SOUTH PORTLAND – Low-income Mainers looking to hold down their winter fuel bills by adding insulation and weather-stripping to their homes will be getting more help from the federal government, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday.

Federal and state officials visited a single-family home slated for weatherization to announce that the Bush administration has included more than $3.7 million in weatherization funds for Maine in its 2004 budget.

The grants, which will improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of Maine homes, will be handled through the Maine State Housing Authority’s Office of Energy and Housing Services.

“At current production rates, weatherization decreases national energy consumption by the equivalent of 15 million barrels of oil every year,” said Doug Faulkner, principal deputy assistant secretary in the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.