Here we go again with the severe weather. This blog wasn't meant to be about severe weather and my home, but I can't resist talking about what we just went through.
Shortly after my first blog post, we had an ice/snow storm that hit the Charleston area and shut down all local bridges making travel impossible. Other than traffic problems, the storm was pretty much a non issue. Exactly two weeks after that storm, we got a much worse ice storm that brought most of South Carolina to its knees. Not only was this ice storm a nightmare for travel, it
was very hard on the trees and the power grid. Over 350,000 South Carolinians
were without power at the peak of the outage, with over 100,000 still without power 5 days later. 
My house lost power about 8 am Wednesday morning and with temperatures in the low 30's and the large amount of ice in the trees, I knew the damage was just getting started. So midday Wednesday, I decided to get my generator up and running, since everyone in my family (spread out all over the Charleston area) was without power as well.
Now was the time for a true test on my home and how it would perform. Once the generator was setup and running it was around 5 pm. The first indication things were going to go pretty well was that the interior temp of my home had only dropped to 66 over the course of almost 9 hours! I got the fridge and some lights on first and then got a small space heater running in the living room. Within an hour, the temperature in the house had actually climbed to 69! (no, we didn't close off the living room and light a fire either) The coolest part is the heat traveled throughout the home instead of instantly vanishing like it would have if I hadn't sealed and insulated it so well. It warmed up so nicely inside that I shut the generator off and went to bed in full confidence that my family and I would stay comfortable overnight. When I got up in the morning it was back to 66, so I repeated the process and quickly warmed the house back up. Even I was surprised at how well the house did!
A drafty, poorly insulated home could never have been able to perform this well. So even though we were on limited power with only one space heater, we were able to be comfortable throughout the home, rather than huddled in one room, like many I know had to do.
This is why everyone needs a high performance home!
The power was finally restored to my home late Friday evening. I know that I am very fortunate that I had a generator and a comfortable home when so many others suffered. I know that as I write this Sunday night there are still many without power. Luckily it has warmed up significantly and the ice is gone.
