In the North West of Europe not many people I know of take solar showers. However, in Bulgaria it is quite common to heat your water by sunlight. Many people here have a solar water heating installation on their roofs, and there is also the oldfashioned system consisting of just a black-painted barrel on the roof. We brought a pair of camping solar showers from the Netherlands in anticipation of the beautiful Bulgarian weather. And today we tried them out.
We tried out our solar shower, but it has a small design flaw
Heating water with the sun
Our solar showers consist of a bag made from black plastic (the type they make cheap inflatable mattresses from). You fill the bag with about 5 litres of cold water, put it in the sun and do something else while your water heats up for free.
We filled the solar shower bags at about 8AM and by 11AM they were already warm. By 6PM the water in the bags was very warm indeed (almost too hot). Time to try the solar shower.
A small design flaw
The idea is to hang the bag with warm water somewhere high. It has a special handle to do this with. I had fixed a strong hook in our shower where we could hand the bag from. Unfortunately the solar shower we bought has a rather crucial design flaw: it can’t carry its own weight when filled with water. Very useful.
I think the Bulgarian sun must have been too strong and weakened the plastic in some way. Because the handle that the bag hangs from tore off under the weight of the water. Luckily I wasn’t standing under it yet when this happened.
An alternative approach
The bag itself didn’t break though and the water stayed inside. So I used it to shower with a watering can in the garden instead. One bag gave plenty of water for a good shower so bag number 2 stayed where it was. And the cats enjoyed some of the remaining warmth that came off it in the evening.
Even though the solar showers itself were a disaster, this small experiment showed clearly the potential of heating water using the sun! We are now thinking about building our own “old-fashioned” system, using materials we can easily gather around here. Watch this space!
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Hi Geoff, Hi Dave!
I’ve been here since 2006, in the Sliven area. I’ve never seen a pack of dogs here. I’ve seen plenty of strays, but they are all quite docile. This is especially so in the villages. The only time I’ve seen “dog groups” is when there’s a female in heat and all the males follow the female everywhere.
In Sliven there’s a vet, who has taken it upon himself to neuter all the stray dogs, unless they are very ill, in which case he euthenises them.
I’ve heard of one case in which a woman was attacked by “wild dogs”, but have never really seen any.
Veliko Turnovo region is also very beautiful, but longer winters and more snow.
Geoff, I’m trying to get the picture of this litebulb thingy. Dave, I like the low tech solar water heater! I’ve actually not seen them in this area, perhaps I wasn’t looking carefully!
Nice to see a fellow Nederlander!
Hi Geoff, interesting what you did with the kids. They have been very creative!! We have managed to find an old oil barrel, which we now are going to paint black and convert to a solar shower. You see this in Bulgaria very often. It is a low tech solution and works well apparently.
About the snakes. I will have to look this one up. I have a book with all the Bulgarian reptiles and amphibians in it though. So will let you know.
We have been here since May 2009. Still love it very much. The area is so beautiful. So much real nature it is incredible. One of the nice things are jackals which you can hear sometimes at night. They howl like wolves, but the locals have told us they are very small and harmless. There are also some wolves in the area, but very few. We have yet to see one (although we found a track!).
I do not know about packs of dogs. If there are any I would expect them in or just outside bigger cities. We have not encountered them here. In the mountains I expect they would not be a problem either.
Solar heating.
This is probably an insult to your knowledge, but I gave this task to a bunch of schoolkids as a project. Some bought solar cells and tried to heat hthe waterelectrically. Some decided a light bulb would make a good ’sun’. stuck black plastic tubing to bakofoil and vacume moulded a black plastic rubish sheet to the front. A (old fashioned ) 100 watt bulb in the lamp produced some very hot water flow quite quickly.
Teaching these kids to tick the National Curriculum boxes proved more difficult!
Horned Viper.
These criters are found in India? Similar to Pit Viper in venom strength?
I am interested because we are considering a move to the montains to the North of Velikio with the intention of steeing up a retreat for motorbike folk. Your account of the vipers of Bulgaria is the only one I have found that means anything to other than a pharmaceutical toxicoligist! I believe there is another poisonous snake in the Balkans, two non poisonous ones (Dice snake and one other). One blogger writes of dangerous dog packs, is there any truth in these tales?
How long have you been in Bulgaria ?
I have a thousand other questions but will stop now incase You have too much in nyour life to deal with these matters. Regards Geoff.