Theheating appliances in rural areas of China are mainly kangs and stoves for a long time. The appliances can produce indoor thermal environment but has poor efficiency during winter. At the present, farmers in relatively underdeveloped western rural areas of China cannot afford household heating in economy. Therefore, how to use appropriate technology to improve the thermal comfort in bedroom without increasing fuel use and economic burden becomes an urgent problem to be solved. As the weather is cold in the winter in the loess hilly region of western China, space heating becomes a necessary demand for rural households. Kang is the main method of heating in rural households of this region. Suspended kang (a new type of kang) can not only improve indoor thermal comfort, but also reduce the consumption and the ecological environment destruction. Suspended kangs were constructed in 6 rural houses and traditional kangs (a heatable brick bed) were constructed in 4 rural houses respectively in 2 villages in Zhuanglang County. The suspended kang was raised above the floor on columns, which was different from traditional kang on the ground. The daily amounts of fuel used for the suspended kang and traditional kang were recorded respectively, and the data on rural household energy use were obtained by questionnaires, in which the quality of fuel was weighted, and the behavior and the way of energy use of farmers were observed. Besides, the continuous time series temperature data from kang’s surface, indoor and outdoor in the bedrooms of suspended kangs and traditional kangs were obtained by instrumental recording. And based on improving indoor thermal comfort, reducing farmers’ economic expenditure and influence on ecological environment, the environment-economic benefit of suspended kang was analyzed, which was prerequisite for popularizing suspended kang in large scale. Hence, a mathematical model was designed utilizing the energy use data to estimate environmental and economic costs for suspended kang and traditional kang respectively. The application of suspended kang was also reviewed. The results showed that the energy type structure of 2 villages was crop straw, fire grass, firewood, animal dung, coal, electricity, biogas and solar energy. Energy use structure of 2 villages included cooking, heating kang, furnace, lighting, household appliances and cleaning. Heating kang could account for the largest proportion in the total energy consumption of 2 villages. However, energy use amount for lighting, household appliances and cleaning for improving life quality was relatively small. Obviously, the low level of energy consumption in the loess hilly region of western China needed to be optimized in the future. In addition, an annual environmental and economic benefit per household for suspended kang was from 821.5 to 836.99 yuan in Gaoyahan Village, and was from 897.47 to 919.41 yuan in Xiawan Village. About annual 72.4497-81.0846 million yuan environmental and economic benefit would be generated from suspended kangs used by all the rural households in Zhuanglang County. Therefore, it is promising to improve the utilizing rate of suspended kang for its significant environmental and economic benefit. In addition, it can promote the advances of rural energy technology, protect the ecological environment, and reduce energy consumption and waste gas emission.%节能吊炕在改善室内热舒适性的同时，降低农户的经济支出和生态环境的破坏。通过在甘肃庄浪县2个村的6户农家建造新式节能吊炕，与4户使用传统炕的农户一起进行燃料使用与温度观测记录；并结合农户用能现状问卷调查，获取数据，建立经济计量模型，对吊炕产生的环境经济效益进行分析与评价；最后对其推广前景进行展望。结果表明，高崖韩村吊炕户平均每户每年产生的总环境经济效益为836.99元，下湾村吊炕户平均每户每年产生的总环境经济效益为919.41元。若对庄浪县所有农户都推广使用节能吊炕，全县每年将会产生7381.58～8108.46万元/a的环境经济总效益。节能吊炕具有显著的环境经济效益和良好的推广前景，是现阶段提高农户冬季取暖用能水平、降低经济支出的有效途径，对农村用能技术的改进、生态环境的改善、温室气体的减排、具有重要的理论和现实意义。
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