Despite its name having changed to a community, the area where Ms. Xu (pseudonym) lives still exists as an ordinary North China village beyond the North Third Ring Road of Shijiazhuang. Residents of a certain Takou Community were once renowned for producing and installing insulation materials for factory equipment, but this heating season, many here are troubled by heating problems.
On January 5, a Xinhua commentary pointed out that recently, in some rural areas of North China, the heating costs following the "coal-to-gas" transition have become prohibitive for farmers, highlighting that rural heating must account for both environmental considerations and maintain a baseline of warmth.
What is the actual heating situation for local rural residents? Why do end-user heating costs remain high when upstream gas supply is ample and prices are falling? How can the pressure on people's livelihoods be alleviated as gas subsidies are phased out? How can multiple measures be implemented to provide more choices for clean rural heating? A reporter recently conducted a field investigation.
Many households operate their gas boilers at low temperatures, with residents saying, "Turn the setting lower, use it sparingly."
"Have you lit your fire?" This is a question Mr. Zhang, who works in Baoding city, now asks friends he wants to visit before returning to his hometown, a certain Quan Village.
"The meaning of this question is to see whose gas boiler is turned on; we only go to sit at homes where the boiler is on. Many families in the village don't turn their boilers on at all or run them at low temperatures to save gas. It's just too cold to sit inside the house in winter," Mr. Zhang said.
In June 2023, the Baoding Development and Reform Commission issued a notice adjusting the city's tiered natural gas prices for urban residents, raising the first-tier price from 2.78 yuan per cubic meter to 3.18 yuan per cubic meter. This price is roughly what residents of Quan Village currently pay for natural gas.
The "coal-to-gas" transition was implemented relatively early in Quan Village. In the memory of 65-year-old Aunt Jiang (pseudonym), when the transition began nearly a decade ago, people were somewhat hesitant, but after calculating the economics, the vast majority of villagers chose to accept it.
In the surrounding villages, most households had already achieved indoor radiator heating, though before "coal-to-gas," the heating method was small coal-fired boilers that heated water for circulation in indoor pipes. After the transition, the heating method changed to gas boilers, with burning natural gas responsible for maintaining the water temperature in the radiators.
"Taking the house I live in as an example, nearly 200 square meters over two floors, burning coal would require less than 2 tons per year. At the price of around 600 yuan per ton circa 2017, the annual heating cost was just over 1000 yuan," calculated Aunt Jiang. "After the first winter following 'coal-to-gas,' the basic cost for natural gas was between 1300 and 1400 yuan. At that time, the natural gas price was around 2 yuan per cubic meter, but there was a subsidy of nearly 1 yuan per cubic meter, making the effective price after subsidy about 1 yuan per cubic meter."
Now, the natural gas price here has increased, while the original gas subsidy has decreased.
Posted at the entrance of a certain Takou Community in Shijiazhuang is the community's gas subsidy schedule for 2024-2025. According to the current policy, the gas subsidy for local villagers has been reduced to 0.2 yuan per cubic meter, with a "cap" on subsidized gas volume of 1200 cubic meters. This means each household can now receive a maximum annual gas subsidy of 240 yuan.
Shijiazhuang Xin'ao Gas Co., Ltd. is the main gas supplier in Shijiazhuang. Staff from the company explained that the price for natural gas used by residents for heating with gas boilers in winter is 3.15 yuan per cubic meter. For other times, a tiered pricing system applies, and when consumption reaches the highest third tier, the price is 4.25 yuan per cubic meter.
Last November, the People's Government of Julu County, Xingtai City, responded on its government website to an inquiry about whether natural gas operation subsidies still existed. According to policy, the operational subsidy for households that switched from coal to gas is distributed over 9 years, starting from the installation year. For years 1-3, the subsidy is 0.8 yuan per cubic meter per household, with a maximum subsidized gas volume of 1200 cubic meters and a maximum subsidy of 960 yuan per household. This subsidy is reduced to 50% for years 4-6, and further reduced to 25% for years 7-9.
Aunt Jiang from Quan Village hadn't noticed whether last year's gas subsidy was distributed. She said this small subsidy really doesn't solve the problem; with the current natural gas price exceeding 3 yuan, even using it sparingly still costs 2400 to 2500 yuan for a winter.
Aunt Jiang's household still maintains the habit from the early days of "coal-to-gas" of running the gas boiler 24 hours a day to prevent pipes from freezing in winter. To reduce gas usage, she sets the boiler's heating water temperature between 35°C and 40°C, which is the temperature reached by the indoor radiators. "The radiator temperature is basically similar to body temperature."
To save on natural gas consumption, she and her husband have turned off the radiator valves in all other rooms of their two-story house, keeping only one living room and one bedroom heated. However, even when at home in the evening, they still need to wear padded jackets to sit in the living room and watch TV.
Before going to bed, they turn on an electric blanket in advance. "My son bought it, over 500 yuan, it's a good electric blanket."
Some households switch to electric heating to save on gas costs, but changing equipment also involves significant expense.
If one wants a relatively comfortable indoor temperature, simply pressing a few buttons to raise the gas boiler temperature is possible, but this also means increased costs.
"December 11th, 300 yuan," "December 20th, 200 yuan," "December 26th, 200 yuan"... About a hundred meters from Aunt Jiang's house is the home of Master Huo (pseudonym) and his wife. A central hallway living room flanked by a bedroom on each side forms the simplest typical rural dwelling style in North China.
In winter, the temperature in these three rooms totaling less than 100 square meters can approach 20°C. This temperature exceeds that in most surrounding households and is achieved by Master Huo topping up 200 to 300 yuan for gas via his phone weekly.
Apart from tending to a few acres of land, Master Huo, nearing sixty, has his own small business in the city, making his family relatively well-off. Master Huo calculated that before "coal-to-gas" around 2017, his family spent about 1500 yuan annually on high-quality lump coal for winter. In the first winter after the transition, with the gas boiler running at relatively high temperatures 24 hours a day, the gas cost was only a few hundred yuan more than using coal. But last winter, Master Huo's heating expenses approached 5000 yuan.
Master Huo and his wife's house is less than 100 square meters, which is relatively small for the area, requiring fewer radiators and consequently less natural gas. To reduce gas pressure, he, who previously didn't bother with temperature settings, now silently lowers the boiler temperature when no one is home, only turning it up upon returning to enjoy the warmth.
The reporter learned that in recent years, some local residents have begun experimenting with changes in heating methods. Ms. Zhou and her husband, both in their early 30s living in a certain Takou Community in Shijiazhuang, turned off their gas boiler a week ago and started using a newly installed air-source heat pump—a device that uses electricity to extract heat from the air for heating.
Ms. Zhou's husband's phone displays the household's daily electricity usage in real time. Currently, the main consumer of electricity in their home is the air-source heat pump. On January 3rd, 4th, and 5th, their electricity bills were 58.65 yuan, 69.05 yuan, and 64.25 yuan, respectively.
"This is still somewhat cheaper than using the gas boiler before, saving nearly half the cost," Ms. Zhou said. Besides the couple, the household includes their two children and the husband's parents. The house is about 200 square meters. In previous years, using natural gas for heating cost several thousand yuan for the entire winter.
The couple spent nearly 30,000 yuan to switch to the air-source heat pump, including about 25,000 yuan for the equipment and around 5,000 yuan for labor and materials, with a "national subsidy" rebate of over 2,000 yuan at the time of purchase. Ms. Zhou's husband believes that, in the long run, the air-source heat pump is considerably more economical than the gas boiler.
Based on the couple's observations, not many families in their village of nearly 3,000 people have switched to air-source heating equipment. Many still choose to lower the temperature a bit and use less natural gas.
Walking through the alley where Ms. Zhou and her husband live, yellow natural gas pipelines, like other cables, extend along the courtyard walls of every household. To accommodate the layout of the buildings, the pipes frequently bend here and detour there. Ms. Zhou's husband plans to add an extra layer of insulation to the exterior walls of their house by the end of this year. He has inquired, and it will cost approximately another 20,000 yuan.
Residents express that they don't want to return to using coal either, hoping for economically viable alternatives.
In recent days, reporters have discussed the winter heating situation with rural residents in multiple northern localities.
Mr. Wang from Quyang, Baoding, said he only turns on the gas boiler for about 3 hours each day after his child returns from school, raising the indoor temperature from around 7°C to about 12°C. Ms. Xu from Shijiazhuang filmed a video of her gas meter's digits turning rapidly and posted it in her high school alumni group, where classmates who had been mostly inactive for years suddenly found a common topic again.
During interviews, the reporter learned that although some rural residents reminisce about the time when coal heating made "the whole house warm," they do not believe reverting to coal is the solution.
"First, it's dirty. When burning coal, the entire yard and house were filled with smoke, covered in dust, and your hands turned black when shoveling coal. Second, safety. Back then, we sometimes heard news about carbon monoxide poisoning incidents in someone's home," said Aunt Jiang. She expressed hope for finding a way for rural residents to heat adequately within their economic means, even if it cost the same as the centralized heating prices for urban residents.
Taking Handan, Hebei as an example, according to the charging standards announced by the municipal government, the centralized heating price in various districts and counties is around 20 yuan per square meter. For an 80-square-meter residence, the winter heating fee would be 1600 yuan. Based on calculations by several villagers interviewed, heating a house of the same area in the countryside using a gas boiler to achieve a temperature comparable to centralized heating would cost over 3000 yuan in natural gas for the entire winter. Rural houses are often larger.
Staff at Shijiazhuang's 12345 hotline stated that natural gas prices are set uniformly, and any future adjustments or related policies would be announced through appropriate channels.
During last year's Hebei Provincial Two Sessions, Provincial People's Congress representative Yang Huisu, after investigation, pointed out that for a 100-square-meter house to maintain an 18°C room temperature, the entire winter heating cost could be as high as 7560 to 11340 yuan. She therefore recommended "promoting centralized heating according to local conditions to ensure rural residents stay warm in winter." Yang Huisu suggested that the government increase funding and policy support for rural heating, organize demonstration projects, carry out ecological circular clean energy projects, and encourage and attract enterprises in fields like solar energy, air-source heat, and straw gasification to build heating facilities in rural areas, enabling rational and effective use of clean energy in the countryside.
She also believed that local development levels should be considered comprehensively, actively seeking policy and financial support, formulating and issuing reward and subsidy measures, and increasing subsidies for the production and consumption of clean energy in rural areas.
Experts suggest providing farmers with practical options that are "usable and affordable."
The "coal-to-gas" transition, which accelerated its rollout from 2017, is one of the important measures in the systematic management of air pollution.
According to reports from media like Jiemian News and Yicai, from the supply side, there is currently no shortage of natural gas in the market, nor a shortage of low-priced gas. Several industry analysts believe that the high unit distribution costs in some rural areas of Hebei are related to a combination of factors: complex local gas source structures, reliance on external procurement for gas consumption, high costs associated with cross-regional pipeline transmission, and the lack of economies of scale in decentralized rural heating.
Dang Guoying, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Rural Development Institute, told reporters that from a cost structure perspective, decentralized heating in rural areas is naturally more expensive than urban centralized heating. This is not unique to Hebei but a common phenomenon worldwide. Dispersed rural communities lack the economies of scale of centralized heating, inherently placing them at a disadvantage in terms of unit cost.
Dang Guoying said that in villages comprising dozens or hundreds of households, matching urban heating standards implies higher per capita public investment. Without long-term, stable, and substantial financial subsidies, relying solely on individual farmers to bear the cost is practically unsustainable. Dang Guoying believes that fundamentally alleviating this issue depends on the continued progress of urbanization.
Dang Guoying believes that during this "transition period," if subsidies are phased out too quickly and energy choices are overly limited, rural elderly become the most directly affected group. He suggests that, while adhering to the direction of pollution and carbon reduction, energy choices for rural heating could be appropriately relaxed, avoiding a "one-size-fits-all" reliance on natural gas. By allowing diversified solutions to operate in parallel, practical options that are "usable and affordable" for farmers can be provided.
In fact, not all "coal-to-gas" subsidies are being phased out. It was reported that Qian'an, a county-level city administered by Tangshan City, Hebei, issued a document last November promising a gas price subsidy of 0.8 yuan per cubic meter for households that switched from coal to gas during the heating season, with no further phase-out; the difference would be covered by the municipal finance. Additionally, the local government implemented "full subsidies for gas usage" for households receiving the "five guarantees" and subsistence allowances.
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