How to Keep Your House Cool in The Summer

Back to Blog

As summer has finally started heating up here in Midcoast Maine, many homeowners are struggling to keep cool as the temperatures rise. Many older homes in the area aren’t equipped with permanent cooling systems, making them stuffy and uncomfortable during the warmer months. But did you know that there are certain home performance upgrades that can help keep your home cool? 

At Evergreen Home Performance, we use a building science approach to home upgrades that view each part of your home as a small piece to a larger working system. With our comprehensive services and expertise in energy efficiency, we can help you keep your home comfortable during the summer. 

Insulation & Air Sealing Upgrades

It’s a common misconception that insulation only works in the winter. In fact, insulation keeps the heat out of your home in the summer in the same exact way it keeps the cold out in the winter—by creating a barrier that resists heat flow through your home. Gaps and cracks in your building envelope also make it susceptible to excess heat and humidity, allowing conditioned air to escape your home and creating negative pressure known as the stack effect. 

With insulation upgrades and air sealing from Evergreen Home Performance, your home will stay cooler longer throughout the summer and get other year-round benefits, like:

Why Insulation & Air Sealing Work Best When Combined

While insulation controls the heat flow in and out of your living spaces, air sealing eliminates energy waste from your home. The performance of insulation is optimized when combined with air sealing—and it can even extend the lifespan of your cellulose insulation!

We’ll Give You a Road Map to a More Comfortable Home

With a free consultation from our team of efficiency experts, we can evaluate your home’s performance and your energy needs to find areas where we can improve efficiency. After our inspection, we’ll provide you with a detailed list of recommendations—along with a few tips—to help you stay comfortable and optimize your whole-home performance.

At Evergreen Home Performance, we’ve helped thousands of Midcoast Maine families with their home comfort and efficiency issues since 2006. Our team of experts can help you stay cool and comfortable this summer, and for many more to come! Ready to get started? Call our team of efficiency experts today!

Maximize Your Savings With Incentives!

Evergreen Home Performance is committed to helping Maine homeowners find the right way to fit energy efficiency projects into their budgets and Efficiency Maine’ rebate program and the federal IRA Tax Credit go a long way to make things affordable.

Rebates

Insulation rebates through Efficiency Maine are an excellent opportunity for Maine homeowners. These rebates go toward the cost of your home improvement projects so you pay less for the same services. There are currently three rebate levels that Evergreen can help you qualify for, helping you earn up to a total of up to:

  • $4,000 for any income

  • $6,000 for moderate income

  • $8,000 for low income

Inflation Reduction Act Tax Credit

Homeowners can save up to 30% on qualifying home improvements for up to a $1,200 combined annual limit.

Ready to get started? Schedule your free consultation to learn more. Call 207-594-2244 or contact us online.

Can’t beat the heat this summer?

Upgrade your home’s performance with our team! 207-594-2244

Evergreen did everything they said they would and more. I actually don't mind going into the basement now since they sealed it. The air quality in the house is noticeably better and it's warmer in the winter. We can even store clothing down there where before, whatever was in there would mildew. Even the spider population declined! I used to vacuum so many of them from the corners of the ceilings in the house. Not any more!

Loriel Van Dusen

Our house still the most efficient home we’ve ever lived in. And we have you folks to thank for that! A special howdy to Brian Robinson please!

Bruce O’Donal and Eva Butler

Bryan, Dave and the entire Evergreen team are wonderfully professional, prompt and thorough. I enjoyed working with them and look forward to continued work as we upgrade our home! Thank you so much for your professionalism, fairness, time and diligence.

Cait

Yarmouth

We initially contacted Evergreen through Efficiency Maine for an energy audit, which was conducted promptly and professionally by Justin McEdward, one of their Energy Advisors who is BPI-certified. After a thorough inspection of our newly purchased home, Justin explained in great detail what we needed and did not need. It was agreed that Evergreen would remove all of the existing attic insulation, which was not adequate, and replace it with blown in cellulose, to a rating of R-60.

Thomas W.

Scarborough

Evergreen has insulated two homes that we've owned now and both times we experienced exceptional service and craftsmanship. Our rep, Justin, went above and beyond answering questions and the installation team was attentive to every detail, including pulling out old poorly installed insulation and redoing a bathroom fan that wasn't up to current code. They also left the place spotless every day! Our home is already so much warmer this fall and we are looking forward to using less oil this winter.

Eva G.

Falmouth

Thorough, smart, informative, integrated, and communicative -- that's how my experience was with Evergreen even with the covid interruption midstream. The team picked up where they left off, insulated basement and air sealed attic and knee wall in 100' temps under the eaves! This business group was a pleasure to work with.

Karen W.

Gray

Evergreen did a fantastic job insulating our 1930's home. The onsite team was professional, clean, and really just a joy to interact with throughout the process. A blower test at the end showed a significant decrease in air leakage. I highly recommend Evergreen.

Kristen H.

South Portland

This team of individuals was professional at all times. They set up barriers that kept the dust at a minimum. They conducted an air flow audit and cut the draft circulation from the outside in half by sealing cracks. They hauled out the old insulation and replaced it with blown in insulation with an R - 60 Value. They also did the rebate paperwork so that I could get my $1500.00 rebate from the state of Maine. I highly recommend Evergreen Home Performance!

Daniel B.

Rockland

Evergreen did an amazing job insulating our historic home. Their professional staff worked hard to ensure the tough areas in the attic were covered, and clearly communicated their progress. We are seeing the results with our discounted heating bills. Thank you, Evergreen!

Melissa Knoll

Portland

Evergreen removed and replaced the insulation in my attic. They did a great job!, Crew was excellent, and the whole thing went smoothly, and the attic was NOT easy to get into or work in, so kudos to some hard work done well!

Joel A.

Portland

Evergreen is a terrific company to deal with. Polite and efficient crews, meeting deadlines and major reduction in our heat bills. They corrected a lot of issues we suffered from doing work with a shoddy building contractor. We would recommend them to anyone.

Mary Carey

I used to spend winters in the bathtub because my house was so cold. This was my first winter roaming around my whole house comfortably. This even led me to decorate a little. My heating oil usage has been reduced by over a quarter: I rarely have to boost the thermostat because the temp stays at a constant. The Efficiency Maine rebates, together with the energy savings, make it affordable for me to pay for the loan I took out to finance the project. I do not worry about my pipes freezing.

Claire Helene Bevan

Camden

Very easy process, start to finish.  Friendly, professional, and really know their stuff.  They made some improvements to our condo and we were very happy with how it played out.  Would definitely recommend them.

Clayton Eames

We just finished a large project air sealing and reinsulating our 1890s basement and attic. It had been completely renovated 8 years ago, but still felt cold, and lacked proper energy assessment and corrections. We met with Justin in December and were very impressed with his knowledge, professionalism and communication skills and knew Evergreen was who we wanted to work with. Dave was our on hands project manager and was excellent. The office staff has been quick to respond and helpful as well when needed.

E Gallant

Kennebunk

Working with Brian and with Nate and the rest of the crew was a pleasure. They made everything very easy and understandable. This was a major renovation and they were always at the ready with a lot of information. We had an extensive renovation on the basement which was a dirt basement and it came out beautifully. We can already tell from all of the insulation work what a difference it's made in sound and temperature. Brian worked with me on the rebates that are available when you do this kind of work. I would highly recommend this company to…

Valerie L.

Rockland

Portland Buy Local
Efficiency Maine
EPA Lead-Safe Certified
Building Performance Association
BPI Certified