That's precisely what got me into Linux desktop as well. After trying out dozens or so distros, my beaten up Asus laptop kept running absurdly hot (like 80 degrees celsius). elementary OS 0.2 (Luna) was lightweight enough that it was the first distro I've tried that I could actually use as a daily driver.

I've been using elementary OS since. I've tried some other distros, but those experiences usually ended up with me trying to recreate elementary feeling, failing, and then returning back to elementary OS a couple of weeks later.