Home energy loans
Unsecured loans for Maine property owners installing heat pumps or improving insulation and air sealing, with an income-based repayment option.
Borrow for heat pumps that heat and cool your home, or attic, wall and basement insulation and air sealing in areas heated throughout the heating season. Electrical panel and service upgrades needed for an eligible heat pump can be included. Health and safety work, such as addressing mould, radon or moisture, can be financed only when required to install an eligible upgrade, and must account for no more than 25% of the total financed amount.
Choose from four repayment options. The standard loans offer up to $25,000 over one year at 0% annual percentage rate (APR), five years at 5.99% APR, or ten years at 7.99% APR. The income-based option offers up to $7,500 over ten years at 5.99% APR. These are published current rates, subject to change; once agreed, the rate is fixed and interest uses the simple-interest Actual/360 method, which counts actual days against a 360-day year. Each option requires monthly payments of principal and interest.
The one-year option carries a $500 origination fee; the other options have no origination fee. All have no application or early-repayment fee. A payment rejected for insufficient funds carries a $25 fee per occurrence. The late-payment fee is the smaller of 5% of the amount due and $10.
Your loan cannot exceed eligible project costs after subtracting the anticipated rebate. Receiving a rebate is not itself required. Efficiency Maine pays your registered contractor directly after project completion; you repay the loan. No lien on your home or equipment is required, but rebates or incentives payable to you from Efficiency Maine secure the loan. Efficiency Maine will notify you and your contractor if it exercises its right over those payments.
An extra payment towards principal reduces the remaining monthly payments while the original maturity date and payment schedule stay in place.
Eligibility
- You must own or have an ownership interest in the project property. Both that property and your principal residence must be in Maine; they do not have to be the same property. Eligible buildings are single-family houses, two-unit duplexes, mobile homes and condo units. Individual ownership includes married couples filing jointly and single-member LLCs; multiple individual owners qualify as partnership property owners. If you use more than one residence, the property used for most of the year ordinarily counts as your principal residence.
- For the three standard options, the maximum debt-to-income ratio is 55% and the minimum average FICO credit score is 620. For the income-based option, the limits are 70% and 580. The debt-to-income ratio compares debt obligations with income; Efficiency Maine assesses your ability to repay through its credit review. Past delinquency, default or a write-off may lead to refusal. Your total unsecured borrowing capacity across Efficiency Maine Green Bank residential programmes is also limited by your creditworthiness: up to $25,000 at the 55%/620 criteria, or $7,500 at the relaxed 70%/580 criteria.
- For the income-based option, you or a member of your household at your principal residence must first receive Efficiency Maine’s low- or moderate-income verification approval. It must have been issued within the year before you start the loan application. The verification form includes low-income routes through a household member’s participation in HEAP heating assistance, SNAP food assistance, TANF cash assistance or income-based MaineCare medical coverage. Its moderate-income route uses federal adjusted gross income: up to $70,000 for single or head-of-household filers, or $100,000 for married couples filing jointly or separately and qualifying surviving spouses. Married couples filing separately must provide both returns. The form also offers a separately qualified Mobile Home Initiative route.
- An Efficiency Maine Residential Registered Vendor must install the work. Heat pumps combined with fossil-fuel heating as a dual-fuel system are excluded. Insulation and air sealing cannot be part of building a new home or addition, and windows are excluded. Financing covers prospective eligible upgrades, rather than already completed work.
How to apply
- Status
- Open continuously
- Round restrictions
- Income-based loan applicants need income verification approval issued within the year before starting the loan application.
For the income-based option, request approval through Efficiency Maine’s income-based eligibility verification form before starting your loan application.
Apply through the Efficiency Maine Green Bank portal linked from the official loan page. Create an account if you do not already have one, then follow the customer portal’s financing instructions. Efficiency Maine performs a credit review for every application, and you must sign a loan agreement and promissory note; incomplete information may delay or disqualify your application.
You and your contractor must sign the project work scope and the project completion certification. Unless Efficiency Maine expressly provides otherwise in writing at its discretion, you must complete the loan documents within 60 days after executing the Credit Authorization document, and install the project within 120 days after receiving the Notice to Proceed. The work must meet applicable programme requirements. Payment goes directly to the contractor after project completion. Programmes and incentives may change or end.