The linear renormalization-group transformation is used to study the thermodynamics ofweakly coupled spinless fermion chains at half-filling. The model consists of a competingnearest-neighbour Coulomb repulsion and kinetic energy terms. The specific heat and thenearest-neighbour correlation function are studied as functions of temperature by varyingthe ratio of Coulomb repulsion to kinetic energy. The role of an interchain hopping isstudied and the metal–insulator phase transition temperature as a function of hoppingparameters is discussed.