About Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling

At a glance

Who owns Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling?

Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling is owned by Eric Brown. He stands behind the written warranties and the pricing policy on this page, including one price list for every town.

The guides on this site, from furnace troubleshooting to replacement costs, are published under his name. See Eric Brown's author page.

In business since 2009

A lot has changed since we started. R-22 refrigerant production and import ended in 2020, so a leaking R-22 air conditioner is usually a replacement conversation instead of a recharge. Efficiency ratings moved to SEER2 and HSPF2 in 2023. Cold-climate heat pumps now keep producing heat well below zero, so a heat pump is a real option for Minnesota houses, usually with a furnace or electric backup for the coldest nights.

The Minnesota basement hasn't changed much. There's still a furnace that has to run on a -20°F night, a filter that's been in too long, and a humidifier pad nobody has looked at since it went in. A lot of the job is still finding the failed pressure switch or cracked igniter and getting the heat back on.

How does a service call work?

1. You call or send a request. Call 612-429-3465 or use the request form on this page. No-heat calls get priority.
2. A technician tracks down the fault. The visit is a $79 trip charge.
3. You get a written, flat-rate price. It's a price for the job, not the hours, and nothing gets fixed until you approve it.
4. Approve the repair and the $79 is waived. Decide not to go ahead and the $79 is all you owe.
5. The repair is covered in writing. Completed repairs carry a 1-year parts-and-labor warranty.

When the right answer is a new furnace, air conditioner or heat pump, we size it with a Manual J load calculation instead of copying the old nameplate. The old unit may never have been the right size, and new windows, insulation or an addition change what the house needs. Installs carry our 2-year labor warranty on top of the manufacturer's parts warranty, and financing is available.

Pricing is the same in every town, with no mileage charge or extra fee for being farther out. Tune-ups start at $129, or $219 for the furnace and air conditioner together, and maintenance plans are available on request. Installed price ranges are on the pricing page.

What area do we serve?

We serve Minneapolis, Saint Paul and the towns within about 50 miles of them.

• Minneapolis. Much of Minneapolis was built before 1940, so converted gravity ducts, shared chimneys and boilers with cast-iron radiators are routine work, from Longfellow to Northeast. See what HVAC work costs in Minneapolis.
• Saint Paul. Most of Saint Paul predates 1950, and a service call there is as likely to involve a cast-iron boiler as a furnace.
• Edina, Eden Prairie, Eagan, Roseville and Woodbury. These suburbs run from Roseville's 1950s ramblers and Edina's Morningside bungalows to Eden Prairie's 1970s walkouts, the 1980s and 1990s neighborhoods of Eagan, and the two-stories that fill Woodbury.
• The rest of the 50-mile area. North to Anoka and Elk River, west to Wayzata and Waconia, south to Lakeville and Northfield, and east to Stillwater.
• Western Wisconsin. Hudson, River Falls, Prescott and the Town of Oak Grove.

The full list of 104 towns is on the service areas page, and the ZIP code directory lets you check your address. St. Cloud, Brainerd, Alexandria, Hutchinson and Litchfield are outside our area.

What equipment do we work on?

• Heating: furnace repair, furnace replacement for natural gas or propane, and boilers and radiant heat.
• Cooling: AC repair and AC replacement.
• Heat pumps: cold-climate and dual-fuel heat pumps, and ductless mini-splits for additions, porches and houses without ducts.
• Indoor air quality: whole-home humidifiers, whole-home dehumidifiers, air cleaners, filtration and UV, and HRV and ERV ventilation.
• Controls and upkeep: smart thermostats and zoning, and furnace and AC tune-ups.

We also do light-commercial work: rooftop units, commercial furnaces and mini-splits for restaurants, offices, retail and multifamily buildings. Everything is listed on the services page.

We service every major brand of furnace, air conditioner, heat pump, mini-split and boiler, from Carrier, Trane, Lennox and Goodman to Mitsubishi Electric and Navien. We repair all of them, and when a system needs replacing, we install the equipment that fits the house. Brand-by-brand pages are listed on the brands page.

How do we write and check our guides?

Our blog posts and service pages follow these rules:

• Our prices come from our published list. When a page says what we charge, it matches the pricing page.
• National cost figures name their source. When a guide quotes a typical national range, it names the published cost guide it came from, such as HomeGuide, in the same sentence, and never presents it as our price or a Minnesota figure.
• Technical claims rest on published standards. Efficiency is described with the Department of Energy ratings (AFUE, SEER2, HSPF2), refrigerant advice follows EPA rules, and carbon monoxide advice follows Minnesota's CO alarm law.
• We correct pages when programs or rules change. The federal 25C tax credit ended for equipment placed in service after December 31, 2025 (see the IRS credit page), so our guides say it ended instead of telling you to claim it. Refrigerant rules moved too: new home air conditioners and heat pumps made from 2025 on use lower-GWP refrigerants such as R-454B or R-32, and in May 2026 the EPA dropped the January 1, 2026 installation deadline for R-410A equipment made before 2025 (EPA rule page). Each guide shows the date it was last updated.
• No rebate dollar amounts. Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy and the electric co-ops change their programs every year, so we send you to the utility's own page and help with the paperwork where the program allows it.
• No invented reviews or customer stories. You won't find testimonials, case studies or "a homeowner in Edina" anecdotes here. Our reviews are on Google, in customers' own words.

Licensing, insurance and reviews

We're licensed in Minnesota and Wisconsin and insured. Our technicians hold EPA Section 608 certification, which federal rules require for anyone who handles refrigerant. Customers have left more than 870 Google reviews, averaging 4.9 stars. If you're comparing contractors, our guide to choosing an HVAC contractor in Minneapolis covers what to check before you hire anyone, us included.

How do you reach us?

Call 612-429-3465 any day between 7am and 9pm. Tell us your town, what kind of equipment you have and what it's doing: blowing cold air, short-cycling, flashing a code, leaving water on the floor. If you can read the brand and model number off the unit's label, that helps the technician bring the right parts.

You can also send a request through the contact page. If you smell gas, leave the house and call 911 or your gas utility from outside before you call us.