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Well-built houses last for centuries. Today’s decisions during construction of a new home can affect your grandchildren’s grandchildrens’ energy bills.

If you were building a new house for maximum energy efficiency, what innovative technologies could you add during construction that wouldn’t add much to its cost today, but would keep energy costs down over its lifetime?

Metering and monitoring: Design the electric circuits to monitor energy consumption. Incorporate the ability to monitor each outlet or hard-wired appliance and to turn each device or outlet on and off from a centra...