(707) 433-6931

Newsletter Archives


Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Knights' Message

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 Facebook

COMMERCIAL
Custom Controls

Knights' Electric offers custom control panels to commercial customers for power distribution, machinery and automation applications. Scott Webb oversees the control shop where control panels are constructed to meet the needs of industrial and commercial customers.

Scott Webb is the supervisor and estimator in the Control Shop.

Scott Webb
is the supervisor and estimator in the
Control Shop.
Customers who call Knights' Electric with requests for control panels are directed to Scott Webb, "A customer can give a verbal description of what they are trying to do or what they need and through a dialogue back and forth we can figure out what we need to build for them. Other customers may send us the ladder logic or the plan of how the controls work and we build the panel from that."

Webb does the estimating for controls, "With the information we exchange with a customer we can 'bid and build' the controls. We will go to the job site to estimate, if necessary. The job may include installation, otherwise the customer can install the panel we deliver."

Knights' Electric's control shop just completed a control panel for VA Filtration, a company that specializes in mobile volatile acidity reduction, located in American Canyon. VA Filtration built a low velocity rotary filtration machine that is gentler on wine. Knights' Electric delivered the control panel that VA Filtration will mount and Knights' Electric will return to wire the controls to the filtration machine. VA Filtration has processed over 10 million gallons of wine worldwide.

Knights' Electric Control Shop team turns out products like this control panel. Left to right: Chris Barnett, Scott Webb and Roberto Mendoza.

Knights' Electric Control Shop team turns out products like this control panel.
Left to right: Chris Barnett, Scott Webb and
Roberto Mendoza.
Knights' Electric is now working on a control panel for Kendall - Jackson Winery's 40-foot mobile bottling trailer used for bottling at their smaller artisan wineries like Matanzas Creek Winery. "They were hauling a transformer to connect their 240 amp powered bottling line at many of the wineries that had 480 amp power," explains Webb, "We'll deliver the control panel that they will mount on the outside of the trailer and we'll come back and mount the transformer on a skid inside the trailer and wire it to the control panel. They won't have to haul a transformer anymore."

All of motor control consoles and panels along with the pump stanchions that Knights' Electric manufactures at their control shop are U.L listed.
 

RESIDENTIAL
Westfall Construction Company's High-End Niche

Greg Hannan of Knights' Electric prepares the placement area for landscape lighting that will showcase oak trees near the front door of the home.

Greg Hannan of Knights' Electric prepares the placement area for landscape lighting that will showcase oak trees near the front door of the home.
Blaine Westfall, owner of Westfall Construction Company, feels he has found his niche. "We usually have two high-end custom homes under construction on a regular basis," says Westfall, who has been in the construction industry for 21 years. When he first began his career he worked almost exclusively doing construction at Santa Rosa Junior College, "About 95% of our work was at the SRJC. I built my first million dollar home in 1990 and gradually moved in that direction."

For many years now Westfall Construction has been building custom homes like the one nearing completion in Alexander Valley. "I would describe this home as complicated simplicity," says Westfall, "Dave English, the architect, did a great job." The home is 3,100 square feet so it's not big by custom home standards, but it's not small by any means with its high peaked steel roof that creates a vaulted entryway featuring a circular porthole style window. Because of the window's southern exposure a circle of sunlight tracks across interior walls in a sundial effect.

Vaulted entryway features porthole window and wall sconce lighting.

Much of the home is lit by wall sconces and recessed ceiling lights.

Vaulted entryway features porthole window and wall sconce lighting.

Much of the home is lit by wall
sconces and recessed ceiling lights.
The home also features clearstory windows along the east and west sides of the house to reveal fabulous vistas of rolling hills and vineyards. Through those windows the sunlight fills the interior of the home during the day. At night the home is lit with a series of recessed ceiling lights and wall sconces, some of the lighting is used as art lighting for numerous paintings hung throughout the home.

The kitchen area is lit with a combination of pendants, recessed ceiling lights and under cabinet lighting.

Dramatic globes light the pantry.

The kitchen area is lit with a combination of pendants,
recessed ceiling lights and under cabinet lighting.

Dramatic globes light the pantry.
Knights' Electric residential department , which is working for Westfall Construction for the first time, has installed all of the electrical and lighting including landscape lighting that will highlight some of the oak trees that surround the home. Jeff Meyers is the lead electrician on the project and is currently completing the trim work.
 

THE COMPANY
Workers' Comp Trustee

Barbara Ragsdale, CFO of Knights' Electric, Inc. has recently become a member of the North Coast Builders Exchange Workers' Comp Trust. The organization meets quarterly to monitor and evaluate Workers' Comp activity relating to the policies, claims, premiums, and strategies that can help members understand the challenges and current situations that face the construction industry regarding Workers' Comp.

Barbara Ragsdale, CFO of Knights' Electric is a NCBE Worker's Comp Trustee.

Barbara Ragsdale,
CFO of Knights' Electric
is a NCBE Worker's
Comp Trustee.
The NCBE Workers' Comp Trust consists of 11 representatives from individual construction trades plus NCBE CEO Keith Woods and NCBE Safety Director Hallie Frazier. A representative from State Compensation Insurance Fund is also present at meetings, which are presided over by Workers' Comp Trust Chairman Mike Behler of Behler Construction. Barbara Ragsdale, who represents the electrical trade, has found the interaction and information between trustees to be valuable to everyone, "Each trade has certain safety issues that may differ from yours but you can pick up valuable safety tips that someone else is using that might apply to your situation."

The Workers' Comp Trust also monitors and reviews safety records and Workers' Comp claims for individual companies in the NCBE. The NCBE purchases Workers' Comp insurance as a group and also through the Golden State Exchange, which represents members statewide. Companies with a track record of higher amounts of Workers' Comp claims may be removed from the group through these reviews in order to maintain the lowest possible premium to the members of the insured group. Companies who do not qualify for group rates due to bad safety records and high number of claims must find Workers' Comp insurance independently and at higher rates.

Ragsdale has found valuable resources through the Workers' Comp Trust, "The North Coast Builders Exchange has a video lending library with safety videos and a two volume OSHA Compliance Guide." Ragsdale feels that her reason for being involved in the Workers' Comp Trust is to seek solutions, "We need to be proactive instead of reactive."