First topic message reminder :

I have been here in BG now for 8 months, where has the time gone When we came we had to have the wood fire as it was still very cold, It was a novelty haviing the fire and now for the past month we have had the fire on in the evenings and the last few days all day and all evening. The novelty is wearing off rapidly. It is time comsumiing and there is not much heat from the logs so the electric rads are on too. This will not be a good situation to start winter off so I have to think of something else. :: have been talking about Aircon heatiing, they swear by it and said it is not expensive to run. The initial layout is expensive but worth it.

I checked in the Aircon shop and they say the bigger the unit the hotter you can go some go up to 30 degrees and you only need one unit for the whole downstairs. Naturally we would need two units for some reason the heat does not reach upstaris it stops on the stair way so very strainge. Anyway the unit the chap suggested to heat a large room will cost 2249 lev with delivery and fitting and the same for upstairs.

Has anyone got this form of heating that also acts as a air con in the summer ?

Whoever says that you pay a levy/tax on air-con is pulling your leg, tho if politicians read it, it may give them idea's I would go ahead and get them fitted, it's still nearly 2 months before you go and anything can happen, plus you won't have to do it when you return, and you may not get the same deal of course.

If it was me I would not bother to have them fitted, as you say you are not going to be here for the coldest months of the year. You are also having outside work done, which for me would be more important than the air cons, and also not having them fitted leaves more money for this work. Also you said you are going to have the house insulated which in my opinion is a must, as they say see how it goes once this work is done.

Have to say my first winter here reminded me of when I was a child, and we used to get up to ice on the inside of the windows, lino floor, and the oven door open and alight to give us some warmth while we ate breakfast. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Just another tip that I have learnt over the years, I never buy anything that is not 100% cotton or wool, keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter

Regarding the municipal tax on air cons never heard of this, think its another one of those things that is being passed around and is wrong.

oh guys we are all sorted decided to go ahead with the Aircon and is is mity cosy too, we wlll see how it works out. When I went in to pay the bill had gone up another 100lev I said no I was told 2600 lev and that is what we agreed. She was not happy so told her to irng the boss. Anyway after discussions with the boss. He confirmed the price but she had a face as long as a week...

oddball wrote:

When I went in to pay the bill had gone up another 100lev I said no I was told 2600 lev and that is what we agreed. She was not happy so told her to irng the boss. Anyway after discussions with the boss. He confirmed the price but she had a face as long as a week...

That's her 100 Leva bonus gone for this month then!

itchyfeet wrote:

oddball wrote:

When I went in to pay the bill had gone up another 100lev I said no I was told 2600 lev and that is what we agreed. She was not happy so told her to irng the boss. Anyway after discussions with the boss. He confirmed the price but she had a face as long as a week...

That's her 100 Leva bonus gone for this month then!

Many a true word etc ec

We have had the aircon now for 3 days and I must say I think I made a big mistake. To keep the house warm you will have to leave it on all the time as it is instant heat. Yesterday I had to put the fire on again. Aircon is fab to get the place warm in a matter of minutes when you need it but I would say certainly not as a heating system in the winter. The place is lovely and warm then you turn the aircon off it gets cold very quickly so you really do have to have it on al lthe time. Expensive lesson but at least we will have cool aircon in the summer so not all lost. Another learning curve

Think positive on this one, as you say you will be cool in the summer As I posted we found the best way to keep the heat in was to have the whole house insulated on the outside. Do you have a room with a chimney hole in it that you don't use downstairs or up stairs ? if you do then get one of the round brown woodburners with a bucket inside, for me these are the best fires that you can buy. We would be lost without this one, which we have in the kitchen/dining room it burns all day and night believe it or not this keeps the house quite warm, and we only light the prity one late afternoon in the main room.

Thanks Fletch will look around for a round petchka. When we had the roof relaid we told them to knock down the chimney as the vent is covered now with our fitted kitchen so we could not use it anyway But we have a hole in our bedroom leading to the same chimney as the petchka in the lounge so will try to work out how to use that if neede We are insulating but not sure we will get it all done this year. I also think we are here for another say 7 weeks so might just miss the snow and really bad weather altogether

Annother silly thing I FORGOT was heatiing in the garage. We have no chimney in the garage could we not just make a hole in the back wall, put a cenent tube like tunnel and put a pechka pipe through. Probably sounds to easy eh!!

You will be able to use the chimney in your bedroom without any problem, if you can keep the fire going in there it will warm the upstairs for you. You can find the round fires in most shops and also on markets, in our village this is what most of the Bulgarians use. You could put a pipe through the wall I know someone that has done this but the flu must be higher than the top of the roof so that the draw is good. I am sure someone with more building knowledge will give more info on this. Agree you will hopefully miss the worst of the weather.

Fletch wrote:

You will be able to use the chimney in your bedroom without any problem, if you can keep the fire going in there it will warm the upstairs for you. You can find the round fires in most shops and also on markets, in our village this is what most of the Bulgarians use. You could put a pipe through the wall I know someone that has done this but the flu must be higher than the top of the roof so that the draw is good. I am sure someone with more building knowledge will give more info on this. Agree you will hopefully miss the worst of the weather.

Building regs in the UK state that chimneys must be a metre above the outlet. Hope this helps.

Thanks guys Dougie says he has two mobile gas heaters so now worries for the garage. We will plan for next years winter for the pechka upstaris in the meantime we have the 4 oil filled rads in the rooms and hall as well as the aircon heathing up there too, so should be fine. Gosh how I miss just flicking the switch for gas central heating. They are putting gas pipes all over Silistra town now and the gas pipe comes through our village outskrts so maybe one day eh!!

oddball wrote:

We have had the aircon now for 3 days and I must say I think I made a big mistake. To keep the house warm you will have to leave it on all the time as it is instant heat. Yesterday I had to put the fire on again. Aircon is fab to get the place warm in a matter of minutes when you need it but I would say certainly not as a heating system in the winter. The place is lovely and warm then you turn the aircon off it gets cold very quickly so you really do have to have it on al lthe time. Expensive lesson but at least we will have cool aircon in the summer so not all lost. Another learning curve

Here is the upate Edna Bira on the Aircon