Putting up an electric fence

hi clockhouse chick -i nearly got divorced last weekend putting up our electric fence! i'm pretty sure you have to use plastic poles to support  the sagging parts because otherwise some of the charrge will be lost into the wood - that is our understanding of it anyway. good luck with it. some of the other members on this site gave me such a lot of advice and we could not have managed without them!  lucyloux

Your net will have plastic insulated supports which are only any good for holding the net up in straight runs.  Where ever you need a corner drive a 6ft tree stake (3inch round) into the round,  Arrange that a plastic support is at this point on the net and tie the pole using nylon cord or bailer twine is ideal so the cord acts like a guy rope tensioning the net.  If you have to move the supports which you will almost certainly have to, make sure you don't snag and break the thin stainless steel conductors woven in the twine.  If you do the best way to repair it is to twist some copper wire stripped from some old mains cable, around the net cord.

The net itself should not touch the wooden stake which although being a poor conductor is still enough to short the fence in wet weather.  With a tree stake spaced at 45deg outside each corner and the net tensioned by the guy cords to the stake and running in STRAIGHT lines the net should not sag at all.  The plastic poles supplied help to support it at even intervals but they can't support coners without a tree stake.  You can similarly use guys to a convenient fence if you like as long as the guys are nylon or similarly insulating.  You can use PVC insulating tape to tape the vertical cords on the net to the pole to help support the net.    make sure that the grass doesn't grow up and short the net also.  The bottom strand of the net is none conducting and can touch the ground but other horizontal strands must not touch anything which isn't plastic insulated.

Hope this helps
HF