Heating/cooling cost allocation is of growing concern in many countries because it contributes much to the energy conservation of central airconditioning system. This paper intends to summarize the current studies and techniques on the heating/cooling cost allocation and discuss about the key problems to them. The contents mainly include the following parts: (1) probing into the methods of heating/cooling measurement; (2) establishing the calculation model for thermal billing; (3) presenting several typical systems for heating/cooling cost allocation. The significance of the paper is to help the engineers in this field have a good idea of the current development of heating/cooling cost allocation and promote the application of the relevant technologies to practice. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.