Radiant Floor Heating in North Yarmouth, Maine

North Yarmouth Homes and What They Need

North Yarmouth grew from fewer than 1,000 residents in 1950 to about 4,100 in 2020, and its housing shows that growth. Census estimates count about 1,600 homes, nearly all detached single-family houses, with a median year built of 1981. About 17 percent predate 1940, mostly farmhouses and capes around Walnut Hill and along Routes 9, 115 and 231, while subdivisions from the 1970s through the 2010s fill in the land between them. Homes here are also valued higher than in the other inland towns nearby, with a median owner-estimated value near $480,000, and close to nine in ten are owner-occupied. The result is a large group of 30- to 45-year-old houses whose original heating systems, water heaters and panels are reaching the end of their service life, and a furnace replacement in a forced-air home is a natural moment to add central cooling or a heat pump coil.

Heating and Cooling in North Yarmouth

Census estimates put fuel oil or kerosene as the main heat in about six in ten North Yarmouth homes, but propane is unusually strong here at close to 20 percent, with electricity around 9 percent and wood around 6 percent. Utility gas reaches only about 4 percent of homes; Summit Natural Gas has built mains in neighbouring Yarmouth and Cumberland, but most of North Yarmouth's rural roads are not piped. The town lies a few miles inland from Casco Bay, and inland towns typically see colder, calmer winter nights than the shore. For propane-heated homes, the comparison between a high-efficiency propane appliance and a cold-climate heat pump system usually comes down to the price of a gallon of propane against a kilowatt-hour, and a hybrid setup that lets the heat pump run most of the season and the propane unit cover the coldest stretches is a common middle path.

Getting to Know North Yarmouth