York County, Maine
Licensed, insured electrical work for Old Orchard Beach homes and businesses, with the owner on every job.
Old Orchard Beach fits a seven-mile sand beach, an amusement park that dates to 1902 and a year-round population of about 9,200 into roughly seven and a half square miles of land on Saco Bay. That mix shapes the electrical work here: summer cottages that became year-round homes, small apartment houses with a row of meters on one wall, mobile homes and newer condominiums, all within reach of salt air and storm tides. Goodnow Electric serves the town from 51 Wilson Drive in Westbrook.
About 7,800 housing units stand in Old Orchard Beach, and roughly 1,760 of them are held for seasonal or occasional use, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Only about half are single-family detached houses; close to 15 percent sit in buildings of two to four units, and almost 10 percent are mobile homes. Age splits the stock in two. Nearly 23 percent of homes were built before 1940, in the era of wooden cottages and boarding houses, while more than half went up after 1980, which pulls the median year built to 1982. The older half is where 60-amp fuse boxes, cloth-covered cable, two-prong outlets and knob-and-tube circuits still turn up. With about 68 percent of homes owner-occupied, many buildings are rentals sharing a meter bank.
Fuel oil still heats about 48 percent of occupied homes, but the mix here is broader than in most of York County. Electricity is the main heat source in about 18.5 percent of homes, propane in about 16 percent and piped utility gas in about 12 percent, with wood a small remainder. Each oil boiler that gives way to cold-climate heat pumps adds a sizable 240-volt load to a panel that may already be full, and electrically heated condos and cottages already run close to their service limit on the coldest nights. Add an electric car and a heat-pump water heater, and a load calculation belongs at the start of the project.
Central Maine Power supplies the town, and the coastal exposure shows up every storm season. On January 13, 2024, the storm that set a record 14.57-foot tide in Portland pushed water through Old Orchard Beach streets: the fire chief reported about half a dozen water rescues, several roads were closed, Ocean Park was expected to be shut to traffic, and one resident found water about two feet deep on Sandpiper Street. Wind matters as much as water. The October 2017 nor'easter caused more than 400,000 outages across Maine, some lasting over a week. Flooded basements, salt-crusted meter sockets and wind-loaded service masts are the local pattern.
The town grew as a resort. Its first public house opened in 1829, a 1,825-foot steel pier went up in 1898, and Palace Playland traces its start to 1902. A 1907 fire destroyed most of the large hotels, and the 1978 blizzard took the pier, which was rebuilt in 1980. Ocean Park, at the Saco end of the beach, began as a Free Will Baptist camp meeting in 1881; its octagonal Temple and three neighboring buildings form a National Register district. Between them run streets of closely spaced cottages, motels and small inns, many of them now lived in all year.
Old Orchard Beach runs its own code enforcement office, which takes building, electrical, plumbing, sewer connection and sign permit applications, schedules inspections, and closes out a project with a certificate of occupancy after the final inspection. Seasonal and year-round rentals need a town business license. The town had to adopt new FEMA flood insurance rate maps and a floodplain management ordinance by July 17, 2024, replacing maps from 1984 and 1985, so equipment placement in low areas near the beach deserves a check. Work begun on or after July 1, 2026 falls under the 2026 National Electrical Code as adopted by the state.
Commercial, solar, smart home and new construction work are covered on our full list of electrical services.
Close to Old Orchard Beach, we also work in Saco, Scarborough, Biddeford, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth, and Kennebunk. Every town we serve is listed on our service area page.
Planning ahead? Read electrical planning for a new home in Southern Maine, whole-house vs. portable generators for Maine homes, and why LED lighting upgrades pay back fastest.
More resources: answers to common electrical questions, our generator sizing guide, and electrical tips and guides for Maine homeowners.
“I highly recommend Goodnow Electric! We had a couple of small issues at my mother's house, and my initial call was responded to quickly by Brett with a "can do". Before those little things were scheduled, another more concerning issue cropped up.”
Joyce Brown • May 2025 • Google Review
Tell us what you need done and where; a licensed electrician will reply with a written quote.
