Residential fuel choice in the rural: A field research on two counties of North China

Solid fuels are still widely used in rural China though the living standard has improved greatly. Energy poverty is an obvious indicator of poverty, which has serious effect on economic development, environment and health. In this paper, we conducted a detailed analysis on fuel choice and usage behavior of different end-use activities in rural residential energy consumption. Using 717 household observations from a micro survey data in two counties of Shandong and Hebei province in 2016, we find that biomass is the dominant fuel used for cooking among all energy sources despite of obvious trend of decrease in recent years, accounting for 44%. Clean energy used to cook increased markedly with a proportion of nearly 50%. Biomass is also the ordinary fuel used for water heating excerpt for solar energy. Almost 90% households rely on coal for space heating in winter, and one-third households have space heating less than 2 months. Ownerships of home appliances for basic needs is higher than that for hedonistic needs, and usage behaviors of some appliances are economical. Fuel accessibility of commercial energy has improved noticeably in rural, and the high proportion usage of biomass is affected by family income, using habits, local resources, environmental recognition, education and age. Since solid fuels are widely used in rural, it is important to cleanse biomass, develop new energy, and improve residents¡¯ cognition about the consequences of using solid fuels.