[en] In this paper we construct emission measure curves for average coronal hole and quiet-Sun spectra taken during the Skylab mission with the Harvard College Observatory spectroheliometer. These curves are then used to discuss the implications for the energy balance in each region. We find that the coronal hole spectrum shows a smaller slope in the emission measure distribution, consistent with the expected expect effects of outflows. Models of constant cross section coronal loops with radiative losses balanced by the divergence of the thermal conduction flux predict an emission measure rise between 10⁵ K and 10⁶ K, consistent with the average quiet-Sun observations, but not with the cell center or network emission measure distributions