Abstract
In recent years, due to the rapidly growing global energy crisis and the ever-increasing prices of energy carriers, more attention has been paid to the energy efficiency of existing buildings, especially in the context of reducing harmful emissions and lowering heating costs. The purpose of this study was to analyse the influence of selected factors on heating costs and air pollution in a cold climate based on the example of a service building located in Bialystok, Poland. The following scenarios were assumed: the implementation of a heating schedule, improvement of the thermal insulation of the building envelope, lowering of the indoor temperature in all rooms, and moving away from a traditional heat source (gas boiler) to renewable energy (heat pump). The results showed that improvements in heat transfer coefficients had the greatest impact on reducing heating costs and that emissions from renewable energy sources depend largely on the national energy mix.