Lighting Installation in Harpswell, Maine

Harpswell Homes and What They Need

Harpswell's housing is almost all detached houses, over 90 percent in Census estimates, spread along Harpswell Neck and Orr's, Bailey and Great Island. Of roughly 4,300 homes, about a third are seasonal, many of them old summer cottages on the water. The median build year is 1979; about one in five homes predates 1940, and roughly half predate 1980, while under a fifth were built after 2000. Many started as summer places and were converted to year-round use, which often leaves shallow crawlspaces, piping in unheated spaces and additions wired and plumbed at different times. Salt air adds its own wear to outdoor equipment and fittings. On older island houses, repiping and plumbing upgrades are often part of making a cottage livable through February.

Power, Storms and Wiring in Harpswell

Harpswell is one of the most outage-exposed towns on Central Maine Power's system: long, narrow necks served by lines under heavy tree cover, facing open water on both sides. In the December 18, 2023 storm, with winds up to 65 mph, all but about 100 of the town's roughly 4,750 CMP customers lost power, and two days later more than 600 were still out. The October 2017 nor'easter, the largest outage event in Maine history, did similar damage along the coast. Because every house here is on a well, losing power means losing water too, and a well pump plus a boiler circulator is a small load a generator handles easily. Generator installation on the Harpswell islands works best with the transfer switch and fuel supply planned together.

Getting to Know Harpswell