Houses builit in New England within the last six years, equal to or exceeding energy-efficiency standards from Energy Crafted Homes (ECH) or from DOE's Energy Star Homes are temed energy-efficient for this study. An assumption is that people who purchase houses being newly constructed may requrest special features including more energy-efficient features. The average house being constructed today is not as energy-efficient as it could easily be (1); therefore, owners of recently constructed energy-efficient houses may be termed "early-adopters" of an innovation. It has been demonstrated that early adopters have different personal attitudes and perceptions of an innovation compared to later-adopters (2). Both types of adopters-owners of recently constructed energy-efficient or energy-inefficient houses, have been surveyed in New England to determine whether their differences are significant enough to be used in identifying future potential early-adopters. Solar houses also are usually energy-efficient, and should be termed an innovation.
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