POSSIBILITIES OF HEATING AND AIR-CONDITIONING OF BUILDINGS IN THE MOUNTAIN AREAS1

The mountain areas, due to their specificity, require special approach to issues concerning heat-ing and air-conditioning of buildings. After presenting general information on demand for heat in a standard residential building, the forecasting of demand for final energy by particular branches of economy has been presented. Fossil fuels are most commonly used in heating build-ings. In this kind of systems the heat is supplied to the consumer by means of heating pipes provided by heat power stations or combined heat and power stations or it is generated in boilers owned by the consumers. The remote heat source can also be energy from geothermal power station, as it is in the Podhale region. There is an alternative solution to these systems in the form of heat pumps that are often connected to borehole heat exchangers. Depending on the energy balance of the heating system and air-conditioning of a particular building the latter system can be additionally aided by solar collectors. This method requires only a power service connection, which is available almost in every building. Moreover, practical uses of the proposed system, which should be more widely applied in the mountain areas, have been described. Keywords heating and air conditioning of buildings • borehole heat exchangers • heat pumps • mountain areas • geoenergetics 1