Chris5 i see your point but the only ones who will see any part of the wire will be me and the chickens and unless they are moonlighting as sparkies then...
If you are saying that the earth cable will do the job then it will be attached to the energiser in a shed, mains operated, so the wire will be exposed in the shed, where it leaves the shed it will be covered with hose pipe until it reaches the fence, about 15 metres, then the end will be attached to the fence and covered with silicon to waterproof it. I'm only asking if the wire is suitable because i have it sat on the shelf doing nothing useful, if a smaller cross section wire would do the job that doesn't rust i'll get it.
Wontdothat again, i have poultry fencing. None the less we had a visit from Mr fox. I have a detector that tells me if a current is flowing in the fence when you bring it close to the fence, it doesn't tell me if the jolt from the fence is high or low, Apparently the management touched the fence and all she got was like a static shock like that from a supermarket trolly. The energiser is flashing away, i have a multimeter which seems to peak at 1000v capacity and this thing is supposed to put out 6500v, so i have no way of testing its efficiency. I have a fence tester on order but foxy is supposed to return to the scene fairly soon after to collect his next meal so i can't afford to hang about. The only thing i could see to impede the charge to the fence was the corroded steel connecting wire, or the energiser has gone tits up, so i'm trying to find a solution using what i have to hand. If the earth wire isn't up to carrying the 6500v then i don't want it causing a fire in the shed where the energiser is.