Heating in Bulgaria: district heat, gas and electricity

Everyday life · Last reviewed: 2026-08-24

First find out what heats this flat

The first technical question when viewing a flat is what the heating is, and the answer is one of three words. District heating means hot water produced at a neighbourhood-scale plant is piped to buildings; the flat has radiators but no boiler. With gas, the flat or the building has its own boiler and gas arrives through a network. With electric heating, an air conditioner, an electric radiator or underfloor heating is used and the cost lands directly on the electricity bill.

The distinction is not only technical but legal and financial. District heating has three parties: the company selling the heat, the owners' association of the building, and the flat owner; a fourth actor joins them, the heat accountant who performs the allocation. With gas the number of parties drops to two. With electric heating, heating is not even a separate service, merely a seasonal component of electricity consumption.

Failing to ask this question when viewing a rental is the most common mistake that wrecks a budget at the first winter. Two flats of the same size can have very different winter costs depending on heating system and insulation. Three sentences to put to the landlord: what is the heating here, what were last winter's bills, and has the building been insulated? Their answers move you from guessing to measuring.

How district heating works: three layers

In district heating, heat enters the building through a substation. It sits in the cellar and is the company's metering point: the total heat billed is measured at that substation's meter. In other words the company keeps accounts with the BUILDING first, not with individual flats. Each flat's share is calculated in a second layer, and this is exactly where consumers most often go wrong.

The second layer is heat allocation. The building's total is shared out according to data from the devices in the flats. Under the heating rules, in buildings under condominium ownership consumers must have individual heat meters, or individual allocators together with regulating fittings, on all heating bodies, and hot water meters on every branch of the building's hot water installation. Without those devices, objective allocation is impossible and calculation by norm takes over.

The third layer is the party that actually performs the allocation: the heat accountant. This is a licensed provider separate from the heat company; it reads the devices in the flats, performs the calculation and reports the result to the company. The heat supply undertaking is obliged to notify the consumers' authorised representatives and the trader of the month from which allocation will apply, and to include the building in the information base processed by that trader. So the question of whether allocation has started and who does it has a written answer.

The building installation charge: the most disputed line

A district heating bill contains a line that does not correspond to the sum of the flats: the building installation. The logic runs as follows. Once hot water enters the building it circulates through vertical pipes from cellar to roof, and those pipes radiate heat of their own. So even if you close your radiator completely, the pipes running through your walls warm your home. That heat shows on no flat's device, yet it really has been spent and has to be attributed somewhere.

How this charge should be calculated has been contested in Bulgaria for years and has been the subject of court proceedings. A statement by the Ministry of Energy notes that the formula for the building installation was annulled by the court and that a new one was being prepared, and that during that period heat companies' invoices were being issued on projected consumption. That does not mean the charge was abolished; it means the method of calculation changed. Which formula applies today must be read from the heating regulation in force.

The practical conclusion: the building installation charge is not an unfair surcharge but the counterpart of a physical reality, though whether its amount has been calculated correctly is an auditable question. The audit starts by asking for the building's annual reconciliation report and looking at how the building total was divided. That document is prepared by the heat accountant and given to any owner who asks for it.

Monthly instalments and the annual reconciliation

The billing rhythm of district heating differs from other utilities, and this is what surprises newcomers most. Through the year, equal instalments based on past consumption are usually paid; after the heating season ends, the real allocation is calculated and the gap is closed with a RECONCILIATION account. If the difference is in your favour you become a creditor; if it goes the other way, a one-off amount falls due.

That arrangement has two consequences. First, the instalment you pay monthly is NOT a measure of your real consumption; the reconciliation account at the end of the season is. Second, a large reconciliation bill arriving in summer is not an error but the system working normally, though there is always a reason it came out large and that reason can be examined: radiators left permanently open, a device that could not be read, a flat empty for a long stretch and put on estimate, or higher overall consumption in the building.

When the reconciliation account arrives, the first move is not to look at the amount but to request the report. It shows separately your flat's device readings, the building's total, the building installation share and hot water consumption. Once you find which of those four figures departs from what you expected, your objection stops being that the bill is too high and becomes that a specific line is wrong for a specific reason. Only the second kind of objection produces results.

Closing radiators, removing them and leaving the system

The belief that closing the radiators means paying nothing is widespread in Bulgaria and is wrong. Closing them lowers your own consumption, but the building installation share and the hot water share continue; and because your neighbours' heat passes through your walls, your home does not cool as much as you expect. In short, closing radiators is a savings tool, not an exemption.

REMOVING radiators entirely is a separate step and cannot be done at will: condominium rules, the heat company's general terms and technical requirements all apply. A radiator taken out unilaterally distorts the building installation calculation and can affect neighbours' heating; and reconnecting later is subject to a procedure. Written information from the building manager and the company costs far less than the argument that follows an unannounced removal.

Detaching an entire building from the district system is a heavy and costly process resting on a decision of the owners' general meeting. The investment in the replacement system, whether a building boiler, individual boilers or a heat pump, the suitability of flues and of a gas connection, and the neighbours' ability to pay all have to be solved at once. Where such a decision is on the agenda, the heat demand of the whole building must be calculated rather than that of individual flats, or the new system will be sized wrongly too.

Gas and electric heating: where each one wins

Natural gas is not available everywhere in Bulgaria; the network exists in certain cities and in certain parts of them. Where a flat is heated by gas there is a boiler and a gas meter; the account is opened in a person's name as with electricity, and the bill follows the volume consumed. Gas has the advantage that you produce heat when and where you want it; the drawback is that maintenance, flue checks and boiler faults are at your expense.

Electric heating is the most flexible and in most cases the most expensive route, with one exception: modern air conditioners working on the heat-pump principle. An air conditioner can move several times more heat into a room than the electricity it consumes, which makes it markedly more efficient than an electric radiator. Against that, its efficiency drops on very cold days and defrost cycles kick in on the outdoor unit. In the harsh winters of the interior, relying on an air conditioner alone can leave a home unheated on the coldest days.

A fourth option is still common: solid fuel stoves. In villages and some older buildings, heating with wood or coal continues. The arithmetic looks cheap, but labour, storage space, chimney sweeping and the risk of carbon monoxide belong in the calculation. Sweeping a chimney is not a comfort question but a safety one; if you are moving into a home with a stove, when the chimney was last swept belongs on the first day's list.

Heating between tenant and owner

Being a tenant in a district-heated flat is more complicated than with other utilities, because the reconciliation account arrives with a lag. A tenant heats the flat through winter, moves out in spring, and the reconciliation bill lands in summer, by which time somebody else lives there. This is one of the most argument-prone scenarios in tenancy, and the fix is a single sentence in the contract: which period the reconciliation covers and who pays it.

The second practical measure is to record device readings in a protocol on moving day. Alongside the electricity and water meters, write down the values on the heat allocators and the hot water meter. That protocol is the only objective document showing, months later, who used what. Holding back part of the deposit until the reconciliation arrives is also common and reasonable, but the period and the release condition have to be written into the contract.

The third point is the tenant's standing at building meetings. Decisions about the heating system, about choosing an accountant and about investment in the installation are taken by owners; the tenant pays the consequences but has no vote. When you notice a heating problem, the most effective route is therefore to notify the owner in writing and ask them to put it on the building's agenda.

Hot water: the forgotten half of the system

In most district-heated buildings the same system supplies hot water, and that charge runs all year, continuing after the heating season closes. Hot water consumption is measured by the flat's hot water meter and enters the allocation as a separate heading. This is the most frequent reason a summer bill is not zero: the radiators are off but the showers are running.

Hot water also has an invisible component: the heat spent warming it is proportional to the volume drawn, but volume alone does not explain the amount paid, because what is paid for is not the water but the energy that heated it. The same cubic metre of hot water can therefore correspond to different amounts of heat in winter and in summer: the incoming temperature of cold mains water changes with the season, and bringing it to the same temperature takes more energy in winter.

The practical conclusion is that saving hot water can have a more visible effect than saving on heating. Shortening showers, not leaving the hot tap running and repairing a dripping hot tap promptly cut this charge noticeably. A dripping hot tap is expensive twice over: you pay for the water and for the energy that warmed it.

What an allocator is and how to read it

The small boxes fitted to radiators are called heat cost allocators, and they are NOT meters: they do not measure an energy unit but produce a dimensionless number reflecting how long and at what temperature the radiator ran. On its own that number means nothing; its meaning appears only when compared with the numbers from other devices in the same building. Whether your value is high is determined relative to your neighbours, and this is the most misunderstood side of the system.

Reasoning of the kind that last year the allocator showed four hundred and this year four hundred and fifty, so more must have been charged, is therefore incomplete: the building's total may also have changed. The correct comparison is to place your SHARE of the building total for the two years side by side. If the two ratios are close, your habits have not changed; if your ratio has clearly risen, the condition of the device or the radiator needs checking.

Unread devices are a separate risk. Being away on reading day, blocking the device, or a position that interferes with the signal of a remotely read unit can lead to calculation by norm, and the norm is often above real consumption. The reading schedule is posted at the entrance or announced; if you missed it, request a new reading in writing rather than staying silent.

Objections: the right order and the right addressee

The addressee of a heating objection depends on its subject. Objections about the allocation calculation, device readings and the reconciliation report go to the heat accountant; those about general terms, collection and payment conditions go to the heat company; and problems with missing devices and decisions on common parts go to the owners' association. An objection filed at the wrong door does not go unanswered, but it produces no result either.

The objection itself must be in writing and should contain the address, account number, disputed period, the contested line and your request. Attach the reconciliation report, the moving-day protocol if one exists, and photographs of the devices. The deadlines the company and the accountant must observe are set out in the approved general terms; if no answer comes within the deadline, the next step is the regulator.

One thing is worth knowing in advance: an objection does not by itself suspend the obligation to pay. Withholding the disputed amount and waiting can trigger the consequences of arrears. The common and safe practice is to object in writing and pay the undisputed portion; if you are proved right, the difference is credited in a later period.

Getting ready for winter: five measurable jobs

• •Check that radiator valves and allocators are in place and readable; an unread device is calculated by norm.
• •Inspect the seals on windows and doors; this is the cheapest insulation move and a tenant can do it too.
• •Bleed the radiators: one warm at the bottom and cold at the top is losing efficiency to an air pocket.
• •Clear the space in front of radiators; furniture and heavy curtains give the heat to the wall rather than the room.
• •Ask the building manager for last year's reconciliation report and see how large the building installation share was.

How to verify this today

1. 1

   Establish the flat's heating system in writing

   The listing text is not enough. District heating, gas or electricity? If district heating, ask which heat accountant the building works with.
2. 2

   Ask for last year's reconciliation report

   It shows how the building total was divided and how large the building installation share was. That single document turns a winter budget from a guess into a measurement.
3. 3

   Look at the heating regulation in force

   The allocation rules, mandatory devices and building installation calculation are defined there. The text of the regulation governs, not a forum post.
4. 4

   Read the company's approved general terms

   The payment rhythm, the reconciliation procedure, objection deadlines and the consequences of arrears are there, and they passed through the regulator's approval.
5. 5

   Photograph the heating devices on moving day too

   Alongside the electricity and water meters, add the allocators and the hot water meter. When the reconciliation lands, that will be your only objective document.

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