It really depends on how you look after your energiser. We receive energisers back for repair, which are
between ten and twenty years old. Some energisers come back within two to three years, which have been
mistreated.
The MOV will help to protect all the mains energisers against lightning induced strikes on the supply.
There are spark gaps fitted to the HP40, HP80 and HP120 to reduce the effect of lightning strikes.
All other energisers should have a lightening arrestor fitted in the fence line.
In areas of frequent lightning strikes the energiser should be disconnected from the fence and supply
during electrical storms.
The printed circuit board is coated in moisture resistant varnish with a fungicide added for use in
tropical climates. The transformers are vacuum impregnated with varnish or potted. Also all energisers
are tested by UL to a humidity of 90% at a temperature of 86 degrees F for 48 hours, water spray for
two hours and hose down tests of 5 gallons of water per minute.
Check your electric fence is working properly by using an appropriate fence tester that gives a volt reading.
If you see 3000 to 4000 volts or more everything is working properly.
Output power: At present the most powerful energiser we manufacture is the HP1200, which is a 12 (stored)
joule energiser (The open-line output is 9000volts zero joules, at 500 ohms is approximately 3.6 joules
6000volts but at 100 ohms it is 8.75 joules at 3000volts.)
As can be seen from the above figures the more load (lower resistance) on the fence the more work the
energiser has to do to maintain a high voltage on the fence by transferring the stored energy to the fence.
There becomes a point where the maximum amount of energy is transferred to the fence but the resulting voltage
is too low to repel the animal. We are at present designing more powerful and efficient energisers.
Quality of components: We use the best quality and UL approved components.
Quality of construction: We also use the best quality UL approved materials in the construction of our
energisers. One of the impact tests is to freeze the energizer to minus 30 C and then drop a two and a half
pound steel ball on to the unit from a height of three feet and cause no damage to the unit under test.
This is done at three different points on the unit.
Safety: All energisers are subjected to output tests, and all mains energisers are flash tested at
4500 volts for two seconds. UL recommend flash testing to 1800 volts so we are testing to a much higher standard.
Battery Energisers do not require flash testing but are tested for battery consumption and output.
Power consumption (cost to operate): Based on rates of $0.085 per kilowatt Hour. A Mains Energiser
rated at 2 watts would cost approximately $0.12 per month.
The HP40, HP80 and HP120 all consume less than two watts.
A 10 watt energizer would cost $0.62 per month.
Battery Energisers: How long will my battery last?
This depends on the ampere-hours of the battery and how many amps the energiser uses. A general guide is to
divide the ampere¬hour rating of the battery by the current drawn by the energiser.
(e.g. A 50 amp-hour battery and an energizer rated at 30 milliamps 50a/Hr divided by 0.03 amps = 1666.6 hours
divided by 24 = 69.4 days divided by 7 = 9.9 weeks.
Therefore a 100a/Hr battery at 30 mA would last twice as long).
We strive to keep the current consumption to a minimum for the maximum output.
We currently use a golden varnish with an anti-fungal ingredient built
in.
Before we dip the PCB we hot melt glue across the pins of the Thyristor. The reason for doing this is that the
high voltage released by the thyristor attracts insects. Thus shorting out the component, which causes the PCB
to fail. This has greatly reduced failure rates coming back to us.
A JOULE is a measure of electrical work done (energy consumption)
as in a UNIT of electricity (upon which the electricity tariff is based).
i.e. A UNIT of electricity is 1,000 watts for one hour (1 kilowatt/hour)
A JOULE is 1 watt for 1 second
Therefore 1 Unit of electricity is 3,600,000 Joules
A Watt is Amps (current) x Volts or Amps x Resistance squared.
Therefore a Joule consists of volts, amps, resistance and time.
STORED Energy of a fence controller can be calculated by measuring the peak
voltage across the storage capacitor and applying a simple formula
(kilovolts squared times the value of the storage capacitor in microfarads divided by two) (kV² x C / 2)
Some competitors state stored joules, some output joules and others maximum
joules on the fence line or a combination, also the output volts are stated.
In European and Canadian Test Houses (CSA) and in the USA (UL) it
is standard practice to connect a DUMMY LOAD across the output
(500 ohms) in order to measure the output to make sure it does not
exceed a limit set by the relevant standards.
The Underwriters Laboratories do not state Joules but use a graph with a
limit line on it, which utilises Amps, Peak Voltage and Time, all of which constitute
the JOULE.
The maximum output allowed in Europe into 500 ohms is 5 Joules.
The amount of pulsed energy (in terms of Joules) that an animal will
receive at any given moment will constantly vary according to the
electrical load (body resistance) that is imposed on the fence line at
that particular moment of contact and not the maximum rated
capability of the energiser itself.
As explained above the maximum output in to 500 ohms is limited to 5 joules,
this does not mean that this is the max output to the fence line. As the load
(resistance) on the fence line increases so does the joules consumption
(up to a limit where the energiser can no longer supply the demand), but the
line voltage drops in proportion until a point is reached where in spite of a
high joules rate the resulting low voltage may be
insufficient to repel the animal.
i.e. As the resistance decreases the energiser has more work to do to maintain
an effective voltage on the fence line. Most animals require at least 3000 volts.
Therefore some manufacturers state the maximum output of the energiser, which can
be quite high, but do not say what the output voltage is.
The STORED Energy of a fence controller is the amount of energy stored
(Stored Joules) in a storage capacitor, which is then discharged through
the pulse transformer and onto the fence line.
The OUTPUT Energy is the amount of energy in the actual pulse delivered to the
fence line under load (Output Joules).
It is very difficult for the consumer to measure. It requires specialized test
equipment to be able measure output Joules. A very general rule of thumb is to
assume that the pulse transformer is only about 75% efficient or less.
Therefore if you multiply the stored energy by 0.75 this should give you a rough
idea of the maximum output energy. We measure the output energy with the use of
a storage oscilloscope and a computer.
The actual energy of the pulse is calculated. With the formula V'mean/R x T
where V'mean = V'total/number of samples.
R is the load resistance in ohms and T is the Total pulse width in seconds.
Basically you would determine the values of components by mathematics and the use
of preferred values.
For Example you would need to charge a 30 micro-farad-capacitor to 730 volts for
8 stored joules (From the formula above (kV² x C / 2 0.73²x30/2=7.99joules).
The pulse width would be determined by the impedance (resistance) of the primary
winding of the pulse transformer, the lower the impedance the narrower the pulse.
The output voltage would be determined by the step up ratio of the pulse transformer,
1:10 step up would give in theory for 730 volts in, 7300 volts out.
Of course there are a lot of other factors to take into consideration but these are
the basics.
Amps: Unit of current flow proportional to volts / resistance.
Volts: Unit of electrical pressure which causes current to flow.
Volts =amps x resistance
Watts: Unit of power proportional to voltage x current.
Ohms: Unit of resistance proportional to volts/amps.
Joule: Unit of energy. One joule is one watt for one second.
Impedance: This is a measure of inductance, capacitance and resistance.
i.e. The total effective resistance of the fence (Z). The effect of a heavy load
on a high impedance pulse transformer would be to drop the output voltage to an
unusable level. Whereas with a heavy load on a low impedance transformer the output would
still drop but by only a small amount. Most of the energy is transferred from the
storage capacitor to the load.
Capacitance: This is measured in Farads. Most capacitors used for
storing the energy for electric fencing are in microfarads.
The energizers that we supply are UL approved and/or comply with the relevant
standards, in Europe: European/British Standards BSEN 61011 220V/110V,
BSEN 61011-2 Battery, BS 60335-2-76 and relevant EMC Standards.
All plastic parts are of polycarbonate construction. This is an extremely hard
plastic, which will withstand temperatures of –35c. Flame retardant materials
in the plastic prevent the plastic from burning.
All mains energizers are flash tested and a record is kept on our computer system.
All battery units are bench tested for current, speed and output voltage.
All UL approved energizers are made to cover the risk of fire, electric shock and
injury to individuals. All UL approved energizers meet these standards.
We have a factory inspection from UL every three months. The inspector checks
certificates of conformity and components used ensuring that all safety components
used i.e. fuses, capacitors and transformers have the UL mark on them. This
procedure is documented. Once a year batches of completed energisers are sent to UL
to ensure they conform to the standards. The USA standard is UL 69.
There are two protection devices fitted to all of our mains energisers, one
being a metal oxide varistor (MOV) for over voltage protection and a
fuse for over current protection.
The MOV has a very fast response time and will clamp an over voltage spike and prevent it damaging any
voltage sensitive devices within the energiser. If there is too much energy in the spike from a lightning
strike too close, then the MOV could fail causing the fuse to blow protecting the sensitive electronic
components in the energiser.
The result would normally require a simple change of the two components and the energiser will be working again.
Radio Interference Suppression works by slowing down the rise time of the output pulse.
A pulse with a very fast rise time is made up of lots of different frequencies of a high power,
all of which are very effectively transmitted down the fence line, which is a very good aerial.
By limiting the rise time you are reducing the number of frequencies and the power in them.
This is done by inserting combination of inductors and capacitors in the discharge path of the storage
capacitor. All our mains energisers are sent to an independent Test House for testing to make sure
they are within the limits set by the appropriate standards.
All circuit boards are individually numbered and have a manufactured date code for easy trace-ability.
All PCB are checked before the dipping process to ensure they are working and are of good quality.
They are checked for dry joints and are set up for current consumption and timing.
All energisers that are manufactured are individually tested as they are completed. This is to make sure they
draw the correct amount of current and they operate at the correct speed. They also have the correct output
voltage. All mains energisers are soak tested and flash tested.
Hotline keeps a record of every tested energiser on a computerised system by serial number. The flash test
consists of putting high voltage between the mains supply and fence line. This tests the isolation between the
mains supply and the fence-line. The reason for this strict test is to ensure that the mains supply cannot get onto the
fence line.
Reliability: We keep our designs simple but effective which keeps our returns very low.
We still see energisers coming back to us twenty years old.
Standards : All Hotline energisers have European or UL approval.
Quality: All energisers are soap tested and checked for volts and current before leaving the factory.
Warranty: Hotline offer a two-year warranty on all energisers.
Information: Hotline pack as much information on products as we possibly can.
General Display: The way we package all our accessories especially plastic posts in packs of ten and the
green netlon packaging for the nets. All insulators have information telling the end user what it is used on.
Service: Hotline offer a guaranteed 24 hr repair service for faulty energisers.
Gallagher are the biggest manufacturer of Electric fencing in the world. We have been told they manufacture
eighty thousand units per year. Horizont and Ako are the biggest manufacturers in Europe.
There is not a lot to choose between Hotline and Rutland fencing for fourth spot. Hotline produced twenty
thousand energizers during 2002.
