Everyone uses energy
People use energy each day for transportation, cooking, heating and cooling rooms, manufacturing, lighting, entertainment, and many other uses. The choices people make about how they use energy—turning machines off when they're not using them or choosing to buy fuel-efficient vehicles and energy-efficient appliances—affects the environment and everyone's lives.
Did you know?
The ENERGY STAR® label on appliances and electronic equipment identifies energy-efficient products.
Efficiency and conservation are different but related
The terms energy conservation and energy efficiency have two distinct meanings. There are many ways people can use less energy (conservation) and many ways people can use energy more wisely (efficiency).
Energy conservation is any behavior that results in the use of less energy. Turning the lights off when leaving the room and recycling aluminum cans are both ways of conserving energy.
Energy efficiency is the use of technology that requires less energy to perform the same function. Using a compact fluorescent light bulb that requires less energy rather than using an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light is an example of energy efficiency.