Cumberland County, Maine
Licensed, insured electrical work for North Yarmouth homes and businesses, with the owner on every job.
North Yarmouth is almost entirely single-family houses on rural lots, strung along Routes 9, 115 and 231 around the village of Walnut Hill. Oil still heats most of them, many draw water from their own wells, and every one depends on overhead lines through the woods. For those homes, Goodnow Electric, holder of Maine master electrician license MS60021971, takes on panel work, EV chargers, backup generators, rewiring, lighting and emergency calls at any hour of the day or night.
About 94 percent of North Yarmouth's roughly 1,610 homes are single-family detached houses, one of the highest shares anywhere in the county, and about 87 percent are owner-occupied, according to the American Community Survey. The median home was built in 1983. Building peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, which account for about a third of the stock, and roughly 23 percent is newer than 2000. Roughly 13 percent predate 1940, and about a quarter were built from 1960 to 1979. Electrically, that means a lot of 1980s and 1990s homes with 150- or 200-amp panels that are now thirty to forty years old, alongside older houses where 100-amp services, fuses and ungrounded circuits still turn up.
Heating oil is the fuel in about 60 percent of North Yarmouth's occupied homes, a higher share than in Yarmouth, Cumberland, Gray or Pownal in the ACS data. Propane heats about 15 percent, electricity about 12 percent, and wood about 6 percent; utility gas accounts for under 5 percent. That makes the town a clear candidate for heat pump conversions, and each one shifts heating load from an oil tank onto the electric service. Add an EV charger for the drive down Route 9 or Route 115, and a 1980s panel that has been adequate for forty years can quickly run short of capacity.
Central Maine Power serves North Yarmouth over long overhead lines through wooded country, so wind and ice are the main threats. On December 18, 2023, the National Weather Service office in neighboring Gray recorded a 58 mph gust, and by that evening about 40 percent of the region's electric customers were out. The October 30, 2017 windstorm left more than 400,000 Maine outages, some lasting over a week, and the 1998 ice storm cut power to roughly 700,000 Maine residents. Because many homes rely on private wells, an outage here stops the water as well as the heat.
North Yarmouth is the parent town of the area: incorporated in 1680 and resettled for good in 1713, it later gave up Harpswell, Freeport, Pownal, Cumberland and Yarmouth as separate towns. What remains is about 21 square miles of largely rural land with Walnut Hill as its main village, where the 1839 First Congregational Church stands at the corner of Gray Road and New Gloucester Road. The town has a Village Center Master Plan to guide new investment there. The aquifers that supply the Yarmouth Water District lie within North Yarmouth.
North Yarmouth issues its own electrical permits. The town's Code Enforcement Office, at the Town Office on Village Square Road, states that the code enforcement officer issues all plumbing, electrical and building permits and performs inspections after installation. The town's permit guide lists an electrical permit as required for a new house, a new multi-family dwelling, an additional dwelling unit, and any addition or finished basement that adds electricity. Permits can be emailed, dropped off or mailed to the office. Work begun on or after July 1, 2026 is judged against the 2026 edition of the National Electrical Code, which the state electricians' board has adopted.
Commercial, solar, smart home and new construction work are covered on our full list of electrical services.
Close to North Yarmouth, we also work in Yarmouth, Cumberland, Pownal, Gray, New Gloucester, and Freeport. Every town we serve is listed on our service area page.
Homeowners here often read why LED lighting upgrades pay back fastest, electrical planning for a new home in Southern Maine, and whole-house vs. portable generators for Maine homes.
More resources: answers to common electrical questions, our generator sizing guide, and electrical tips and guides for Maine homeowners.
“Fantastic service. Not only were they on top of getting the work done as quickly as they could, their pricing was more than fair, and they communicated clearly and effectively through the whole process. Genuinely couldn't be happier with them.”
Joseph Smith • May 2026 • Google Review
Tell us what you need done and where; a licensed electrician will reply with a written quote.
