What's Normal When You First Turn On the Furnace in Fall
Turning the furnace on this fall? What to do before the start-up, which smells and sounds are normal, and the filter, humidifier and CO alarm steps.
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Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling repairs and replaces furnaces, ACs, heat pumps and boilers in New Germany (Carver County), about 35 miles from downtown Minneapolis.
HVAC service in New Germany starts at a $129 tune-up, and a furnace replacement runs $4,500–$9,500 installed, quoted in writing first. The town of 464 people grew around an 1880s Great Northern depot, was called Motordale during World War I, and is mostly early-1900s and postwar houses.
Updated October 27, 2026 · By Eric Brown, owner, Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling

Around town: Dakota Rail Regional Trail · County Road 30 · County Road 33 · Highway 7
Book in New GermanyNew Germany's population stayed between about 275 and 375 people from 1950 through 2010, so very little of the town was torn down or rebuilt in that time. What stands is mostly the depot-era village: houses from the 1880s through the 1920s near the old rail grade, now the Dakota Rail Regional Trail, and a scattering of 1950s–70s ramblers. The older homes most likely started with stoves or a coal furnace, and ducts came later, run wherever the joists allowed, which is why second-floor rooms tend to get one small supply and no return.
The 2010s brought the first real growth in decades, about 90 new residents, and the newer houses from that stretch have full basements, 90%+ furnaces and central air. In Camden Township around the city, farmhouses hold to the older pattern, with propane heat and outbuildings that each have a heater of their own.
Story-and-a-half houses like many in New Germany lose heat through the knee walls and the sloped part of the upstairs ceiling, where there was little room for insulation. That warmth melts roof snow, which refreezes at the eaves as ice dams, and the upstairs still feels cold. A duct running through a knee-wall attic makes both problems worse. Air-sealing and insulating those spaces often matters more than furnace size. Watch the condensate line on a high-efficiency furnace, too: run along a cold foundation wall, it can freeze and shut the furnace off.
The knee-wall spaces that leak heat in winter act like ovens in July, and the upstairs bedrooms beside them are the hardest rooms in New Germany to keep cool. A central air system in the basement pushes air up one small duct and can't pull the hot air back down without a return. Sealing the knee walls, adding attic ventilation where it's missing, and then either a return upstairs or a small ductless head makes those rooms livable. In older houses still on window units, one ductless head often replaces two or three of them.
In town, CenterPoint Energy handles gas-side rebates for high-efficiency furnaces and boilers, and it also runs air sealing and insulation rebates through participating installers, which suit New Germany's older story-and-a-halfs. Xcel Energy supplies the electricity and has heat pump and AC rebates plus its own insulation and air sealing program; ask whether a given rebate requires a registered contractor. Township farms heating with propane generally won't get a gas utility's furnace rebate, but a heat pump can still qualify on the electric side.
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.
Central Minnesota Heating and Cooling, owned by Eric Brown and in business since 2009, serves New Germany and nearby towns in Carver County, about 35 miles from downtown Minneapolis. We're open 7 days, 7am–9pm, and no-heat calls get priority. Call 612-429-3465.
An HVAC service call in New Germany is a flat $79 trip charge, waived when you approve the repair. You get a written price before any work. Installed prices are on our pricing page.
Usually. Some furnaces come in shorter cabinets, and a horizontal model can lie on its side or hang from the joists where headroom is tight. The bigger question is venting: a high-efficiency furnace needs a plastic vent route to an outside wall or the roof, while the old chimney may still have to serve the water heater. We measure and plan the vent before picking a model.
Yes. A single ductless head handles a porch, sunroom or upstairs bedroom on its own controls, with a small outdoor unit and a line set run down the outside wall. Cold-climate models keep heating well below zero, though their output drops as it gets colder, so we size the unit to that room's actual heat loss, not just its square footage.
A furnace venting into an old brick chimney can be safe, but it needs checking. Old masonry chimneys may be unlined or have cracked clay tiles, and a cold chimney drafts poorly. We test draft and carbon monoxide at the furnace and water heater and look at the chimney's condition. If we replace the furnace with a 90%+ model vented in PVC, the water heater may be left alone in the chimney and need a liner or its own vent.
If the attic and knee walls are thin, yes. Air-sealing and insulating first lowers the heat loss, and the load calculation for the new furnace should reflect the house after that work, not before. That can mean a smaller furnace with longer, quieter cycles. CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy both run insulation and air sealing programs, so check what applies before you schedule either job.
CenterPoint Energy supplies natural gas to houses in town and Xcel Energy supplies electricity. Farmsteads in surrounding Camden Township commonly heat with propane instead, so those addresses are not on a gas utility's furnace rebate. Look at the name on your bills before comparing rebates or heat pump savings.
Turning the furnace on this fall? What to do before the start-up, which smells and sounds are normal, and the filter, humidifier and CO alarm steps.
Read the guideEight heat pump buying mistakes Minnesota homeowners make, from shopping by SEER2 to ground-level outdoor units and outdated rebates, and how to avoid them.
Read the guideWater by the furnace in July? Normal dripping versus a real leak, the usual causes (drain, pump, iced coil, cracked pan), and what to do right now.
Read the guideBrands we service in New Germany: Carrier · Trane · Lennox · Goodman · Rheem · Mitsubishi Electric · Daikin · American Standard · Navien · Weil-McLain · and every other major brand
Heat out in New Germany? Call or send a request.