Using UK electric appliances in Bulgaria

@grumpyoldbird

Lee4 hasn't been on Expat.com in 4 years!!

@SimCityAT It came up in my unread messages. 🤣

    @SimCityAT It came up in my unread messages. 🤣
   

    -@grumpyoldbird

Its because wtruckyboy dug up an old thread!

Am i missing something, but is there anything to say that i can't rewire my own house in Bulgaria, to UK spec and use all UK sockets etc,  if I knew I was going to be living there indefinitely? 😊

It would be a problem if you need to replace any appliances, I would think, as they'll be a hassle to import new from the UK. But if you can rewire the house I am sure you'll be able to change the plug on anything purchased in Bulgaria. Or use an adaptor.

I just got my old house with extremely dodgy wiring rewired to current Bulgarian specs by a qualified electrician. Euro style sockets. I can use adaptors for any of my UK stuff I take over.

Don't forget, you might struggle to find a local electrician, as they possibly won't understand the way your house is wired up.

    Am i missing something, but is there anything to say that i can't rewire my own house in Bulgaria, to UK spec and use all UK sockets etc,  if I knew I was going to be living there indefinitely? 😊
   

    -@Mickyas

You may be amazed to hear it but yes, there are regulations concerning what you can and can't do in your own house - just like there are in the UK! There's nothing to physically stop you doing it but if anyone gets hurt due to your non-EU spec electrical installation,  or you have an insurance claim and an assessor sees non-declared and/or non-compliant wiring in your house then you can kiss any payment goodbye as it would invalidate your policy. Quite WHY anybody would do such a daft thing is another question entirely....

Or you could just use multifunction sockets...😉

Or you could just use the permitted EU system and change the plugs on any existing UK appliances; not too difficult a concept to grasp and accomplish for anyone who isn't simply contrary

by nature...

On a similar note, what are the prices of 'white' goods like. Would it be prudent to buy elsewhere and bring over with us or to buy them when we get to bulgaria? We currently live full time in france so the English/European plugs etc doesn't apply.

@ButterMyPaws19

If you shop around you'll usually get a good price. Delivery here is usually free, and often VERY quick - I've several times had to rush straight home from the shop to get home before the darned delivery van arrives!

More importantly - you'll have trouble shipping your foreign-sourced appliances to the country you bought them from if you need warranty repairs. Incidentally, in BG repairing older/out of warranty equipment means just that: they usually don't just swap out a faulty circuit board and charge you a fortune for the privilege, they actually repair the indi faulty component(s) where possible) - much cheaper and no electronic waste to harm the environment.

@JimJ thank you, this is kinda what I thought, just doing as much research as possible to decide whether to include certain white goods with the sale of our house in France (when we get to that point) and buy new in bulgaria or bring them with us. Happy buying in bulgaria looks like the better option.  Happy it supports the local economy too. I'd rather spend a bit in situ than go to the expense of extra m2 of removals or hiring a van to transport our current white goods over from France. 😊

I didn't have that problem when I sold my mas in France - there was no electricity at the top of our mountain (EDF wanted well over half a million francs to bring the power lines to me)

There are always deals on Бяла текника here if you shop around, and if you're buying your property via a company it's worth getting a Metro account; if you have a card for Metro France you can't use it here.

@JimJ nailed it there. Doubt the insurance would be too chuffed.

@JimJ Thank you for that info. We're still in the research stage as we can't visit until later in the year (so trying to do as much research as possible in the mean time and pop it all in my 'bulgaria here we come' book). I'm hoping we don't have to buy/start a company to buy a property as we moved to live full time in France pre-brexit and have a 10 year WARP french residency card (still deep in the rabbit hole of that one). It's not a problem if we do need to go down the company route, it may even be more beneficial if it makes getting residency easier and give us access to 'perks' like discount cards etc.

I still use some UK appliances in my home in Varna.  Before I left the UK, i bought 12 two pin to three pin adapters (not designed for travel, designed for longterm use) they've been very useful and also have two USB sockets in them.  I bought the following with me from the the UK...   Toaster (Dualit made in the UK!) Miele vacuum cleaner (sucks well!) a UPS (uninterrupted power supply battery) a smoothie maker, a gaming computer with four monitors.

All the adapters work fine, now been used for 3½ years.  We also have extension cables, but we bought those here, with two pin plugs.