Cumberland County, Maine
Licensed, insured electrical work for New Gloucester homes and businesses, with the owner on every job.
New Gloucester is a farm and forest town on the Royal River, stretched along Routes 4, 26, 231 and 202 at the northern edge of Cumberland County. It has more oil-heated homes, proportionally, than any other town in the county, which makes it a place where electrification changes a lot. Goodnow Electric, a Maine master electrician working out of Westbrook, brings those oil-to-electric service changes, along with chargers, backup power, rewiring, lighting and emergency repairs, to New Gloucester and files the town permit for each.
New Gloucester's roughly 5,800 residents live in about 2,300 homes, per 2020-2024 Census estimates, and its housing is the youngest in Cumberland County, with a middle build year of 1991: a third of it dates from the 1980s and 1990s and 31 percent more from 2000 on. The older end still matters: about 11 percent predate 1940, including village houses and farmhouses that may hold fuse boxes and knob-and-tube wiring. Less expected is how many homes, about one in five, are in duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes, a share only Portland and Westbrook beat in the county. Mobile homes make up about 8 percent. Almost none of the housing is seasonal.
No Cumberland County town leans on oil as hard: about 68 percent of occupied New Gloucester homes burn it. Wood covers about 13 percent, propane about 9 percent and electricity about 8 percent, while utility gas reaches only about 1 percent. That profile means the town's electrical future runs through heat pumps: each boiler traded for heat pumps puts January demand on wiring planned around a burner motor and a few appliances. Commuters bound for Portland, Lewiston or Auburn add car charging, and Efficiency Maine's $400 charger rebate rewards units that stay idle through the weekday evening peak.
Central Maine Power serves New Gloucester, mostly over overhead lines along wooded roads that link New Gloucester village, Upper Gloucester and the Shaker Village at Sabbathday Lake. Those roads went dark in both of the region's defining storms, the October 2017 windstorm that set Maine's weather-outage record at more than 400,000 customers and the March 2024 ice storm that cut roughly 200,000 CMP accounts. Part of town drinks from the New Gloucester Water District; the rest pumps its own well water, so losing power there means no heat and no water at once.
New Gloucester was settled under a 1736 Massachusetts grant by families from Gloucester, Massachusetts, and incorporated on March 8, 1774. It served as a half shire town with Portland from 1791 to 1805, and its nineteenth-century economy ran on sawmills, gristmills and tanneries. The Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, founded in 1783 and formally organized in 1794, is the last Shaker community still run by the Shakers themselves, with 18 buildings on 1,800 acres. The New Gloucester Historic District is on the National Register, and the Royal River runs through town.
New Gloucester handles electrical permitting in town. The Code Enforcement Office lists an Electrical Permit Application among its permit forms, alongside building, plumbing and shoreland applications, and describes its duties as permitting new structures and inspecting buildings, septic systems, plumbing and shoreland projects. Permits can be started through the town's online permitting portal. Jobs started in town from July 1, 2026 on are held to the 2026 NEC, the edition Maine's electricians' board chose. Goodnow Electric files the New Gloucester permit and schedules the inspection and the CMP disconnect and reconnect for service work.
Commercial, solar, smart home and new construction work are covered on our full list of electrical services.
Close to New Gloucester, we also work in Gray, Pownal, North Yarmouth, Raymond, Cumberland, and Freeport. Every town we serve is listed on our service area page.
Before you call, it can help to read what smart home wiring is worth doing in Maine, why Southern Maine homes outgrow 100-amp panels, and a Maine homeowner's guide to EV charger installation.
More resources: answers to common electrical questions, our generator sizing guide, and electrical tips and guides for Maine homeowners.
“Absolutely a fantastic experience!!! Had a complicated request for them and they didn’t even flinch to do the project!! Employees were on time, polite and engaged. I’m retired but wish I had had employees like Brett’s when I was in business!!! Thanks to all!!”
Chris Cantara • November 2025 • Google Review
Tell us what you need done and where; a licensed electrician will reply with a written quote.
