First topic message reminder :

I cannot imagine how bulgaria would manage if they had to stop burning wood for heating. what are the alternatives, for most electric would be too expensive. gas bottles, yes, but they are heavy and how would you get out for refills when roads are closed in the height of winter.
bulgaria is set to be fined for not stopping households burning wood.
here is the report.

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Bulgaria faces a penalty of up to EUR 120 M per year by the European Commission unless households stop using wood to heat their homes, according to Andrey Bachvarov, Chair of the Association of Biomass Energy Producers.

In a Thursday interview for the Bulgaria On Air TV station, he emphasized that the biomass energy sector contributed to the solution of a number of environmental problems like the content of fine particles in the air and the utilization of solid household organic waste and sewage sludge.

Bachvarov, as cited by econ.bg, cautioned that the ambiguities in Bulgarian legislation, as well as a number of unresolved problems, posed a threat to the implementation of renewable energy capacity targets.

Bulgaria must build 80 new installations for sewage sludge treatment and rehabilitate 20 such units but the projects have been delayed substantially.

In February 2012, the Chair of the Association of Biomass Energy Producers in Bulgaria noted that the Bulgarian grid had not been initially designed to sustain renewable energy power stations.

He argued that as a result the output of the renewable energy power stations was unsteady, it created disruptions in the electricity grid, and the preferential tariffs were paid by the end consumers.

In his Thursday interview, Bachvarov disagreed with claims of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) and the Electricity System Operator (ESO) that Bulgaria already had biomass power stations with a capacity of 41 MW.

Citing statistics of the Association, Bachvarov declared that Bulgaria had biomass power stations with a capacity of 7.5 MW.

He also noted that economic analyses had indicated that Bulgaria could not have biomass power stations with a total capacity exceeding 100 MW.

Has anyone tried and had any success with using those compressed paper bricks.

Basically you use wet paper and its compressed in a hand press to form a brick shape, then when dry it takes a long time to burn away.
Also a good way of recycling old paper.

No and wouldn't even consider them. Where to buy? Cost? Quantity and delivery? Any idea how many needed for a whole winter here? Just a few questions that spring to mind. The nearest we got to using paper was by making a kind of concertina wand out of old newspapers for starting a fire. They last longer but sitting making these in the summer months is time consuming, boring and nowhere near enough to last for a long winter.

I have seen them on eBay for as little as a couple of pounds right up to the ridiculous £120, and also in local DIY stores here in the UK, the cost was not very much but I doubt very much if you could ever produce enough to last a week let alone a whole winter, the purpose is just to be able to recycle old paper but still get some use out of it yourself.
Plus you would 'probably' only put one of these paper briquettes on the fire at any one time simply because compressed paper is very hard to burn.

Basically you are just making paper mache blocks without any kind of glue in them.
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Forget anything that is produced in UK. As I said, not enough for a winter anyway and wood is not only a reasonable price but easily sourced and delivered. Even a special price from the Mayor's office for olduns. We save all our newspapers and any we find lying around for starting fires. Also keep a stock of kindling - no need for firelighters. I am talking on behalf of my technophobe Hero of course. He is IC firelighting although I taught him how years ago when our only heating was a small petchka in our Greek ruin. We have had to upgrade to a much heavier duty woodburner here, with radiators off, which I also cook on, due to minus temperatures which we never had in Greece.