Radiant Floor Heating 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.

Heating and Cooling in Harpswell

Harpswell heats with oil and propane, since no natural gas mains reach the peninsula. The latest Census five-year estimates show about 44 percent of occupied homes on fuel oil and about 34 percent on propane, one of the highest propane shares in the county, with wood around 9 percent and electricity about 7 percent. Surrounded by Casco Bay, the town is milder than inland Maine in deep winter, but it takes the full force of coastal wind, which matters for heat loss in drafty cottages. A tank of propane or oil also has to arrive over a single road on each neck. For a converted cottage, cold-climate heat pumps can cut delivered fuel, provided the outdoor units are mounted above drifting snow and out of direct salt spray.

Getting to Know Harpswell