This paper presents the first results provided by an experimental set-up developed to estimate locally the terms of the energy balance associated with the high-cycle fatigue (HCF) of DP 600 steel. The experimental approach involves two quantitative imaging techniques: digital image correlation and infrared thermography. First, a variational method is used to derive stress fields from the displacement fields. Patterns of deformation energy per cycle can then be determined on the basis of stress and strain data. Second, a local form of the heat equation is used to derive separately the thermoelastic and dissipative sources accompanying HCF. Energy balances show that around 50 per cent of the deformation energy associated with the mechanical hysteresis loop is dissipated while the rest corresponds to stored energy variations.