CharmedMinis
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2003
- Messages
- 777
- Reaction score
- 0
We've always used tank water heaters/de-icers in the winter here, never really had a problem.
Last year we had a couple horses that acted like they were getting shocked, so we put grounding rods in and it fixed the problem.
We just put in our heaters last week, some from last year, some new. We have a couple of floating ones, some sinkers, and some drain hole heaters, a total of 15 heaters.
The same horses were acting like they were getting shocked, then we started noticing more of the horses were acting skittish, but not all of the horses.
So my Dad finally took the volt meter out this morning to see what was up, because we couldn't feel any shock ourselves if we stuck our hand in the water.
Well he was shocked..........even with all of the tanks grounded by and extra copper tubing grounding rod there was volts detected in all of the tanks. A couple of tanks had as much as 40 volts running through them.
So I immediately called the company that makes the heaters and an engineer got on the phone with me and said that somewhere in my neighborhood or on my street someone had probably reversed the hot wire with the neutral wire and we were getting voltage to ground.
He gave us a fix for the heaters, just buy a prong adapter, but to also call the electricity company. So I did and they just left. The volts coming onto our property are fine, so it's not a neighborhood, street, or electricity company problem. But somewhere in our underground lines that run to the barn, and also to the garage and outbuildings, the neutral line has been damaged. So we have to get an electrician out to detect where the problem is.
In the meantime, the adapters on the heaters are fixing the problem.
The Moral: Don't assume your horses aren't getting shocked.........half of my horses either don't feel the slight shock they are getting, or they just don't care. The other ones are now terrified of their water tanks!
:
Last year we had a couple horses that acted like they were getting shocked, so we put grounding rods in and it fixed the problem.
We just put in our heaters last week, some from last year, some new. We have a couple of floating ones, some sinkers, and some drain hole heaters, a total of 15 heaters.
The same horses were acting like they were getting shocked, then we started noticing more of the horses were acting skittish, but not all of the horses.
So my Dad finally took the volt meter out this morning to see what was up, because we couldn't feel any shock ourselves if we stuck our hand in the water.
Well he was shocked..........even with all of the tanks grounded by and extra copper tubing grounding rod there was volts detected in all of the tanks. A couple of tanks had as much as 40 volts running through them.
So I immediately called the company that makes the heaters and an engineer got on the phone with me and said that somewhere in my neighborhood or on my street someone had probably reversed the hot wire with the neutral wire and we were getting voltage to ground.
He gave us a fix for the heaters, just buy a prong adapter, but to also call the electricity company. So I did and they just left. The volts coming onto our property are fine, so it's not a neighborhood, street, or electricity company problem. But somewhere in our underground lines that run to the barn, and also to the garage and outbuildings, the neutral line has been damaged. So we have to get an electrician out to detect where the problem is.
In the meantime, the adapters on the heaters are fixing the problem.
The Moral: Don't assume your horses aren't getting shocked.........half of my horses either don't feel the slight shock they are getting, or they just don't care. The other ones are now terrified of their water tanks!