Generally speaking, solar power is not an acceptable alternative energy source. In most cases it is simply too expensive and too inefficient for practical applications. I am no proponent of solar energy but that is not to say it does not have its place on the homestead and can be very helpful in some applications. The electric fence is one place I found solar to be the best solution.

Solar powered electric fences have been around for a long time, but like most things solar, they are more expensive than their plug in counterparts. When I first put up the fence around our garden, I purchased a 30 mile electric fence that could use either 120 or 12 volts. Not having power to the garden location, I used an old 12 volt tractor battery to power the electric fence (it no longer had the amps to start the diesel but was more than enough for the fence). The problem was that I had to take the battery to the shop every two days to recharge it and, worst of all, a “car battery” is not made for long low power, deep discharge. They are designed to be kept at full charge or they will eventually loose their ability to retain a charge.

While we now have electricity at the property, we still do not have power to the garden area and do not have any plans to run lines that direction. Not wanting to use the temporary solution of recharging the battery every other day again this year, I decided to go solar on the garden fence. I knew that some solar panels are more durable and efficient than others. While efficiency in this project was not a big issue, durability was. I did not want to have to replace my solar panel in a few years.

I settled on Mono-crystalline Solar Panel because it appears from my reading that they can last up to 25 year with normal use. Knowing that a 5 watt output was enough to keep the battery charged I purchased one from Amazon.com for 30 bucks. A solar panel without a regulator however can overcharge and ruin the battery so I also bough a 7 Amp solar charge controller from Home Depot for $17.00.

The hook up is straight forward and instructions are included with the controller. The system has been running for 2 months now and keeps the battery fully charged even when we have had several overcast days in a row. The solar panel also survived the hail storm with no damage from the quarter size hail.

Now that I know the system works I plan to build a simple wooden housing to hold the panel and protect the regulator and battery. While not essential in this application, the solar panel will work best if mounted facing due south and angled 10 degrees more than the latitude. In our case that will be an angle of 42 degrees above the horizon.

The whole system; energizer, solar panel and controller (not including fence wire, post and insulators) cost about $125. The biggest saving was the fact that I had the old battery which is the “make it do…use it up” portion of our family slogan. (Had I chosen to turn the battery in, I would have received only $10 off the purchase of the new one and it will still be worth that even after I have “used it up” on the fence.) Being modular, the components of this fence can also be reused if I ever need them. If I had purchased a dedicated solar fence system, that would not be the case.

Since I have had the fence running, we have had no animal tracks in our garden… that includes Emma’s (our Great Pyrenees). She is obviously educated to the fence and has no intentions of ever going there again even when we are in the garden working. She is content to lay outside and watch.

While I did not intentionally “train” the dog to avoid the fence, I have attempted to “train” the deer. When I first installed the fence, I baited it in several places by smearing a generous amount of peanut butter onto a piece of aluminum foil and wrapped the foil around the upper strand of wire. The theory is the deer smell the peanut butter, come to it and get 2 joules on the nose. I also installed the fence and energized it BEFORE I planted anything in the garden. That way the deer have no reason to think there is anything for them there except shocking peanut butter. Before the fence was installed, I found fresh deer tracks in the garden each morning. Now there are none… evidently it is working.