Tom & Jennifer never meant to live here. They bought the 1850s cape as a landing pad while they figured out where they really wanted to be. They didn’t paint the walls, and they didn’t worry about the drafts that kept the house cold and uncomfortable no matter how much oil and wood they burned... Read More
Marianne & Steve’s Cape Elizabeth home was “a bit of a mishmash” – a 1939 log cabin with additions completed in 1998 and 2011. The result was beautiful but drafty – and expensive to heat. “Our bedroom door would rattle when the wind blew,” reports Steve, and the upstairs office was “either... Read More
This lakeside cottage was the first of three identical summer camps built in Camden in 1909. It took 2.5 cords of wood and almost 800 gallons of propane to make the mostly uninsulated home livable year-round.
As Lee showed Evergreen’s President, Richard Burbank, around the house she’s lived in for twelve years, she realized how much energy efficiency has shaped the way she uses her home. “The consult revealed issues I hadn’t anticipated… I thought Evergreen would come in and tell me things, but they... Read More
Beth and Jon knew their energy bills would go up when they moved to a larger house, but “the amount of oil we used in a mild winter was really concerning.” To learn where their money was going, they scheduled a free one-hour consult with an Evergreen Energy Advisor.
This 1830s farmhouse in Rockport, Maine came with period charm and an overwhelming fuel bill: 750 gallons of oil, plus 6 cords of wood, plus all the electricity it took to power an inefficient old water heater. Even worse, all that didn’t even keep the house warm.
This lovingly maintained 1840s home in Belfast, Maine was cold – even when the homeowners spent a fortune trying to heat it – and complicated – especially in the cellar, where many of the comfort and efficiency problems originated.
John had been living with a cold house and high energy bills for so long that it felt normal, but when he heard about Efficiency Maine’s rebate program, he decided to call. “In Maine, anything we can do to combat the elements is worthwhile,” says John, “so I figured it would be worth looking into.”
This Greek Revival home in Belfast, Maine was built in 1842. Even with the thermostat set at a moderate level, it took 1500 gallons of oil, 150 gallons of propane, and “a whole lot of money” to heat the place. There were shallow puddles in the basement whenever it rained hard, which of course... Read More
This 1900 Gable-front home in sits on an acre of land in the middle of Camden, Maine. Burning 3 cords of wood and 550 gallons of propane kept the 1430 sq ft mostly warm, though some rooms were freezing while others boiled. Plus, “a furnace that ran all the time to heat the water” wasted much of... Read More
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Welcome to part three of our “Low Carbon Home Comfort” blog series! In this series, we’re reflecting on the real impact human activities are having on climate change — and focusing on what homeowners... Read more