An interdisciplinary approach towards a detailed assessment of energy consumption in urban space-heating and cooling is presented in terms of measurement and modeling results. Modeling efforts concentrated on the city of Minneapolis, MN, using data from the winter seasons 1977/78 and 1978/79. Further developments of a reference model also fall back on data from Cheyenne, WY, and Greeley, CO. Mean absolute daily errors of gas consumption estimated by the physical model applied to Minneapolis are 6.26% when compared to actual energy usage for the period 12/1/77 to 2/28/78. The mean daily absolute errors for the statistical reference model for the same time period were 5.54%. Modeling of the energy consumption required detailed input of meteorological parameters from a special network of stations. As a spin-off an assessment was obtained of the effects of anthropogenic heat on urban heat-island generation under various synoptic conditions. A detailed building census, comprised of 105.722 heated structures, was obtained. A field survey in Greeley indicated that investment returns from insulating houses might not be as high as hoped for; possibly a considerable amount of insulating material is applied wastefully. Misinformation seems to be the primary cause of misguided energy conservation. Progress in conservation could be achieved if utility costs were considered in mortgage-loan applications, together with principal, interests, taxes, and insurance. Detailed energy-consumption modeling would be a premise for such fiscal-management approaches. Another extensive field survey yielded data for a local input-output model applied to the city of Greeley. Economic multipliers for dollars of output, space heating, energy use, and employment were developed and used for growth projections to the year 2003 under varying scenarios.