This book is for people who want to know about the part energy plays in their lives. It is for people who want to know how their personal use of energy differs from others, and how the production and use of energy affects them. The book is also for people who make the government or business policies affecting household energy use, and need facts to guide them in understanding the consequences of what they do.

American households consume about one-third of the nation's energy each year directly in their homes and cars. Although households are major energy markets, most studies of energy have not been about household use or its effects on people. They have dealt chiefly with major issues of extraction, supply, production, conservation, and producers' costs. Also, they are often written for specialists, even when their significance for consumers is vital.

PROFILE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study, then, was first to find out about the relationship of energy use to people as consumers, and second to present the findings so that the public, and people who plan for the public, could understand and interpret them readily.

This approach to the study of energy was surprisingly difficult. We soon discovered that we were charting new ground by looking at individual household energy use nationwide and that we needed substantial help from physics, engineering, and architecture as well as from economics and the behavioral sciences to do the job.

Research that crosses disciplines is revealing, but it is hard to do and time consuming. Support for this study was generous, but time was wisely