York County, Maine
Licensed, insured electrical work for North Berwick homes and businesses, with the owner on every job.
North Berwick began as a mill village at Doughty Falls on the Great Works River and grew into a railroad town after 1842. Today about 5,100 people live here, in a compact village of 19th-century houses and mill buildings surrounded by farmland, woods and newer homes along the roads to Sanford and Wells. Goodnow Electric, a licensed Maine master electrician based in Westbrook, provides panel upgrades, EV chargers, standby generators, rewiring, lighting and 24/7 emergency service here, with the owner on site for every job.
North Berwick's roughly 2,200 homes split into two eras. Census estimates show about 24 percent built before 1940, largely in and around the village, and about 30 percent built since 2000, most of them in the countryside. The median year built is 1983. Close to 89 percent of homes are owner-occupied and about 85 percent are single-family detached houses, with only about 6 percent in two- to four-unit buildings. For an electrician that means two very different jobs. The older village houses can still hold knob-and-tube wiring, fuse panels and 60- or 100-amp services added on over a century. The newer houses usually have modern panels but face new loads from heat pumps, EVs and well pumps that the original service was not sized for.
Heating oil warms about 58 percent of occupied homes in North Berwick, and propane about 25 percent, a higher share than in Sanford, Alfred, Lyman or Dayton. Electricity heats about 6 percent and wood about 8 percent; the Census counts no homes on utility gas. That fuel mix points in two directions. Oil households moving to heat pumps add a large electric load, and the town's electrical permit form lists mini-splits and heat pumps as their own item. Propane households already have fuel on site for a standby generator. Efficiency Maine's off-peak charger incentive also takes $400 off a qualifying Level 2 EV charger.
Central Maine Power serves North Berwick; the town's electrical permit application asks for a CMP work number on service jobs. Outside the village, homes sit on long, wooded roads where one fallen tree can take out a whole line. The October 2017 windstorm left more than 400,000 Maine customers without power, some for over a week, and the December 2023 storm caused about 300,000 outages in Maine. The North Berwick Water District serves almost 700 customers over 17 miles of main, out of about 2,000 occupied homes in town, so many houses depend on a private well pump that stops the moment the power does.
The village still shows its industrial past. The brick woolen mill on Canal Street, rebuilt in 1862 after a fire and later used as the Parrish Shoes factory in the 1995 film Jumanji, is listed on the National Register as the North Berwick Woolen Mill, as is the Hussey Plow Company building on Dyer Street, home of the firm that became Hussey Seating. Houses on Elm, High and Wells streets carry National Register listings of their own. Beyond the village, the town rises to 866-foot Bauneg Beg Mountain and Bauneg Beg Pond, with the Great Works and Negutaquet rivers draining the land between.
North Berwick issues its own electrical permits under a town Electrical Ordinance, adopted in 2001 and amended in 2016, that adopts the State of Maine's current National Electrical Code provisions. The Code Enforcement Officer reviews permits, which can take up to 10 business days, and a permit is required before any work starts; fees double for work done without one. Rough and final inspections need at least 48 hours' notice. The same office enforces shoreland zoning and the town's floodplain management ordinance. Goodnow Electric files the permit with the CMP work number and schedules each inspection.
Commercial, solar, smart home and new construction work are covered on our full list of electrical services.
Close to North Berwick, we also work in Berwick, Sanford, Wells, South Berwick, Lebanon, and Alfred. Every town we serve is listed on our service area page.
Before you call, it can help to read whole-house vs. portable generators for Maine homes, why LED lighting upgrades pay back fastest, and electrical planning for a new home in Southern Maine.
More resources: answers to common electrical questions, our generator sizing guide, and electrical tips and guides for Maine homeowners.
“We had a major issue happen near Easter, we called multiple people, this company was right on ball calling us back. He is amazing, instead of making us feel insecure he assured us that we was in right direction, took time out of his own day to answer us after hours and even called back for a follow…”
Patricia Ranks • July 2026 • Google Review
Tell us what you need done and where; a licensed electrician will reply with a written quote.
