Winter is here. Now is the right time to prepare your generator for the winter months as generators can develop several problems during this cold season. When the temperature drops, the particles of generator fuel can coalesce, making it difficult for you to operate the generator. If your generator has an electric starter, the batteries may lose cranking power.

Low oil shutdown sensors may experience problems in winter. Malfunctioning oil shutdown sensors will prevent the generator from starting.

Here are some tips to prepare your generator for winter.

Inspect Your Batteries

Before winter hits in full force, inspect your batteries to check whether the lead plates remain coated with sulfate. Make sure the breaker is closed. If it trips, reset it.

Check battery connections; clean and securely tighten them whenever required. To prevent corrosion, apply a battery saver to batteries regularly. If your batteries are on their last legs or have developed a significant problem, replace them.

Power outages can be disastrous, especially if you have a sick person at home who uses an electricity-dependent medical device or assistive technology. If your area experiences frequent power outages, consider a solar battery backup in Sonoma County that will provide backup power when your regular power source fails.

There are several benefits of solar battery backups. A solar battery backup system can help you reduce your carbon footprint. When your solar panels produce more energy than you need, the excess energy is stored in your battery. The system utilizes this surplus energy to power your appliances during power outages.

Solar batteries are either AC or DC coupled. In an AC-coupled battery system, the solar inverter converts DC to AC, then a second inverter in the battery converts AC back to DC to be stored in the battery. During a grid power outage, the battery inverter converts DC back to AC to power your loads.

With a DC-coupled battery system, DC is produced by the solar panels and stored in the battery. During a grid power outage, the inverter converts DC to AC to power your loads. The federal government and many state governments currently provide incentives to homeowners for using solar battery backups. These incentives include federal tax credit and state and utility rebates.

The federal solar tax credit allows homeowners who install a solar energy system in 2021 to deduct 22 percent of the cost of installing the system from their federal taxes.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

This luxurious modern home was originally built in 2007 but destroyed by a devastating wildfire in 2017. The owners decided to rebuild using top-of-the-line lighting fixtures and controls. The home evokes Hollywood glamour in every room with touches of polished nickel, stainless steel, and glass. The 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom hillside home with a pool house features 33 Palladiom shades with T-Screen Charcoal/Charcoal 3% openness fabric. Most Palladiom shades are outside mount, utilizing satin nickel brackets and Palladiom hem bars. The customer loves how the darker fabric complements the light wall finishes while still preserving the view.

The home is also fitted with a Lutron QS lighting control system, providing management of all lights and motorized shades in the residence. This includes integration with landscape lighting via an FX Luminaire system for seamless timeclock events and control from inside the home. A Control4 automation system provides additional management of lighting control, motorized shading, and control of two media rooms with surround sound and multiple TVs. A waterproof iPad allows control of the outdoor lighting, the 16-speaker landscape audio system, and the outdoor TV.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

This beautiful vineyard home is a fire rebuild in Sonoma County, completed in late 2020. It features three Lutron shade models integrated with Lutron QS lighting control and a Control4 automation system. This estate includes solar power generation with a smart battery back-up, a guest house, a pool with a grotto, outdoor audio-video systems including landscape speakers, a game room, cove lighting, five TVs, a wine cellar, a chef’s kitchen, a snack kitchen downstairs, and multiple gas fireplaces.

During the initial design, Summit worked closely with the customer and the general contractor, Total Concepts, to create a user-friendly smart home. The customer’s requirements included media systems with two home theaters, house music throughout, future-proof low-voltage infrastructure, an enterprise-class wired and Wi-Fi network, Lutron QS lighting control with motorized shades, outdoor surveillance, an intrusion alarm with monitored smoke detection and sprinkler flow. All systems are integrated using Control4, including lighting control, motorized shades, alarm, surveillance, HVAC, and a backup battery system. All systems are managed via on-wall iPads when at home and iPhones when remote.