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V O L . X X X N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 1 9 , 2 0 2 4 20 E N E R G Y / E N V I RO N M E N T Consumers are noticing. "We are leading the nation in installing heat pumps," says Stoddard. "at's a testa- ment to the excellent work of the contractors in Maine, who go into communities and market the advantages of heat pumps and do a good job of installing and servicing them, as well as to the savvy of consumers, who make an effort to keep themselves informed about different types of technologies, different fuels and what they cost. And they like what they see when they see heat pumps." Accordingly, the industry is growing as existing HVAC companies switch to or add the product and new companies come online, many offering on–the- job training or collaborating with manufacturers and higher education. Efficiency Maine provides scholarships for community college courses. Over 500 heat pump installers are registered with Efficiency Maine — far more than many other states, says Stoddard. Josh Tucker, owner of Valley Home Services in Hermon, is another top installer, with nearly 40 employees and two locations. Like Keith, Tucker took heat pump classes in 2012 and tested his skills on a family member. "My sister was building a house and she was our first customer," he says. e first year, he averaged two or three units per week. Last year, it was 70 to 80. "People love them," he says. Commercial growth About half of Avesta Housing's properties utilize heat pump technology of some form, accord- ing to Todd Rothstein, the nonprofit's director of construction. e installation of "packaged" units at its recently completed Porter Station affordable housing devel- opment in Portland required diligence throughout the design process "to make sure things were appro- priately sized, that we had the right ventilation and outputs, and more," says Avesta's senior develop- ment officer, Catherine Elliott. She continues, "One challenge was that the packaged units have a couple of building penetra- tions for each one and therefore lose a fair amount of air through the building envelope; this makes it harder to get a good blower door test result. We had to do a lot of extra testing and air sealing around the units to ensure we still hit the necessary build- ing performance thresholds." Scarborough, ME // Pittsseld, ME // Auburn, NH AAAENERGY.COM Contact us to learn about customized HVAC-R service plans for your facility. Building efficiency. It's what we do. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E P H O T O / T R E N T B E L L Heat pumps are part of the new Portland Commons residential hall at the University of Southern Maine. F O C U S P H O T O / AV E S TA H O U S I N G Catherine Elliott, senior development officer at Avesta Housing

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