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Weird voltage readings
Author: Dave 
Date:   07-09-12 18:56

I have your goat netting, 8/35/6 164ft SS, and am using one of the older Patriot Solar chargers, PS 15, a model you no longer carry. I also have the digital voltmeter instead of the blinking light thing, I have one of those but don't care for it - too hard to read. The system is grounded with a 3' grounding rod.

If I disconnect the charger from the fence and attach the meter to the power output and touch the grounding probe to the grounding rod, I get a reading of ~8.3kV. Attach the charger to the fence, connect the meter to the fence and touch the grounding probe to the grounding rod, I still get a reading of around ~8.3kV. Push the grounding probe into the ground and I get a reading of around ~2.1kV. This reading is pretty consistent whether I'm at the start of the fence or at the end. I live in New Hampshire and while it's been a little dry, it hasn't been a drought. I would think that if ground dryness was an issue I wouldn't get such a good reading using the system ground. Or am I missing something?
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Re: Weird voltage readings
Author: Sara 
Date:   07-10-12 12:07

Sounds like a grounding problem. Please check to make sure you have good connections to the ground rod from the energizer.
And if it is dry you can try putting water on the ground rod to see if the reading will go up. If not, please call 800-282-6631 and we will help you troubleshoot some more. Thank you.

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Re: Weird voltage readings
Author: Dave 
Date:   07-10-12 19:10

The connection to the ground is one of those big clips, like the power connection. It's clipped to the post so I'm not sure how much better of a connection I can make.

It sounded like a ground issue to me too which is why I tested the system. I guess I'm a bit confused. If my problem is with the grounding rod, why would my readings be good when I grounded the meter to the grounding rod but bad when I grounded the meter to the earth? I ran one more test after I wrote my original email. I tested the charger grounding the meter to the earth as opposed to the grounding rod. When I did this, I got a reading of ~6.3kV, as opposed to ~8.3 grounding to the rod. This seems fairly expected given that the ground rod is 3' in length and the probe from the meter is about 6". The reading only drops when I involve the fence. Testing the fence gives me a reading of ~2.1kV regardless of how I ground the meter, to the grounding rod or to the earth. The fence line looked pretty clean but could it be grounding out somewhere?
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