To meet the demand of clean heating in cold regions of northern China, high efficiency and environment friendly low temperature air source heat pump heating system has been proposed and applied. In this paper, the technical feasibility and economical applicability of low temperature air source heat pump heating mode were studied and compared with conventional heating systems. A mathematical model of technical and economic analysis of different heating modes was established. With the mathematical model, different heating systems were compared with their primary energy consumption, pollution emissions, initial investment and annual running cost. The results showed that the low temperature air source heat pump heating system can stably and reliably meet the demand of space heating in residential buildings when outdoor air temperature is -15 degrees C. In terms of energy efficiency, the primary energy consumption of low temperature air source heat pump heating mode is lower than coal-fired boiler, gas boiler, direct electric heating mode, but higher than combined heat and power generation. Comparing the pollution emissions, low temperature air source heat pump heating mode move the pollution source from residential areas to power plant, and has the relative low dioxide pollution emissions. Comparison results also show that the low temperature air source heat pump heating system is the most economical way among the candidates. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.