Heat Pump Replacement & Upgrades
in Scarborough, Maine

About 15% of occupied Scarborough homes list electricity as their main heating fuel in the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2020–2024), a share that folds together heat pumps and electric baseboard. Both are replacement candidates. Baseboard turns each unit of electricity into one unit of heat, while a heat pump moves heat from outdoors and delivers more than it consumes, so swapping baseboard for heat pumps is often the quickest way to shrink a winter electric bill. Older heat pumps, meanwhile, may predate the cold-climate models now rated to keep heating well below 0°F.

Every replacement visit starts with a look at what is already there. We check the outdoor unit's base pan, coil fins and mounting, test the controls, and inspect the existing refrigerant line set. Copper that holds a pressure test and matches the new unit's requirements can be reused, which spares interior walls; anything doubtful is replaced rather than gambled on. If the old condenser sits low or in a spot where roof snow lands on it, the upgrade is the right time to move it. See heat pump replacement and upgrades for how that visit works. We service every brand, whoever installed it.

For the nearly half of homes on oil and the roughly one in five on propane, an upgrade means deciding what happens to the old boiler or furnace. Under Efficiency Maine's whole-home rules as of mid-2026, it may stay only as emergency backup, never as a routine second stage, and dual-fuel combinations do not qualify. Efficiency Maine also excludes from the whole-home rebate any unit that was a gas utility customer before the work, a real constraint in a town where Unitil runs gas service. Ducted, supplemental and multi-family rebates exist too, with details at efficiencymaine.com. Program terms can change, so check there before you plan.

Financing and timing round it out. The federal 25C credit for heat pumps no longer applies to anything placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a 2026 project leans on the state rebate and, if useful, the Efficiency Maine Home Energy Loan; our heat pump financing options page explains both. Rebate claims are due within six months of completion, and the work must be done by a Residential Registered Vendor, which Southern Maine Heat Pumps is. Before any of that, we can tell you which rebate path fits your house and what paperwork the income-based tiers will ask you to gather. If you are closer to the Saco line, our Saco replacement page covers that side of the river.