Close attention to the socio-economic and ecological cost of the rural energy use is of great significance to the rural sustainable development.With the questionnaire about the rural household energy consumption in the loess tableland area,an accounting model was established to estimate the economic cost,ecological cost and scrap quantity in various energy consumption structure.The result showed that presently the overall energy consumption level was low with average consumption of 2 018.16kg of standard coal equivalent per household and 731.41kg per person;the household energy consumption was mainly depended on the cash and energy availability with little consideration into the ecological cost;compared with the present situation, there are big differences in the economic cost,ecological cost and waste quantity among 9kinds of energy consumption types.It is indicated that the use of biogas and solar power is the direction of rural energy consumption structure adjustment in the future because of its overall low socio-economic and ecological cost. Biogas could be the most effective substitution for firewood and would be the main way of energy consumption for the area to form a virtuous cycle of energy utilization and ecological construction.