Home heating system failures can be uncomfortable and expensive when the temperatures drop.
Oil levels are good at anything above a quarter tank, experts who spend the day with NBC Connecticut said.
Rob Sharkevich, a delivery driver for Simply Heating Oil, said he fills, on average, 30 homes a day this time of year.
"We’re cranking. We’ve got five trucks out, 30 deliveries starting at seven in the morning, going to five-six o’clock at night, Monday to Saturday," Sharkevich said.
Sharkevich typically fills his truck two to three times a day when he's making oil deliveries.
On average, families are burning 10-15 gallons daily with the weather this cold, according to Sharkevich.
"People are burning through a lot more oil obviously because it’s colder so you turn your thermostat up, also a factor heat and hot water, you burn oil using the hot water too, people use oil for hot water," Sharkevich added.
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Brian Williams lives in Kensington and he said he's ready for the cold weather.
"We just got our oil filled in the cold weather. We don’t want to be running out," Williams said.
Customers realizing if they fail to fill, it would only take hours for pipes to freeze and possibly burst. Unfortunately, it can happen with gas heat too.
"We woke up with no heat and called Macca Plumbing and Heating. They put us on their list, we came downstairs and we had a burst pipe. Macca was here in a matter of minutes once the pipe burst," Nancy Walsh of West Hartford had a pipe burst Friday morning.
Parts of the ceiling along with water flooded the Walsh family’s basement in West Hartford overnight.
"I’m hoping to fix it today, because if we can’t we want to at least isolate the problem," Bob Macca, owner of Macca Plumbing and Heating, said.
Back in Kensington, Williams takes precautions this time of year too.
"It gets cold inside the cabinets and that helps to open them and I do shut off the outside faucets," Williams added.
Pipes in a house that are closest to the exterior walls are most vulnerable to freezing and potentially bursting, according to experts.
