Efficient use of electricity in each of the sectors of the national economy is becoming increasingly important. Energy efficiency refers concerns both the wider energy and climate policy, as well as being important determinant of the cost of manufacturing companies (and therefore their profits) and of the socio-economic development. The consequence of the irrational use of energy is excessive consumption of energy resources, the problems of environmental pollution and reduced competitiveness of domestic enterprises in the global markets. From the point of view of an individual customer's — energy efficiency is one of the main means to reduce the share of the cost of electricity in the household budget. In recent years the European Commission has made a lot of efforts to reduce energy consumption in households, among other things: promotion of efficient lighting, subsidies to domestic micro-RES installations, energy labelling of household appliances and wide liberalization of the electricity market. The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of energy use in Polish households in comparison to selected countries of the European Union in the context of European energy policy.