In this study seismic analyses of steel structures were carried out to examine the effect of ground motion characteristics and structural properties on energy demands using 100 earthquake ground motions recorded in different soil conditions, and the results were compared with those of previous works. Analysis results show that ductility ratios and the site conditions have significant influence on input energy. The ratio of hysteretic to input energy is considerably influenced by the ductility ratio and the strong motion duration. It is also observed that as the predominant periods of the input energy spectra are significantly larger than those of acceleration response spectra used in the strength design, the strength demand on a structure designed based on energy should be checked especially in short period structures. For that reason framed structures with buckling-restrained-braces (BRBs) were designed in such a way that all the input energy was dissipated by the hysteretic energy of the BRBs, and the results were compared with those designed by conventional strength-based design procedure.