In this work the Simulink/Matlab potential is used to develop a dynamic model of a forced air type heating system. The main concern was centered on the analysis of control strategies to improve the system performance and to investigate the effect of thermal parameters on system performance and energy efficiency. A comparative analysis of On-Off and PID control strategies was conducted to investigate the features of each in terms of comfort and power consumption. The effects of thermal parameters such as thermal capacity, equivalent thermal resistance and set point setting were investigated. The results showed that Simulink/Matlab has a very high potential to analyze control strategies and to investigate thermal characteristics. Although the On-Off strategy is recommended for its constructive simplicity, lower cost and energy saving capability, the results showed to be oscillatory, inaccurate and instable. On the other hand, it was found that PID strategy performs better in terms of overshoot, settling time reduction and in suppressing the effect of external temperature disturbances. The overshoot was around 4 % and the steady state error disappeared quickly. Simulation results showed that high thermal mass buildings can significantly reduce the room air temperature variation; lower set point setting reduced the cumulative energy consumed and an increase in the equivalent thermal resistance led to a significant saving in energy consumption.