From: "JMartin" 
Newsgroups: rec.gardens misc.rural misc.consumers.house alt.home.repair
Subject: Re: How to keep raccoons away
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 22:40:44 -0500


"Adam Russell"  wrote in message
news:2gab7eFhg0lU1@uni-berlin.de...
> You dont know much about electricity it appears.  Static electricity is
> completely different from transformer electricity.  When you get a shock
> from static electricity it is 2-4k for only an extreme fraction of a
second.
> I dont remember how short exactly (1ms comes to mind), but it is the
brevity
> that saves you.  As it swiftly runs out of electrons the voltage falls to
> zero.  Power out of your wall does not fall off.  At all.  That 120v will
> deliver 1mA or 15A depending on the resistance of what you are powering
and
> only limited by your circuit breaker or fuse.  If you were to put a penny
in
> the fusebox it could deliver 1000's of amps with no problem except that
the
> wires would get hot.  So putting it through a transformer will not reduce
> the amperage available to any safe amount.   4000v will kill you, and it
> matters not whether it is DC or AC.
>
> Now as to the matter of electric fences, when I was a child my grandpa
told
> me to stay away from the electric fence surrounding the cow field.  He
said
> it would kick me like a sledgehammer.  He could have been pulling my leg,
> but I imagine that anything meant to coerce a cow would hurt a human.
OTOH,
> a raccoon is not a cow.  The question is open whether you could make a
fence
> with enough jolt to keep out racoons but not enough to hurt 3 year olds.
I
> personally doubt it.

Most fence chargers work on pulses.  You get zapped, but that's all it
is...a zap.  You have plenty of time to let go before it sends another
pulse...and you tend to let go in a hurry.

A 3 year old would be fine with the fence...just like the cows...one zap and
they develop a healthy respect for it.

jena
>
>