Now that you’ve been to see Bulgaria, been house hunting and bought your Bulgarian house, how is best to heat it in winter? Depending on where you are in Bulgaria, will depend on how cold it is and thus how much heating you’ll need. Parts of Bulgaria can get as low as -20 degrees celsius whilst others might just get into minus figures. Here are some ideas on how best to heat your old Bulgarian house in winter. 

Bulgarian House In Winter

1. Petchka

Nearly everybody will have a petchka in some form or another. Some run on chopped wood (which is an environmental concern) or slightly more environmentally friendly bloquettes. Chopped wood is supposed to come with a government stamp on it to indicate that it was logged correctly but these stamps can be fraudulently used and chopping down forests & replanting them, especially young forests, is not good. 

Petchkas were invented to heat one room, where you typically live in the winter and that you can cook on. If you’ve ever looked around a Bulgarian house and seen four beds in the kitchen, this is why. Some Bulgarians remain incredibly poor and I can see the benefit of this but we can move away from this system now. 

Some British immigrants swear by petchkas and although I can see the benefit if you’re incredibly rural and the electricity is very bad however I think they cause longterm environmental problems that the majority of immigrants won’t have to deal with. 

Bulgarian House In Winter

2. Log Fire

As above, a log fire will either require logs or the briquettes. If you can bulk buy briquettes they might be cheaper than logs but I have reservations as to whether they’d be powerful enough to cope with minus twenty degrees in a big space. 

Some log fires come with an attached water heater and tank and thus you can only have hot water when you put the fire on. I don’t rate this system at all but I understand why people do it. 

 

Buzludzha In Winter

3. Biofuel

Biofuel is a cheap source of energy in comparison to electricity, if you can find it in the quantities you’d need. Biofuel is considered a clean energy source & better for the environment than logging, although it isn’t perfect. 

Ethanol is typically made from corn and sugar cane while biodiesel is made from the fruit of palm trees, soybeans and canola (rapeseed). When organic crops are grown on abandoned agriculture lands and in areas that are not covered by natural ecosystems, they can have a low impact on the environment. These should produce less greenhouse gas emissions and help the environment. For example, the use of native grasses for biofuel production could offer higher biofuel yields and generate less pollution than corn-based ethanol. At the same time, these grasses can enhance soil fertility and do not drain the water table.

Snowy countryside

4. Ground Source Heat Pumps

This system would be the highest upfront cost and cause the biggest disruption to external land. You’ll need quite a lot of land for this or be able to drill to a significant depth. 

Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) use pipes buried in the garden to extract heat from the ground. If you’re opting for this system also consider installing underfloor heating as it’s far more economical than radiators. 

The pump circulates a mixture of water and antifreeze around a loop of pipe, called a ground loop, which is buried in your garden. Heat from the ground is absorbed into the fluid and then passes through a heat exchanger into the heat pump.

The length of the ground loop depends on the size of your home and the amount of heat you need although longer loops can draw more heat from the ground but require more space to be buried in. If space is limited, a vertical borehole can be drilled instead and some can reach 30-50 metres in depth. 

I’ve met Bulgarians who say these systems won’t work in Bulgaria and that the ground is too cold or too high-density clay. It isn’t true and I’ve met Bulgarian people who use this system and insist it works. 

Learn 5 more things about a GeoThermal heat pump from FamilyHandyMan.

5. Air To Water Heat Pump

The most environmentally friendly, this system converts the air to water heat and provides a constant heat at very low cost. Although the initial payment is high, the long term benefits of this brilliant system outweigh that initial cost. 

Air to water heat pumps take heat from the outside air and transfer it to a water-based system. Air to water heat pumps are among the most efficient air source heat pumps on the market.  In climates with very low winter temperatures, ground source heat pumps may seem a more suitable choice, however, air to water heat pumps can work with temperatures lower than -25°C.

I have found two installers of the air to water system, one in Vratsa and one in Sofia, although other heating companies will tell you this system does not work & is impossible in Bulgaria, it isn’t.  I have seen it in use in Bulgaria and it was roasty-toasty warm with underfloor heating and piping hot water. 

6. Electric Wall Heaters

The electricity in Bulgaria is hit and miss so if it goes out, you would be left with no heat source but these eco-friendly wall heaters provide a good source of quick heat. They weigh very little and can be hung, even from lightweight walls.  

The benefit of these heaters is that you can turn them on and off very quickly and they are highly responsive. The downside will be the cost of electricity and whether the electricity even works. 

7. Calor Gas/ LPG Tank

It does appear as if there is Calor (equivalent)/LPG gas in Bulgaria but delivery to a large, above the ground-level tank is still non-existent.  The biggest bottle I have found is 47kg. 

I’ll update this if I find a company to deliver. 

Bulgaria House In Winter

8. Exchangeable Gas bottles

If you’re wondering what the cost of gas fired central heating is, I am not exactly sure however I think this would be an expensive way to heat a large house. It would be more manageable if you only needed to heat a small room or two although you need to factor in the drive to the station to exchange it.

Gas bottles are easy to come by in Bulgaria and rather than re-filling them, you take them to stations to exchange. I would be hesitant at using gas inside the house unless you’d had a British plumber install the pipework, but even then I’d have carbon monoxide alarms around the house. 

In Sofia, there is an option to subscribe for a replacement service where a van collects your empty gas tank and supplies you with a full one. 

Snowy House In Winter

9. Mains Gas

Mains gas distribution networks are still confined to major cities. Overgas (Овергаз) is the main private gas retailer in Bulgaria with the largest network of regional distribution companies in the country.

Bulgaria House In Winter

10. Improve The Insulation

Whether you fill the walls, build new exterior walls, put in triple glazed windows, build new floors or replace any roof insulation, insulation is going to be your best means of maintaining warmth, especially in an old house. 

The common method to insulate an attic is fibreglass although you can also find sheep’s wool, cotton, newspaper and chemical foams.  Icynene foam insulation is blown into cavities (including walls) using water and contains no CFCs or formaldehyde once cured.  There’s plenty of options if you want to reinsulate and some you can do yourself. 

Cute log cabin in the snow

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