Air to Water Heat Pumps

Matthew Tilas, Mitsubishi Electric
Joshua Oxley, Logix, LLC
This workshop will introduce homeowners to air-to-water heat pump technology. Attendees will learn how these highly energy-efficient systems can fit into their existing homes, if they currently use hydronic (water) heating such as hot water boilers or baseboard heat. As well as for new home construction.

Community Driven Home Energy Coaching

Jonathan Gagne, Greater Portland Council of Governments
Mika Heming, passivhausMAINE
Rozanna Patane, Energy coach
Meddy Smith, Energy coach

Energy Coaching programs are emerging in communities across Maine to help homeowners lower energy bills, improve comfort, and navigate home upgrades with confidence. While locally based, these programs share a common goal: providing trusted, neighbor-to-neighbor guidance. Learn how energy coaching works and how you can access support or help bring a program to your community.

Planting for Wildlife

Deb Perkins, First Light Wildlife Habitats
Learn from The Personal Ecologist about how to build native plant communities that support an array of species and promote biodiversity in your home habitat.

Core Strategies of High-Performance Construction

Erin Scally, passivhausMAINE
Learn about the four core performance strategies of a high-performance wall assembly with passivhausMAINE. phME will lead a presentation and demonstration centered on continuous thermal insulation, air sealing and smart penetrations, better windows and doors, and fresh air exchange systems. This workshop will explain how to connect walls, fenestration, roofs, and foundations into a consistent, high-performing building enclosure, and discuss how to spot risks early and sequence work correctly on site. Workshop attendees will learn how these systems work together to create durable, efficient, and healthy buildings.

DIY Weatherization and Ways to Button Up Your Home

Colin McCullough, All-Around Home Performance
There are plenty of simple and low-cost DIY projects to help make your house more comfortable and lower your energy costs year-round; come learn steps you can take in your own home to save money and improve comfort! Learn the tips and tricks, and ask your questions with a certified energy auditor to find out what DIY projects will have the biggest impact.

Efficiency Maine’s Residential Offerings

Andy Meyer, Efficiency Maine

Efficiency Maine offers rebates and loans for energysaving investments including EVs, heat pumps, weatherization and heat pump water heaters. Learn what they are, how to access them and web-based tools, including the contractor locator, cost of home heating calculator and cost of water heating calculator and EV charging station locator.

Creating Bird-Friendly Landscapes: Merging Bringing Nature Home & BirdSafe

Andrew Tufts, Maine Audubon

We’ll explores how to design landscapes that support native biodiversity while reducing hazards for birds. Combining the core principles of Bringing Nature Home with BirdSafe strategies, we’ll highlights the importance of native plants, habitat restoration, and mitigating threats like window collisions and light pollution. Learn practical ways to create safe, thriving environments for birds and other wildlife in your own backyards.

Green Home Investments That Could Add to Your Home’s Value at Resale...and Will Save You Money on Your Utility Bills!

Julia Bassett Schwerin, Maine Green Brokers at Advisors Living
Investing in green home improvements can earn you a rebate and cut your utility bills, but you can also see a return on your investment at the closing table. There are no guarantees and it depends on the type of investment, but there are reasonable assumptions backed by encouraging studies for big ticket items (think whole home heat pumps and rooftop solar, not a low-flow shower head). Get the latest data along with pro tips on increasing your return on resale.

Permaculture - Visions of Perennial Culture

Jesse Labbe-Watson, Maine Ecological Design School
Permaculture is much more than an ecosystem design tool. While most people understand that permaculture can be used to design an edible landscape, garden or farm; the potential impact is much greater. We will discuss the evolution of human society in an uncertain future and how permaculture can help us design cultural and food-producing systems that may survive and thrive outside of “field cultivation” and empire.

Tips to improve home air quality

Christy Crocker, Maine Indoor Air Quality Council
Learn easy, practical measures you can take in your own home to reduce your exposure to common indoor pollutants such as mold, radon, particulate matter, and more.

We don’t need no stinkin’ generators: Power through outages with electric vehicles instead!

Chuck Hayward, ReVision Energy
Are you tired of loud generators or refilling gas tanks when you lose power during storms? In this session, you’ll learn how you can ditch the generator and use an EV to silently power your home through extended outages. We’ll cover cheap, simple options to replace portable generators all the way to fancy, whole-home integrated systems.

Solar and New Construction

Tod Brackett, Maine Solar Solutions

Planning a new home in Maine? In this presentation from Maine Solar Solutions, we walk through everything you need to know about installing solar during new construction — from system design and roof orientation to costs, timelines, and electrical prep. Learn how to make your new home solar-ready from the start for a cleaner, more efficient future.

How to Transition Your Yard to Natives

Amy Thomas, Restoration ecologist

Wild Ones Midcoast Maine

Join us for an engaging workshop on the process of transitioning your garden to native plants. Featuring sample gardens before, during, and after their transition to natives, examples of residential and permaculture gardens, and meadow restoration. Take part in a seed sowing and growing demonstration and learn how to source quality native plants.

Heating the Whole Home with Heat Pumps
Sponsor case study

Nick Moore, Dave’s World Heating & Cooling
What do I need to consider when I make the move to heating my whole home with heat pumps? We will cover what this means to you now and how the new Efficiency Maine rebates impact the next 100,000 heat pumps that will be installed in our beautiful state of Maine.

Building Science 101

Emily Mottram, Mottram + Maines

An author of the Pretty Good House book will share some of the basics behind modern building science, followed by Q&A. Bring your questions, or just come to soak it all in!

Creative Ways to Reinvest in Your Property with an ADU

Chris Lee, Backyard ADUs
Julien Jalpert, Knickerbocker Group

Join us for a panel discussion and Q&A with representatives from Backyard ADUs, Knickerbocker Group Prefab Pods, and BrightBuilt Home as we explore ADU infrastructure, construction techniques, zoning, and creative ways to approach financing.

We Aren’t Getting Any Younger

Helen Watts, Helen Watts Engineering PLLC

Most people want to age-in-place, in familiar homes and communities. This session is about what you should do, one step at a time, to make staying put work better with getting older. Ms. Watts is Chair of the Board at Pejepscot Terrace, a 114-unit low-income elderly community in Brunswick.

Secondhand First Design: Why Reuse Belongs in Every Green Home Conversation

Daniel Salomon, Second Story Builders

Megan Mansfield-Pryor, Maine Department of Environmental Protection

Why do we talk so much about efficient systems — and so little about the materials we throw away to install them? This session challenges a major blind spot in green building by focusing on embodied carbon, demolition waste, and the untapped potential of reclaimed building materials. Homeowners will learn why reuse is the greenest material choice available, how deconstruction preserves value instead of destroying it, and how a “secondhand first” mindset can dramatically reduce a project’s environmental impact while supporting Maine’s growing reuse economy.