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With the continuous progress of China’s rural revitalization and the increasing aging population in coastal rural areas, it has become a research focus to make the indoor thermal environment more suitable for the elderly, especially in winter. This study took Qingdao’s coastal rural areas in the cold region of China as an example. A field survey was conducted in 110 coastal rural dwellings, and four typical dwellings were selected for on-site measurements. This study collected information on the characteristics of local residential buildings, the primary living spaces for the elderly, heating methods, and thermal satisfaction. It also documented the energy expenditure and thermal conditions of the surveyed dwellings. The research findings indicate that the current heating system, while capable of partially improving the indoor thermal environment, is still affected by poor thermal insulation performance. As a result, there are issues such as low average indoor temperature, significant temperature fluctuations, and overall thermal instability. The findings of this study provide comprehensive information on the heating modes used in coastal rural dwellings, and the results can be utilized to evaluate and further improve the thermal environment of dwellings in cold coastal rural areas.

In recent years, many scholars worldwide have carried out research related to the relationship between the construction of rural dwellings and the indoor thermal environment in response to the issue of building sustainability. China’s rural revitalization has developed rapidly in recent years. Although previous research showed that the poor indoor thermal environment of vernacular dwellings has negative effects on residents’ thermal comfort and health, it is poorly studied in terms of residents’ space usage habits, their thermal comfort satisfaction, and their thermal sensation. Linyi, the largest and most populous city in Shandong, China, was selected as the research area to investigate the thermal environment and space usage by using in-depth questionnaire interviews and systematical measurements. The results show that there are seasonal differences in space usage in a typical vernacular dwelling. The field measurements show that the indoor temperature is 0–5 °C in winter if there is no heating and 26 °C in summer. By comprehensive comparison, it is found that there is a contradiction between residential space usage and the functional layout; residents choose to use rooms with worse thermal conditions in winter. The analysis of the questionnaires shows that residents have higher satisfaction with the indoor thermal environment in summer than in winter, and the thermal comfort range of residents is 23.3~30 °C in summer and 11.25~17.5 °C in winter. Additionally, the neutral thermal temperature of the indoor space is 26.7 °C in summer and 14.4 °C in winter. Although residents have better adaptability to the cold climate, the measurement data in winter are still beyond the comfort range. We suggest that these results can be used as a reference and data base for improving the living environment of rural vernacular dwellings in Chinese cold regions.