Contemporary Challenges for Heating Historic Church Buildings from the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Over the past two decades, the construction and architectural industries have increasingly recognized the need to create and maintain a sustainable built environment. This approach emphasizes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maximizing energy efficiency to minimize environmental impact. Implementing such solutions in new constructions is relatively easy. However, these buildings represent a small fraction of the overall built environment. Most of the built environment is composed of existing facilities, many of which were constructed before the enactment of current environmental regulations or even before the establishment of any standards. Historical objects present a particularly challenging category in this context. The uniqueness of these structures lies not only in their altered or original functions, but also in their vital role as custodians of history and their contributions to the evolution of architecture and art. Consequently, aligning these buildings with sustainability requirements, or even approximating them, is an intricate task. Common approaches are exempting these buildings from adhering to any standards or applying only the most basic and limited criteria. However, this can adversely affect the usability of these structures and the conservation of historically significant construction elements and artifacts. Introducing new solutions into these existing structures presents additional conservation challenges. This article examines the energy efficiency challenges facing three churches in central Poland. The churches exemplify the predominant Christian religious denominations in Middle–Eastern Europe. This study analyzes the architectural characteristics of these churches and includes energy calculations to validate the effectiveness of proposed energy-efficiency measures.