Comparisons of life cycle pollution emission and energy efficiency among seven heating methods from the perspective of life cycle based on daily heat supply of 1m² housing area were made in this paper. The methods included scattered coal heating, and other clean ones, which were electric boiler heating, low temperature air source heat pump heating, wall-mounted gas boiler heating, cogeneration central heating, gas boiler central heating and clean briquette heating. The results showed that compared with scattered coal heating, clean heating method can efficiently reduce the air emissions, especially significant for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5. Among all these methods, gas boiler central heating and wall-mounted gas boiler heating with natural gas are the cleanest, which reduced SO₂ and NO_x by 85%, and reduced PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 by 99%, and clean briquette heating and electric boiler heating perform worst. Highest energy efficiency (over 80%) could be reached by low temperature air source heat pump heating and cogeneration central heating energy efficiency, and lowest energy efficiency (about 30%) is obtained by electric boiler heating. The results also showed that improving thermal insulation of building envelope is an effective way to keep warm and decrease pollution in rural area.