Radiant Floor Heating in Scarborough, Maine

Scarborough Homes and What They Need

Scarborough is largely a late-20th-century town. Census estimates put the median home at 1988, with only about 8 percent of units built before 1940 and roughly 30 percent built since 2000. About seven in ten homes are single detached houses and more than three quarters are owner-occupied. The older stock clusters in beach villages such as Pine Point, Higgins Beach and Prouts Neck, where cottages built for summer use have often been converted to year-round living, while subdivisions fill the land around Dunstan, Oak Hill and North Scarborough. The newest layer is The Downs, a mixed-use neighborhood rising on the old racetrack site with apartments, condos and single-family homes. Newer houses usually come with ductwork, which makes a ducted heat pump installation straightforward, while converted cottages often need insulation, freeze protection and wiring brought up to date first.

Heating and Cooling in Scarborough

Heating in Scarborough leans on delivered fuels. Census estimates show about 48 percent of occupied homes on fuel oil or kerosene and about 19 percent on bottled propane - a high propane share for a town this close to Portland - with about 15 percent on electricity and about 13 percent on utility gas. Unitil's Northern Utilities serves the town, but gas mains follow the more built-up corridors rather than every road. The town spans a large tidal marsh and several river mouths, so the beach villages feel the ocean's moderating effect while North Scarborough, farther inland, can run colder on clear winter nights. Salt air along Pine Point and Higgins Beach shortens the life of outdoor coils and cabinets. Propane households have a real choice between a high-efficiency gas furnace replacement and a cold-climate heat pump that uses the existing ducts.

Getting to Know Scarborough