Furnace Installation in St. Cloud, MN
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Stearns County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, and winter nights near zero
St. Cloud homes need a working furnace from September through May. That's nine months out of the year it has to run, and on the coldest nights it's working against an average low of 6°F.
A furnace installed here has to be sized for that cold, not just for a mild fall evening. Federal rules require any new non-weatherized gas furnace to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, and over a season this long, that furnace will run through most of the year before it gets a break.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 6°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 53%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $110 a year to run in Stearns County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Stearns County home, from EIA household energy data, Minnesota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Minnesota has no state license for HVAC contractors.
Minnesota does not put HVAC contractors through a state exam or keep a license record on them, so there is no state credential to check on whoever installs your furnace. Nothing is filed with the state either. Whatever confidence you get about the person doing this job has to come from somewhere other than a license number.
What does apply here is the permit process. In most cities and counties, including Stearns County, a furnace replacement needs a permit from the local building office, and the finished work gets inspected once it is done. That permit and inspection are the local record of this job, in place of a state license. More than half the homes in Stearns County heat with gas, so this is the job that permit process exists for.
Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There is no single number that fits every house. A contractor sizes your furnace by working through your home's square footage, ceiling height, window count, insulation, and how the place is laid out, then runs that against a heat loss calculation for our winters. Going bigger than what the calculation says is not a safety margin, it makes the furnace short cycle and wear out faster. With lows averaging 6°F here, getting this number right matters more than in a milder climate.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer to hit the same temperature, or repair calls that keep coming back. Furnaces installed since November 2015 have to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so if yours is older than that it's worth asking a contractor what yours is actually rated at. Since homes here need heat from September through May, a furnace that's struggling shows itself fast, usually in the coldest stretch of the year rather than in a mild month.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months a year your furnace runs, and here that's nine, from September through May. A higher AFUE rating means more of the fuel you burn turns into heat in your house instead of going out the vent, and that adds up over a season this long. A contractor can walk through the actual models and ratings for your house, since the right choice also depends on your ductwork and how the furnace vents.