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question about electricity!
15 years ago
Because i am editing and fact checking for Final Absolution and ... it has electricity in it.
to sum things up- the fortress (re: high school) has an electrical fence around it to keep zombies out.
during a skirmish, one walker manages to get in close to the fence and.. as far as I can tell, it malfunctions. this one zombie latches on to the fence, draws the current through itself, and pretty much makes it so that the rest of the walkers can get their limbs through this part of the fence now without getting major effects from the electricity....
my issue with this is that It doesn't strike me... as entirely possible.
so i need to know...
a: whether or not it is possible
b: if it is (or isn't) is there a way to create a similar effect "on accident" or through malfunction?
and also, (Because the following info might be helpful)
the voltage in the fence in question (as of the last time I planned it out) or would run on AC; and need to have probably at least three hundred milliamps running through them whenever they're on.
I'm thinking grounding cables in every single upright, ground connecting pole, and along the top and bottom bars, to make sure that the electricity leaves the fences as soon as they're turned off (for safety purposes.)
(the world is sort of post/during apocalyptic, but has been in this state for ten or so years, and it happened fairly slowly up until the first major outbreak, and they've had time to sort-of adjust until the second major outbreak, which occurred.. i think 5-10 years later, i think.)
to sum things up- the fortress (re: high school) has an electrical fence around it to keep zombies out.
during a skirmish, one walker manages to get in close to the fence and.. as far as I can tell, it malfunctions. this one zombie latches on to the fence, draws the current through itself, and pretty much makes it so that the rest of the walkers can get their limbs through this part of the fence now without getting major effects from the electricity....
my issue with this is that It doesn't strike me... as entirely possible.
so i need to know...
a: whether or not it is possible
b: if it is (or isn't) is there a way to create a similar effect "on accident" or through malfunction?
and also, (Because the following info might be helpful)
the voltage in the fence in question (as of the last time I planned it out) or would run on AC; and need to have probably at least three hundred milliamps running through them whenever they're on.
I'm thinking grounding cables in every single upright, ground connecting pole, and along the top and bottom bars, to make sure that the electricity leaves the fences as soon as they're turned off (for safety purposes.)
(the world is sort of post/during apocalyptic, but has been in this state for ten or so years, and it happened fairly slowly up until the first major outbreak, and they've had time to sort-of adjust until the second major outbreak, which occurred.. i think 5-10 years later, i think.)
A humane mistake would be better. Or a tree falling over the fence.
I'm starting to think that the idea of a walker -grabbing- the fence is strange, too, since I think they'd be a little bit more likely to just run into it. Grabbing seems.. purposeful. unless it was trying to walk through the fence, its hand caught on a bar, and the electricity made it close its hand.. which is still way too many coincidences.
Speaking of, a zombie alone wouldn't kill the whole system. A chain could though.Throw a chain (or other conductor) over the wires so that it contacted either a fence post or some other solid ground point (even a puddle of mud) and you've got a short, which _could_ knock out the system. But, even then, you could engineer in a solution to make it more resilient: Use multiple power sources to feed the separate fence wires. Say you have 12 wires on the fence. Group them in to sets of 3 and lay them out A B C D A B C D A B C D. All of the A wires are on one source, B on another, etc.
the fence, at the moment, stretches around (if i'm remembering the details correctly) the school proper (not the grounds) so I'd wager that the original fence is maybe half a mile around, running on one system (it was designed to give the response team time, mostly... and knowing the layout of the school/access to electricity, I might need to make it shorter)
I imagine that a fair number of things that an electrician would consider EXTREMELY obvious would be left out of the original system, as it wasn't a requirement to go to safehouses until the first major outbreak, and the fence (though in place) wouldn't have been electrified until after that first one was over.. and then the project was led by someone who's essentially still a student-
though given that one of the pluses of a major short during a skirmish of this size is that it'll force them to have to re-think the fence and do a little more research, meaning that they'd probably put some of the things you mentioned into play.
i'm thinking that maybe human error in tandem with a walker running into the fence might make the most sense.
http://www.fishock.com/store/electr.....-charger/xp-15 1.2kV output, 150 mile range in ideal conditions.
http://www.fishock.com/store/electr.....arger/ss-1000x 15kV, 20 mile in heavy, wet weed conditions.
There are also solar powered fence chargers, which would reduce the need for mains power. A few things to note on all of these: output power is ultra low. Modern fence chargers typically use a pulse system (put a low level charge on the fence, and when a ground connection is detected, dump a large capacitor-stored charge onto the wire), with a very short pulse duration. 10 or 15 microseconds. Input power may be 10W or less. If you want something more, repurpose a pole pig from the schools electrical room, wire it up backwards (so it's now a step-up instead of a step-down) and you have high voltage (possibly a few kV, depending on the school's power setup) with as many amps as the fencing can carry.