Tips For Preparing Your Home For Bitter Cold

(CBS) -- You may be ready for tonight, but what about your home? CBS 2's Chris Martinez has with tips for homeowners.

On a snow-socked street in Willow Springs, help arrived just in the nick of time. Michelle Shang's heat was not working and her call for repair is the kind especially common now.

"The new furnaces, there are so many sensors and switches in them that need to be cleaned out," said Rick Broesch of Four Seasons Heating and Cooling.

Broesch tells people to, "be proactive, not reactive. Clean it and get an annual maintenance done. They'll find a lot of problems before...like she has no heat now."

The advice is much the same when pondering your pipes. Precautions are already needed from an expert's eye as our temps plunge.

In order to keep your pipes from freezing, John Baethke of John Baethke & Sons Plumbing says, "you put it in the center... and you want the trickle to be enough that we know the water is coming through the hot and cold side... and you're good. These pipes underneath this kitchen won't freeze!"