This paper describes a method of identifying and weighting indicators for assessing the energy efficiency of residential buildings in China. A list of indicators of energy efficiency assessment in residential buildings in the hot summer and cold winter zone in China has been proposed. which supplies an important reference for policy makings in energy efficiency assessment in buildings. The research method applies a wide-ranging literature review and a questionnaire survey involving experts in the field. The group analytic hierarchy process (group AHP) has been used to weight the identified indicators. The size of survey samples are sufficient to support the results, which has been validated by consistency estimation. The proposed method could also be extended to develop the weighted indicators for other climate zones in China. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.