Hi again, just wondered if anyone can recommend the best form of heating over there in BG.
I have heard that a log fire seems to be a popular choice, perhaps economical. Hopefully won't need heating till we actually move there but thought it's a good idea to plan ahead.
Really looking forward to moving over but just a teeny bit apprehensive as we don't know anyone nor do we know any of the traditions but we are prepared for a culture shock!
Have heard the Bulgarian people are very friendly and do hope we make friends with some ex pats.
We visited Bulgaria, liked what we saw and have done a lot of research but it's nice to get some guidance from those of you who have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly.
You all seem a really friendly lot so we are pleased to be a part of this forum and look forward to meeting up with some of you, having a few beers and a good laugh!
Kev

Hi Kev your right about the heating most people do tend to use an open log fire, although there are other forms of heat available, are you going into a village or a town? I ask this because it would make a difference to what other heating maybe available to you, your right about the fact that the Bulgarian people are friendly but you can also come across the odd person who isn't as friendly as you would like I think from my own experience it would be fare to say that I found the Bulgarians a lot more genuine and friendly than the Brits but this is only my point of view, culture is something else I can't really explain to much about this because it does tend to be a little different depending where you are? and then is it a town ? or village? I'm sure there will be others along soon to help you with your questions and good luck

Hi Kev Gimp is right in all he has said here, my house which is just outside Yambol although not an old house I manage to heat with the air-con and a couple of portable propane heaters which was fine but being honest it was only just ok it would have been nice to have a few more degree's however the Winter in my village gets quite cold and we are set all on our own so nothing really to protect us from the bad weather and wind, I wont try and answer anymore of your questions because we need to know if its a village or town?

I have central heating which works fine for me, one thing you will need to consider about heating is how much you are going to budget and then look at the different options there in a heating engineer on this forum who may be able to help with some of your questions and there is also another member who supplies some sort of electric heaters which are suppose to be very officiant

Netsniperthefirst wrote:

Hi Kev Gimp is right in all he has said here, my house which is just outside Yambol although not an old house I manage to heat with the air-con and a couple of portable propane heaters which was fine but being honest it was only just ok it would have been nice to have a few more degree's however the Winter in my village gets quite cold and we are set all on our own so nothing really to protect us from the bad weather and wind, I wont try and answer anymore of your questions because we need to know if its a village or town?

We are very much like Kevin - I don't know where Kevin lives now, but we are in Altinkum, Turkey and because we are deemed to be a tourist resort the walls of our properties are only 8 inches thick and made from what I call mollucall bricks (that's bricks with air holes!). They are fine in the summer, but any heat we put in the property in the winter goes straight through the walls, we may as well be living in a paper house!! So what heating system we use in BG will be very important to us, bearing in mind we will buy outside a town or more rural. A wood fire sounds good, but it won't heat the whole house, but essentially we would need the lounge and parts of the house to be warm, bearing in mind that we won't want to use every room in the winter. Any advice would be gratefully received.
Eric

Hi Eric I found that with the air-con upstairs running 24/7 it kept it warm the house itself is only about 8 years old so it doesn't have the problems the the older houses do, however I am considering having the house wrapped in polystyrene to help keep the heat in! downstairs we have a lot of glass which is a bit of a problem in the winter but at night we just close all the curtains which are thick insulated full length, when we bought the house it did have a log stove which I had taken out but looking back it may have been better to keep it but I just didn't want the problem of having to lite it everyday, when we lived in the UK we lived in a 200 year old cottage which had a multi-fuel burner which never went out so long as I toped it up every 22 hours which was great but I haven't seen anything like this in Bulgaria and if I did find one I would have to have the chimney specially lined which again I have never come across in Bulgaria.

I dont do wood, not since the first year and never again. choice of heating will be determined with budget in mind. we have a combination of gas, oil and electric warm air. I do not find this no more expensive than wood and it is more controllable. I did not know they did underfloor heating in bulgaria and it is fabulous but being soley dependent on electric is not good and i do not know the running costs either. you need alternative backup if you dont use wood in case of power cuts.

I'm glad you mentioned the underfloor heating starlite I forgot to mention that we have it upstairs only and it works well

do not forget the importance of insulation, loft and surrounding house makes and saves a lot of heat and money. well worth the investment.

Hi and welcome,

I would add to all that is said, by saying that not only your location has an impact, as in town or village, please please look at if you are on a hill or in a valley... a valley will extend your winter a lot and make it feel a lot colder. The size of your house will also be a massive consideration. Where is the water table as some houses are right next to natural springs or rivers which make it a lot colder in the winter too.

My home is just over 100sq meters and it is only heated by a woodburner, that has at times got so hot we have had windows open, but then the house is extreamly well insulated due to it being 500meters above sea level and exposed on all sides... In your budget make sure you have plenty for insulation as that will save you money in the long term what ever type of heating you choose to have. You will need to consider your lifestyle as well, i.e. do you go out a lot during the day even in winter... who will keep a fire in, or will you invest in a long burn woodburner!?!

Window size has an impact and so do numbers and direction of external doors, and ceiling height. There are websites and companies in the UK that you can go and talk to or email that will take all the house dimentions, location, country, size etc and let you know the KW heat output that you will need for your house in the worst weather conditions, this will then give you better options for heating, this is what I did and they were bang on with a hell of a lot of KW to spare :-) so when it does hit -30 we will still be toasty warm.

Nice post seven and very informative thank you

Hi guys, thanks a million, you lot are great.
The property we have bought is in a village, set on its own. It's a one storey building with an extension and in the Elhovo/Yambol region. It's an old property but the walls are thick and the windows are small. The house is also on a flat area. (have seen enough hilly roads here)
We presently live in the Isle of Wight UK which is accross the solent from Southampton. It snowed here last year for the first time in 23 years and we have had a few days snowed in just before Christmas. We have gas fires and central heating here so warm enough but I'm thinking we'll have to pack a few hotwater bottles for Bulgaria.
It would just be good to know what sort of heating would be best to install. Make the wrong choice and it could be costly!
All of your recomendations are really appreciated so thanks again.
Keep warm,
Kev

I'd like to know anyone's experiences with a Prity fire with back boiler with radiators.Are the heat exchangers any good? I'm looking to change to a V17 Prity is the spring which is 23kw.20kw radiated and a 6kw heat exchanger.I'm going for this fire purely because it has the 6kw heat exchanger as I have large double radiators with pipework within a thick concrete slab.My current fire seems to struggle to get up to temperature.A friend has recently purchased Prity's cheapest fire without a back boiler and the heat it kicks out is unbelievable.He spends most of his time walking around in his boxers.When visiting we have to keep going outside to cool down.He hasn't really got it cranked up with log's either.Well if anyone has a V17 or similar I wouldn't mind a review of it's performance.

ABC Property Surveyors.BG wrote:

I'd like to know anyone's experiences with a Prity fire with back boiler with radiators.Are the heat exchangers any good? I'm looking to change to a V17 Prity is the spring which is 23kw.20kw radiated and a 6kw heat exchanger.I'm going for this fire purely because it has the 6kw heat exchanger as I have large double radiators with pipework within a thick concrete slab.My current fire seems to struggle to get up to temperature.A friend has recently purchased Prity's cheapest fire without a back boiler and the heat it kicks out is unbelievable.He spends most of his time walking around in his boxers.When visiting we have to keep going outside to cool down.He hasn't really got it cranked up with log's either.Well if anyone has a V17 or similar I wouldn't mind a review of it's performance.

Well ABC - your idea of a V17 sounds really good, would you give some more details of it so that I know more about how it works and some idea of purchasing costs and is it cheap to run.
Many thanks.
Eric

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