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Highlights • Solar-air energy heating system coupled with floor radiation system was presented. • We quantitatively evaluated the contribution of the solar house to energy poverty alleviation. • Energy consumption and indoor temperature were measured and compared. • We analysed the performance of the hybrid heating system in the solar house. Abstract Energy poverty is prominent in rural Qinghai-Tibet region, China. In sacrifice of thermal comfort and health, residents adaptively choose the biomass fuels and cheap coal for heating and cooking, as an approach to energy expenditure reduction. Considering renewable energy utilization is effective to replace the utilization of conventional fuel, this paper aims to examine the potential of using solar house for energy poverty alleviation. Based on a novel hybrid heating system, we renovated a rural building into a solar house in Wangtun village, Qinghai-Tibet region. The energy consumption and indoor air temperature of the building before and after reconstruction were field measured and comparatively analysed. Results indicate that the energy consumed by solar house with the hybrid heating system was 153.3 kWh/day lower than that by the old building. The average air temperature of the living room and two bedrooms in the solar house reached 12.8°C, 11.0°C and 10.2°C, about 8.78°C, 7.61°C and 6.82°C higher than temperatures of the rooms in the old building. Overall, the solar house has considerably improved indoor environments and provided people with better thermal comfort. It is concluded that solar house can be an effective approach to mitigate domestic energy poverty of the rural Qinghai-Tibet region. The findings may also instruct other rural regions in either China or other developing countries to address the issue of energy poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar heating should be recommended strongly for domestic buildings in the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau due to the area's high intensity radiation. In this paper, a novel hybrid solar heating system is presented, that includes a solar kang system, a Trombe wall and a direct gain window. The effects of five combined solar heating operation modes on the indoor hourly temperature for one case domestic building located in the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau were investigated by field measurement and numerical simulation. The optimal operation mode for improving the indoor thermal environment was determined. Furthermore, the effectiveness of each operational mode on the east room was quantitatively evaluated and ranked. The results show that the numerical simulation and field experimental results were well agreed, although there were some differences in specific values. In addition, the results it indicated that a solar kang running all days and Trombe wall running daytime played a significant role in improving the indoor thermal temperature. These relevant findings could provide a reference for solar heating system design and indoor thermal comfort improvement for rural domestic buildings in the Qinghai–Tibetan plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]