The energy consumption of the wireless communication systems is starting to be unaffordable. One way to improve the power consumption is the optimization of the communication techniques used by the communication networks and devices. In order to develop an energy efficient UWB multi-user communication system, the choice of modulation and multi access technique is important. This paper compares two Ultra-wideband multi-user techniques, i.e. the DS-UWB and the TH-UWB in the case of the Nakagami-m fading channel. For the DS-UWB technique, the orthogonal (T-OVSF, ZCD) and non-orthogonal (Kasami) codes are used. For TH-UWB, authors consider different modulations (PPM, PSM, PAM). This comparison allows choosing the best solution in terms of energy consumption, data rate and communication range. Two different studies are realized to find the most efficient technique to use. In the first study, the same number of users for the different type of codes (data rate values) is chosen and the total energy consumption for several distances and path-loss coefficient is computed. In the second one, the multiusers effects (same data rate) for various values of distances and path-loss are evaluated.