Low-income Mainers can get help lowering water heater bills after regulator reverses ruling

Efficiency Maine appreciates the Bangor Daily News’ updates to the 7/2/2019 piece “Low-income Mainers can get help lowering water heater bills after regulator reverses ruling” in the online version, which clarify several claims attributed to Efficiency Maine in the published print version. These clarifications included: heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) were Efficiency Maine’s top measure for low income customers last year, but were not the top conservation measure among all the different kinds of measures we support. Efficiency Maine programs supported installation of more than 6,000 HPWH last year in total, but only about 500 of those were for low income homes.  Efficiency Maine believes that it has installed the highest number of HPWH per capita in the US, across all income levels, but we have not made that calculation as it relates to low-income homes.  Also, a HPWH can cut the usage of an electric water heater in half, but Efficiency Maine does not assert that a HPWH can cut a home’s entire electric bill in half. 

Thank you, BDN, for clarifying these details and for covering energy conservation issues in Maine. 

Low-income Mainers can get help lowering water heater bills after regulator reverses ruling