life cycle analysis of chosen heat sources.

Sustainable Development requires an increase in the use of renewable energy sources as opposed to nonrenewable ones. The paper presents a Life Cycle Analysis of chosen heat sources including information concerning environmental impact. The most popular sources to be considered include as follows: natural gas, coal, culm, heating oil, wood and geothermal heat. Prices are taken from the 2002/2003 heating season in Poland. From an economical standpoint the best choices are coal, culm or wood. The heating pump is a worse solution due to the high investment at the starting point of exploitation. From both an ecological and economical perspective the best heating source is wood. The heating pump is a very promising device but a large decrease in the acquisition cost is necessary for it to become a competitive option.