence charger to work. They say if you’re in dry soil, you may need to connect several ground rods for effective grounding. And long rods if you’re able. I simply used two (2′) rebar rods. My soil is plenty moist, my perimeter is small, and my soil tends to be rocky (unlikely to get a long ground rod down there!). Anyway, what I did, worked fine. No problems.
What I would do differently next time
I would have set taller corner posts so that I could add another perimeter line that’s higher if needed. I would have purchased better “in-between” support posts. Mine were kind of flimsy and I wish they were taller (48″). But with that said, I haven’t had any particular issues.
FAQ about solar and battery-powered garden electric fences
Yes. My setup uses a battery-powered fence charger connected to a 12V battery, with the battery maintained by a solar charger. This avoids the need for AC power near the garden.
For my setup, I chose a 20-watt solar charger/maintainer for a 12V battery powering a relatively small garden fence. It has been sufficient for this application.
I used three wires: a low wire, a middle wire, and a top wire. That gave coverage for smaller animals as well as larger ones like deer.
I placed my lowest wire at about 6 inches. That was low enough to target animals like rabbits and woodchucks, but still high enough to reduce shorting from grass and weeds – which you will need to regularly trim.
For a small garden, a solar-charged battery setup can work very well, especially where AC power is not convenient. My fence perimeter was about 500 feet total with three wires.
I placed mine about 8 inches away from the existing fence so the hot wire would stay clear and not interfere with the floppy garden fence material.
In conclusion, an electric fence for your garden will help provide a great level of security to losing your crop from nature’s critters. Though I have a bigger garden down back with a tall metal fence, I’ve established another location (closer to the house) for my raised garden beds). I started with just a few, just for fun. I seem to keep adding more. Then I expand the perimeter fence to accommodate. After adding yet two more, I decided that this little ‘fun area’ for gardening probably looks increasingly mighty tasty to our resident critters. Don’t want to lose all that work of gardening to animals looking for a free lunch, so up goes the electric fence. So far, so good.
Question for readers: If any of you who are reading this have used or are using a smaller electric fence charger, let me know in the comments if it has been working for you. I simply didn’t try a smaller one, and opted for higher powered unit based on my research. Curious to hear your stories.
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fence chargers work great, but i use 3 dogs.
I’ve seen beekeepers out here hang wire mesh fence off of insulators and hook that up to fence chargers to keep bears from pushing their way thru 3-wire set ups to get to their bee hives. If your issue is mostly with smaller critters, hanging 36″ or 48 ” chicken wire off of fiberglass posts and insulators will form an electrified wall. If you do it right, you can hang it 1 ” off the ground, so if they try to go under, they will get zapped. I agree with Ken, go for the highest joule unit you can afford. This works great if you have a small garden space or orchard. Works to keep coons out of my orchard.
I have only used larger unit to cover a field. Plural because of an unplanned water solubility test! The insulators used by radio amateurs for long wire antennas can be cheaper than those marketed for fences.