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

Several years ago Brian Robinson evaluated the crawl space at my summer home on Islesboro where I knew moisture was becoming a problem. I had done quite a bit of work in the space many years prior with mixed results. When Brian offered some suggestions, they were ideas that incorporated work previously done, and would be a relatively low cost effort to improve the situation. He offered this advice over several phone conversations of some length, informally, and at no charge.

Cliff R.

Islesboro

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

Last week, my oil company asked if we were using some other kind of fuel because our usage was so much less than they had expected We are very happy with the results; the house is much more comfortable

Steve T.

St. George

I highly recommend Evergreen! 1st, I had a home efficiency inspection (that was free) & Bryan P. was great! He took the time needed, asked & listened to what I thought were priorities, explained clearly what he thought were priorities & why, then gave me numerous options. No pressure whatsoever. Then I had my attic sealed & insulated as the 1st step & Bryan came along on day 1 to introduce everyone & make sure we were all on the same page. Bruce's team (inc. Kelsey & Roland) did the work - they were exceptional!!

Melissa M.

Kennebunk

Great team!

George S.

Bath

My husband and I bought a home on the water in Owls Head and decided to make the investment in Evergreen's recommendations for insulation. Brian Robinson spent 3 hours examining every nook and cranny before he made practical suggestions and explained them thoroughly to us.

Marie McNeely

Owls Head

From beginning to end – that is from the moment Justin McEdward stepped into our home to assess our energy conservation needs until the crew left – the Evergreen Home Performance process went absolutely smoothly. Justin made a thorough inspection and took pictures with an infrared camera. His proposal described the scope of work in detail, and he explained what we could expect the proposed work to accomplish. Our proposal was forthcoming within a couple of days, and Justin was available to discuss it and answer questions.

Adrienne Harkavy

We couldn't be more pleased with the easy, professional, high-value service from Evergreen. Having purchased an older home that had been in our family for generations, we needed multiple upgrades, including insulation throughout. Evergreen insulated our attic with blown-in cellulose, built a new, super-insulated attic hatch, sealed off the old one (which was just a piece of plywood in a closet ceiling), and also talked us through our best options to upgrade our heating system given the plans we have to add onto the house.

Tom G.

South Thomaston

Working with Evergreen was a dream! Professional, knowledgeable, and super clean work. Communication was fast and service impeccable. The bedroom floors in our 1960's split ranch will be warm with the new insulation between them and the garage. Bring on the snow! (not really, but sort of)

Jess Dee Proctor

We are thrilled with the job Evergreen did to transform our 213 year old home into a warm, draft-free, cozy space. The entire team led by Bruce was prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, and hard working. If Evergreen could transform our home in this way, we are sure they would make a comparable difference in YOUR home!

Jonathan M.

Bridgton

Professional, friendly and hard-working staff. The product/approach they use for insulation is top notch. We felt the difference immediately, both from added warmth and eliminating drafts. The team and management were easily available to answer our questions or coordinate meeting times. Highly recommended.

Kevin J.

Yarmouth

Evergreen came back this year to finish insulating our house. We have been remodeling and renovating an 1850s cape for several years. Their employees are very professional and pleasant to deal with. Over several years Brian Robinson has been able to schedule us in for several small areas that needed addressing and finally turning a room we used to close off in the winter into a comfortable usable space. We primarily heat with wood and since Evergreens great work our furnace has only come on ONCE this winter. Fantastic. Really satisfied customer in Thomaston.

Chris F.

Thomaston

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

I am very pleased with my experience with Evergreen Home Performance. I met several times with Richard Burbank and he was very detailed in his explanations to all of my questions. He provided me with several options for improving the insulation to our home. The team of installers were very professional and respectful of our home. They did a great job of cleaning up every day after the days work and they were also very responsive to all my questions as well as we collaborated to get our home better insulated. It was a pleasure to work with Richard and…

Brian C.

Falmouth

Our basement was the eyesore of the house. I wanted to make improvements, but first needed to make structural, insulating and moisture mitigation improvements. Evergreen was professional and competent in taking on a complex project of not only encapsulation and insulation of basement and crawlspace, but completed needed improvements to the structural integrity of the wood floor platform above a crawlspace and brought in a concrete contractor to pour where there was once a rotting, tiered wood platform - replacing that area with a more functional and tight tiered concrete area.

Duane B.

East Boothbay

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