Save on heating fuel. Keep your home temperature lower than last winter. Don't leave the windows open. Pleas such as this from the government, business, or conservation groups can have an impact on energy use. The basic level of household energy use for heating, however, is determined by the climate and by the structure of the dwelling itself. Once location is decided, climate is virtually outside the household's control. The fabrication of the dwelling is usually outside the family's control as well, for most people live in homes built long before they moved in. Even families buying a new house have little say about design. Their new home is more likely one of a dozen or more mass produced for sale by a developer rather than one they had built for themselves.

Consumers have more discretion in appliance use, but even here they are limited by what is already in the home and by what additional or replacement appliances they can afford. Important also is the lack of information about appliance energy use.

This chapter is concerned with the role of consumer choice in home energy use. The following chapter deals with energy used outside the home in travel and the options people have in that sphere. Home energy use accounts for over half of all personal energy consumption. The remainder (46 percent) is consumed in travel.

Within the home, space heating is the most important energy user. Space heating accounts for almost a third of all personal energy use. Water heating is a distant second, using about one-tenth of all personal energy. Cooking and refrigerating each use about 3 percent. Other appliances and lighting account for the remaining 9 percent (see Table 3-1).