Does the body feel a shock on a GFIC protected circuit?

[jw]

That's a good point!!! However, as long as I have the GFIs and test them regularly, I think I'm safe, as well as the animals.

[jw]

Since it appears there are other horse and livestock owners on here, this is exactly what happened.

The heater shorted. Horse came to drink at the plastic tank and got jolted. The older heater had the metal spiral (spring) around the cord. When he pulled back, the cord got around his leg, and just kept jolting him. He went down, but when he fell the shocks made him kick, and his loud kicking against the tank drew my attention to look out the window. Although I had never seen this happen before, I instantly knew what was happening. The heater was on an extension cord, plugged in to an outlet about 30 feet from my house. Wearing nothing but my underwear, I ran out the house barefooted in below zero weather and ripped that cord out of the outlet. I ripped it out so fast (and probably at an angle) that the outlet broke. But I saved the horse, and that was all that mattered. In fact I was out there at least 5 minutes comforting him, before he finally got up, and I didn't even feel the cold until I came back in the house and my toes were throbbing.....

An hour later I was driving to the store to buy a new heater and a dozen GFI outlets. By the end of the week, every tank heater was plugged into a GFI.

Since that day, I also installed a main disconnect lever on the power pole right under the meter. The pole is 12 ft. from my front door. Pulling this lever will disconnect the entire farm. The lever is on the outside of the box, so no box doors need to be opened. Just pull the lever and kill the power instantly. That lever came in handy last summer when a storm caused a tree to fall and rip the overhead power line off the barn.

[Dean Hoffman]

Have you tried these to keep the plug ins dry?

The local farm store carries these. I haven't tried them so can't say how useful they'd be.

[jw]

I've seen them online. No local stores carry them around here. From what I've seen, they're not cheap. At least $5 each, and I'd probably need close to 20 of them for all my stock tank heaters, cords for battery chargers/ engine heaters, etc. in the winter. It's not a huge investment, but I can buy a lot of tape for that price. Some of the connections I put on a few wraps of electrical tape in fall when I get the heaters hooked up, but as things get moved, changed, replaces, etc during the winter and I'm out in the cold, I dont always do things the right way. Normally each connector has a scrap of lumber under them. and maybe another piece on top. But as snow falls, and horses toss the heaters, and winds blow, nothing stays as it should. I've been trying to think of a way to make plug protectors out of something from the recycle bin. A 16oz plastic soda bottle was tried, (cutting a hole in the bottom), but the plugs wont fit thru the neck of the bottle.

If anyone has any suggestions for anything found in the recycle bin or trash, I'd appreciate the help. I have found that a scrap of some 1" pvc pipe (6 inches long, or more) is helpful. Not the best seal, but it does keep the snow from directly getting into the connections. Plus, some plugs wont fit in 1" pvc and require 1 1/4".

One other thing, I have been running some UF cable underground to some of the real common places I need power. Every summer I run a couple of them, but that's a lot of work digging..... especially since I need to dig at least a foot deep on the roadways. The reason being that when the ground is muddy, farm tractors can dig in pretty deep with their tire chains, not to mention washouts from heavy summer rains, and using road leveling equipment. It's a whole different matter to do this stuff on a farm, than on a city lawn. Going overhead is not always idead either. A hay wagon for example is 11 or 12 feet high, and needs to pass under those wires, and if one hay bale sticks up above the rim of the wagon, down comes a wire. Thus, all wires almost need to be at least 16 feet off the ground, and that means large poles and a lot of work, and expense. In the end, replacing a few extension cords every year is a bargain...... My biggest challenge is remembering to remove them when I plow snow. I DO TRY!!!! But as old age sets in, the memory is not so good anymore :)

Thanks

[Stormin Mormon]

You know, if you add about 30% ethyl alcohol to your stock water, you can change the freezing point, so that you don't need the heaters. The resulting mix will be bitter cold, but it will be liquid, down quite a ways below 32F. Of course, there may be other side effects, and the ethanol costs money. Unless you distill it yourself from mash.

Might not be a totally effective answer, of course.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

[Mark]

hey the horses might like that...

or you could insulate the tanks and slow down the heat loss and reduce but not eliminate the need for heat.

bury them in the ground so the horse can't tip them and help insulate them?

paint the inside black pick up a least a little solar heat?

are the heaters controlled by a thermostat so they heat the water only a bit above freezing??, no sense heating it up to 50 or 60F.

not an easy problem...

Mark

[Stormin Mormon]

How's about a float of some kind in the middle. No sense having the entire top open to lose heat. Leave a donut shaped area for the horses to drink. A donut hole saved, is a donut hole earned.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

.

or you could insulate the tanks and slow down the heat loss and reduce but not eliminate the need for heat.

bury them in the ground so the horse can't tip them and help insulate them?

paint the inside black pick up a least a little solar heat?

are the heaters controlled by a thermostat so they heat the water only a bit above freezing??, no sense heating it up to 50 or 60F.

not an easy problem...

Mark

[jw]

Ya never know, but I wont try it.....

I'm still looking for a way to insulate them.

That would not work too well, they would get filled with horse poop, and impossible to clean. That pony that pushes them around wont be doing that anymore. I drove 3 steel t-posts around his tank today, and put bungie cords around the whole works. (hope he dont chew up the bungies).

I painted the outside black on a few of them. Seems to help a little in winter, but is bad in summer.

The bigger heaters (1000w) are, those smaller ones are not. I'm constantly unplugging them, or just push the GFI test button and leave it off when the weather is warmer.

You got that right!!!

Thanks