The status of household heating in northern China: a field survey in towns and villages

Household heating in China has been ignored in the formulation of national energy plans until concerns with severe air pollution emerged. The government has started to implement the clean heating with ambitious targets. However, the specific heating status is not clear, especially in rural areas, thus leading to significant obstacles to policy formulation and air pollution control. In order to understand the current heating conditions and heating behaviors of households in more detail, we conduct a field survey of household heating in towns and villages across northern China from December 2017 to March 2018. The survey results show that more than 75% of rural households still rely on traditional heating methods, such as coal, firewood, kang, and a simple stove. Household income, awareness of using heating fuels, and government subsidies may have a certain impact on heating fuel choice. In addition, approximately 34.6% of rural households do not use any housing insulation measures, which is also of concern when focusing on the heating quality. Lastly, considering the huge cost of rural household clean energy transition, we suggest that only a few regions are encouraged to turn to electricity or natural gas for heating, while most other regions transition to using clean coal and attach more importance to improving the quality of heating stoves.