Is It Normal for a Heat Pump to Run Constantly in Winter?
Inverter heat pumps are built for long, slow runs, so nonstop running in a Minnesota winter is often normal. The signs of a real problem and what to check.
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Platted in 1881 on the north shore of the lake it's named for, Silver Lake is a McLeod County farm town with Highway 7 running along its north side.
We repair and replace furnaces, air conditioners, heat pumps, boilers and ductless mini-splits in Silver Lake and across McLeod 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.
Updated September 23, 2026

Around town: Silver Lake · Highway 7 · Silver Lake Auditorium · Main Street
Book in Silver LakeSilver Lake has grown by only about 260 people since 1950, so its housing has changed slowly. The oldest homes date from the decades after the 1881 platting, when Czech and Polish families built the churches, schools and downtown businesses that still anchor the town. Many are story-and-a-half frame houses with steep roofs, small upstairs bedrooms and a basement likely dug for a coal furnace. Postwar ramblers and a handful of newer homes fill the remaining lots.
Because the town covers so little ground, almost every house is within a few blocks of either the lake or open farmland. The lots along the north shore of Silver Lake hold older homes, some with sunrooms or additions facing the water that run on a spliced-in duct or a baseboard heater. North of Highway 7, farms heat with propane, and their houses mix original farmhouse rooms with later additions, often on separate heat sources.
Silver Lake's north edge runs along Highway 7 with open farmland beyond it, so the northwest wind hits the north walls of town before anything slows it down. In a small story-and-a-half, that wind finds the upstairs knee walls and the rim joist, and the north bedrooms run cold. Short duct runs in these houses mean the furnace rarely lacks capacity; the heat is leaking out. Sealing the rim and knee walls does more than a bigger furnace, and newer high-efficiency furnaces need their side-wall PVC vents kept clear of drifts.
The town sits on the lake's north shore, so rooms facing the water face south and take the strongest afternoon sun, with lake humidity on top of it. Sunrooms and additions on that side overheat first. An oversized air conditioner cools them quickly and shuts off before it pulls much moisture out, so the house feels clammy. Right-sizing at replacement, a slower blower speed and shades on the south glass help, and a single ductless head gives a lakeside addition its own cooling and dehumidifying.
Silver Lake is on CenterPoint Energy gas and Xcel Energy electric. A high-efficiency furnace or boiler can earn a CenterPoint heating rebate, you can pick any dealer, and the application goes in the same calendar year as the install. CenterPoint and Xcel both run insulation and air sealing programs, which suit the town's older story-and-a-halfs. Xcel offers heat pump and residential cooling rebates; ask whether the one you want needs a registered contractor. Farms outside town may have a different electric provider, so check the bill.
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 serves Silver Lake and the rest of McLeod County, about 46 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.
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.
Start with the ducts, not the furnace. In small older houses, leaky basement duct joints and a single undersized return are the usual reasons one bedroom runs cold. Sealing joints with mastic and adding or enlarging a return costs a fraction of new equipment. An oversized furnace will also short-cycle, and a load calculation tells us whether to size down at replacement.
Usually. Field dust, chaff and pollen load up a thin 1-inch filter quickly, especially at planting and harvest. A 4- or 5-inch media filter holds more dirt, restricts airflow less and typically needs changing only a couple of times a year. We check that the blower and return can handle it, because on an older furnace with small ducts, too restrictive a filter causes its own problems.
A ductless mini-split is usually the best fit. One wall-mounted head heats the room in winter, cools and dehumidifies it in summer, and runs on its own thermostat, so the addition stops fighting the rest of the house. Cold-climate models keep heating well below zero, though output drops as it gets colder, so the baseboard can stay as backup for the deepest cold.
Only partly, unless the ducts change. A basement system pushes cool air up one or two small supplies, and without a return upstairs the hot air under the roof stays put. Adding a return, sealing the knee walls and running the fan on low all help. If the upstairs is only a couple of bedrooms, a small ductless head may cost less than reworking the ducts.
Inverter heat pumps are built for long, slow runs, so nonstop running in a Minnesota winter is often normal. The signs of a real problem and what to check.
Read the guideClean your outdoor AC coil the safe way: power off at the disconnect and breaker, brush cottonwood off dry, rinse with a garden hose, and know when to stop.
Read the guideElectric furnace vs heat pump in Minnesota: why resistance heat costs the most, how a heat pump adds on to your furnace, and co-op programs to ask about.
Read the guideBrands we service in Silver Lake: 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
Heat out in Silver Lake? Call or send a request.