The Lhasa area is located in the solar energy-rich region of the Tibetan Plateau,with long and cold winters,strong solar radiation and large differences in orientation,and the local rural residential buildings have poor indoor thermal environments and high levels of energy consumption in winter.In order to improve the indoor thermal environment while considering energy conservation and environmental protection,this study establishes a typical building model based on the common rural residential buildings in Lhasa.Ten thermal parameters were selected as influencing factors,including heat transfer coefficient and thermal inertia index of each orientation of the envelope.Uncomfortable degree day based on 12℃(UCDD12)was adopted as an index of thermal environment and heating load as an index of energy consumption.Orthogonal tests were designed and simulated by TRNSYS to study the influence of each thermal parameter on the evaluation indexes,and statistical analysis were performed to test statistical significance and rank the impact order.The results show that there are six thermal parameters that have a significant effect on the UCDD12,which are,in order based on the degree of significance,the roof,the north direction,the east/west direction,the south direction heat transfer coefficients,and the south direction,and the east/west direction thermal inertia indexes.There are seven thermal parameters that have a significant effect on the accumulated heat load,which are roof,east/west,north,south heat transfer coefficients and thermal inertness indicators for south,interior walls,and east/west,ranked based on the degree of significance.The two evaluation indexes were further integrated and the optimal combination of each thermal parameter was determined using TOPSIS method.The present findings could provide technical support for improving the indoor thermal environment and energy-saving performance of rural residential houses in Lhasa.