The authors designed a thermal model of the building heating system including a heat source, individual heating unit and heating appliances. Application Simulink of the mathematical package Matlab is selected as a platform for the model. The paper describes the research of influencing external and internal disturbing factors on the operation of the heating system with a sequential connection of heating appliances. The research resulted into specifying time characteristics of transient processes in systems with local and individual regulation of heat consumption. The authors analyze the possibility of implementing specialized energy-saving thermal modes on the basis of one-pipe heating systems. The paper provides recommendations to improve the operation efficiency of the heating system using various methods of heat consumption regulation.