Suitability analysis of auxiliary heat sources for solar heating in rural areas of Northwest China

The areas of Northwest China is divided into seven typical regions according to the distribution of solar energy resources and climate conditions. Taking the typical buildings in each region as model buildings, choosing the coal-fired boiler, oil-fired boiler, gas-fired boiler, electric boiler, air-source heat pump and biomass boiler as the representative auxiliary heat sources, performs a comprehensive analysis from the aspects of energy support, economical efficiency, technical characteristics and environment influence by using the fuzzy mathematic methods. The results show that the biomass boiler has the highest suitability as the auxiliary heat source of solar heating, and the oil-fired boiler and electric boiler get the lowest priority-degree. The priority-degrees of coal-fired boiler and biomass boiler decrease with the decrease of economic weight, and the areas with higher family income are more likely to choose the air-source heat pump, gas-fired boiler and other new heating modes.