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Heating & Cooling in Excelsior, MN
Excelsior is a small, walkable town on the south shore of Lake Minnetonka, and beyond the Water Street historic district much of it is still Victorian-era houses on narrow lots.
HVAC service in Excelsior, MN
We repair and replace furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, boilers and ductless mini-splits in Excelsior and across Hennepin County. Every visit starts with a $79 trip charge and a written price before any work, and the $79 is waived when you go ahead with the repair.
- County
- Hennepin County
- ZIP code
- 55331
- Natural gas
- CenterPoint Energy
- Electric
- Xcel Energy
- From downtown Minneapolis
- about 16 miles
Updated September 23, 2026
What HVAC problems do we see most in Excelsior?
- Boiler and radiator service in pre-1920 houses: bleeding air, zone valves, circulator pumps, expansion tanks
- Central air for radiator-heated homes using high-velocity small-duct systems or ductless heads
- Quiet outdoor condenser and heat pump placement on narrow lots
- Chimney liner work when a new furnace leaves the water heater venting alone into an old chimney
Around town: Lake Minnetonka · Excelsior Commons · Water Street historic district · Minnesota Streetcar Museum's Excelsior line · Highway 7
Book in ExcelsiorWhat are Excelsior homes like to heat and cool?
A settlement association organized in New York founded Excelsior in 1853 as the first village on Lake Minnetonka, and by the late 1800s it was a summer resort as well. That gives the town an unusual housing mix for its size: year-round Victorians and foursquares on the grid behind Water Street, alongside former summer cottages that were winterized one room at a time. The cottages are the harder ones to heat, with shallow crawlspaces, thin walls and furnaces or wall heaters added long after they were built.
Excelsior was built out early, so later eras show up as infill: postwar houses on leftover lots, and condominium and townhome buildings near the lake where an association controls vent and condenser locations. Many older houses carry additions, a kitchen bump-out or a second-floor dormer, tied into the original duct system with one long run. Those rooms end up colder in January and warmer in July than the rest of the house, and they are usually the first place a ductless head earns its keep.
Winter in Excelsior
Houses near the water take the wind straight off the ice on Excelsior Bay and St. Albans Bay, and a long lake winter finds every gap in 1890s window frames and balloon-framed walls. Boilers here run hard for weeks at a time, so a leaking relief valve, a waterlogged expansion tank or a circulator that won't start shows up in the first real cold. Ice dams are common on story-and-a-half roofs with little attic insulation, and winterized cottages on crawlspaces freeze their pipes before anything else.
Summer in Excelsior
Lake humidity reaches every old basement in town, and fieldstone walls wick moisture in, so converted-gravity duct systems can carry a musty smell upstairs once the air conditioning starts. Most of the older homes were never designed for central air, which leaves high-velocity tubing, ductless heads or window units. Third floors and finished attics in the Victorians trap heat worst of all. On narrow lots, a condenser squeezed between two houses also recirculates its own hot air unless it has room to breathe.
Which utilities and rebates apply in Excelsior?
Excelsior is on CenterPoint Energy gas and Xcel Energy electricity. CenterPoint's heating rebates cover high-efficiency boilers as well as furnaces, which matters in a town with this many radiator systems, and you can use any dealer. Xcel's heat pump rebates include ductless mini-splits, a common way to cool a radiator house; ask whether the rebate needs a registered contractor. Xcel's Saver's Switch and AC Rewards programs offer bill savings or an annual reward for letting Xcel cycle your AC on peak days.
Rebate programs change every year; check the utility's current terms before you buy. Our guides: Xcel and CenterPoint rebates, heat pump rebates, what happened to the federal credits.
Most-requested in Excelsior
Furnace repair in Excelsior Excelsior furnace and boiler calls get the same terms: a $79 trip charge waived when you approve the repair, and a written flat-rate price before work. Furnace replacement in Excelsior Excelsior furnace replacements cost $4,500–$9,500 installed with us, depending on efficiency and venting, and every quote is written, flat-rate and sized by Manual J. AC repair in Excelsior If your AC quits in Excelsior, we come out 7 days a week between 7am and 9pm for a $79 trip charge, waived when you approve the repair. AC replacement in Excelsior Replacing central air in Excelsior costs $5,200–$9,800 installed with us, with a written flat-rate quote, a Manual J and a 2-year labor warranty.
All services in Excelsior
Excelsior HVAC questions
Who repairs furnaces and air conditioners in Excelsior, MN?
Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling serves Excelsior and the rest of Hennepin County, about 16 miles from downtown Minneapolis. We repair and replace furnaces, central air, heat pumps, boilers and ductless mini-splits, and we're open 7 days, 7am–9pm. Call 612-429-3465.
How much does an HVAC service call cost in Excelsior?
A flat $79 trip charge, waived when you approve the repair. Written price before any work; same prices in every town we serve. Installed prices are on our pricing page.
Can an older Excelsior house that heats with radiators get central air?
Yes, though not by borrowing ductwork, because a radiator house has none. The usual choices are a high-velocity system that runs small flexible tubes through closets and attic space to small round outlets, or ductless heads in the rooms you use most. We look at the attic, closets and wall cavities first, then show you where the air handler, outlets and line set would go before you decide.
Where does the outdoor unit go on a narrow Excelsior lot?
Usually the side or back yard, away from bedroom windows, dryer vents and the spot where snow slides off the roof. Setback rules for mechanical equipment differ from city to city, so we check Excelsior's before pulling the permit. On tight lots we lean toward variable-speed units, which run quieter at low speed, and route the line set so it doesn't show from the street.
Can we control radiator heat room by room in our Excelsior house?
On a hot-water system, yes. Thermostatic radiator valves fit each radiator and throttle it to a set temperature, which evens out sunny and shady rooms and keeps a small bedroom from overheating. On larger houses, splitting the piping into zones with their own thermostats and zone valves or pumps does the same thing floor by floor. Steam systems need different parts, so we confirm which you have first.
Our winterized Excelsior cottage sits on a crawlspace. How do we keep pipes and floors from freezing?
Start underneath. Seal and insulate the crawlspace walls and rim joists, lay a vapor barrier over the ground, and bring the space inside the heated envelope so ducts and water lines sit in warm air. If the furnace or air handler lives down there too, a Wi-Fi thermostat with a low-temperature alert warns you before anything freezes. Floors over a warm crawlspace stop feeling cold underfoot as well.
Also serving near Excelsior
- Shorewood, MN 1 mi
- Deephaven, MN 2 mi
- Minnetonka, MN 3 mi
- Chanhassen, MN 3 mi
- Orono, MN 5 mi
- Mound, MN 5 mi
- Victoria, MN 6 mi
- Wayzata, MN 6 mi
Guides for Excelsior homeowners
Carrier Performance vs Comfort Air Conditioners: What Differs
Carrier Comfort vs Performance AC: which models are single-stage or two-stage, published SEER2 and sound ratings, warranty rules, and Minnesota fit.
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- No Heat in a Minnesota Winter: What to Check Before You CallHeating
- Electric Furnace vs Heat Pump in MinnesotaHeat Pumps
Brands we service in Excelsior: AirEase · Amana · American Standard · Ameristar · Aprilaire · Arcoaire · Armstrong Air · Bosch · Broan-NuTone · Bryant · Buderus · Burnham · Carrier · Champion · Coleman · Comfortmaker · Concord · Daikin · Day & Night · Ducane · ecobee · Frigidaire · Fujitsu · Gibson · Goodman · Google Nest · Gree · Heil · Honeywell Home · Lennox · LG · Lifebreath · Lochinvar · Luxaire · Maytag · Midea · Mitsubishi Electric · MrCool · Navien · NTI · Payne · Peerless · Rheem · Rinnai · RunTru · Ruud · Samsung · Santa Fe · Tempstar · Trane · Triangle Tube · Utica Boilers · Viessmann · Weil-McLain · Westinghouse · York
Contact Us
Heat out in Excelsior? Call or send a request.