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We hope you enjoy our monthly newsletter as much as we enjoy making it available to you. We look forward to sharing stories and ideas that promote our customers, their businesses and how we all work together to come up with solutions to the challenges we face together. We also look forward to hearing from you with your comments, feedback or story ideas to make our newsletter more valuable to you.
Barbara Ragsdale, CFO & Editor
Follow us on FacebookWINERIES Back-Up Power Systems "Back in 2001 during the electrical power crunch we decided that we better have a back up power system," explains Jim Magness, Facility Manager at Rodney Strong Vineyards. It was at that time when rolling blackouts in power grids were shutting down businesses throughout California. Faced with possibility of losing power at a critical point like harvest time, Magness contracted with Knights' Electric commercial department to set up the emergency back up power system.
The process involves reverse feeding through the windings of the transformer and it sounds like you're getting 12,000 volts from 480 volts. It's efficient and safe. PG&E mandates that a key switch be used for transformers like the one used by Rodney Strong Vineyards, when the input line is open the output is closed and vice versa, so that the 12,000 volts will not be sent back to their power lines. "That's one of the dangerous things that can happen when people hook up generators to their power box for emergency power," says Magness, "We use a manual switch if we have a power failure that closes off the 12,000 volts back to PG&E's line. Then we would run the 750 KW generator that would feed 480-volt power in to the transformer and we would get 12,000 volts to power the winery."
This back up power system will not run the entire winery. Magness has a business plan that has a priority list of equipment that he would run to enable the winery to
crush grapes. "We've never had to use the back up system but that's why we have it. It cost us $350,000 to purchase and install it, but if we lost power during the harvest it turns out to be a huge bargain."
RESIDENTIAL
Moonlight Magic ? Residential Landscape lighting takes many forms in the exclusive homes that Knights' Electric's residential department works on, "Moonlighting is the technique that is achieved by mounting lights in the trees, it creates ground shadows like natural moonlight," explains Matt Sweeney, Residential Project Manager for Knights' Electric. Landscape lighting is a creative exercise that can create not only a look, but an aura, "We worked on a residence that had hundreds of lights in the trees of a large oak grove, after a while the owner decided he wanted to change the look so we remounted most of the lighting to give just the effect he was looking for," says Sweeney.
Most landscape lighting is created with low voltage halogen lights, not as much for the energy savings as it is for the fact that it is very safe to use. "A homeowner could be gardening and sever a buried electrical line with a metal shovel and there would be no shock at all. It's a very safe 12-volt system." The lighting system can run on a timer or photocell that turns the lights on whenever it gets dark. Ground lighting usually consists of "up lighting" that lights trees from below or path lighting that employs more rugged type of utility lighting fixture. Other styles of landscape lighting includes trellis lighting, lighting for pools and ponds including underwater lighting or any other scheme that might enhance the overall night time residential environment. Sweeney recalls one swimming pool contractor that used fiber optic lighting. "Just below the cove and all the way around the pool there was a fiber optic strand that had an illuminator attached to the hidden end of it with a color wheel that rotated slowly around in front of it. The swimming pool light changed color." A great philosopher once said that gaining knowledge is like filling up a chalice with water, except that the chalice has a hole in the bottom of it. Therefore you must be continually filling it up to maintain its level. His point was that we are gradually losing our knowledge unless we continue to pour new education into our minds. This is true in all areas of business also, because of the changing ideas, innovations and technology we must seek education to be current and up to date in our industries.
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