We are warm and safe and not on the roads for the next few days. Two days ago it was 70 degrees and we were tasting wine all over the Fredericksburg area of Hill Country, and today, a Texas ice storm
Coach Addy is all nice and toasty inside, last night Julie made a big pot of chili for dinner with Betina’s family in their house. It was 27 degrees outside last night with freezing rain falling all night. Millions are without power in Texas this morning. We lost our electricity from midnight to 5am. I'm so thankful for the men and women who had to work in the ice storm to restore power in the early hours of the morning.
The trees are really thick with ice on their canopies this morning and the sound of the ice falling from the trees is amazing, a sound I have never heard before.
So how does Coach Addy keep us warm and safe in the freezing weather? Apparently, what we are dealing with is nothing, many on the Tiffin Owners facebook page recall going to minus 17 degrees and staying warm and safe in their coach. The coaches are well insulated and designed for four seasons including harsh freezing temperatures, just like a house.
Some of the systems in the coach that keep us warm and comfortable are: We have dual furnaces (front and rear) that run off of the 28 gallon propane tank for the heat and 12 volts for the fan thus very little battery power is needed. There is a heat pump and an electric fireplace that we can run on 120 volt power and we use that as our primary heat source when plugged into shore power to conserve the propane. If we just had propane we would be fine for about 2 weeks, but we are fortunate to have both propane and shore power electricity available. Our water is an on demand tankless water heater that runs on propane as well and uses very little of the gas. Cooking is both propane stove and ovens as well as electric convection oven and toaster oven at 120 volts, we use them all at various times.
Our water, gray and black tanks are huge in volume and are protected from the elements by being located in insulated bays mounted directly under the floors in the basement of the coach. So when the coach is warm, the tanks are warm. Our wet bay where most of the water hookups and valves are is also in a insulated bay with heat provided by the front furnace. Essentially, if it's warm in the coach nothing will freeze and we do not worry about pipes bursting from the freeze. In many ways we are better off than in a house as we have many redundant systems. Hey, it's an adventure! Although staying put for a few days we will be back on the road Thursday to our next destination as warmer temps return to Texas.
We are beginning our planning for the upcoming Idaho/Canada leg of our trip. We will leave So-Cal for points north around May 20th and will be in that area for about a month. Then a slow drive to the New England states :) Cheers
Peder
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