Hi Steve, Many thanks for clarifying. Cheers, Gav.

Glad to help

Hi Paul, I was very lucky with the weather. It did start getting cooler as I pushed further north, north/west, but by no means freezing. I had lovely, warm weather in Salamanca, but the rain did set in as I approached Santiago. I then experienced fairly harsh storms and rain on my walk to the coast - but it was reported at that time to be a rare, intense climatic condition. Even then it wasn't freezing - perhaps around 18-19 celcius. Good luck with your walk. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Paul, I headed out from Sevilla on the 14th of September. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Aaron, My pleasure. I wish you a most enjoyable walk. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Anna, Thanks for your comments. Yes, Merida and Casares are magnificent towns. Cheers, Gav.

Hi There, Many thanks for your kind words. I hope you have an enjoyable walk. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Mark, Based on its size, I would say it's a 1 watt resistor. The cooktop is working perfectly some 2 years after the repair. Good luck. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Tim, What a lovely comment. Thank you for your kind words. Good luck on your upcoming Camino adventure. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Marc, I think I purchased mine from Element14. I did purchase ones from eBay initially, but they were clone devices and failed relatively quickly. You'll need to find genuine devices. The cooktop has now been running for 4 years without any problems. Good luck. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi There, I stayed mostly in hotels, casas and pensions. There were two nights where I stayed in alburgues. You'll find a listing of the accom places I stayed in in the itinerary attached to my blog post. Cheers, Gav.

Hi There, Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Ratgreen, Apologies for the delay in responding to you. Yes, I'm no programmer myself! Lots of copied code and examples are evident in my sketch! In terms of EV charging, these need to be stable. The minimum cycle time I have set is 20 minutes and I don't think you want it any less than this. Both our EVs seem happy with this arrangement. Good luck with your project. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Carla, Many thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the journey. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Ashley, I had a 'friendly' sparky do the work. One option might be to run the outputs of the SSRs to a separate junction box for connection to the switchboard or switches (rather than running the physical cables into the device). Might give your sparky a little more comfort. I'll be posting one final video shortly. I replaced the SSR with a phase angle controller for the HWS. It's working well and eliminates the need to draw on the grid when the export is lower than wattage of the element in the HWS. Good luck with your project. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Daniel, Unfortunately I haven't drawn up a circuit diagram. The best source for the voltage and current sensing is the open energy monitor learning website. This link takes you to the simple voltage dividers for the voltage and current sensing: docs.openenergymonitor.org/electricity-monitoring/ctac/how-to-build-an-arduino-energy-monitor.html The Arduino script identifies the pins of the Arduino which are used for voltage and current sensing (in my case 3 phase, but single phase just requires two inputs rather than 6). The pin that's used for the mode switch is also identified. The digital pins for the output control are also easily identified from the script. Apart from power connection to the Arduino, that's about it. I will be posting another (and I assume final) video at some time covering a further enhancement using phase angle control for the HWS heating. This was a relatively easy enhancement and has some benefits over the solid-state relay on/off switching. I just want to test the phase angle controller for a few months before I post the video. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Michael, Apologies for the delay in responding to you. Please click on the video dialog and follow the link to my itinerary where I list the online guides I used. Apart from these and online forums covering specific sights in the larger cities, I only used an All-Trails map to ensure I was staying on track. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Rob, Thanks for your comments. i wish you a most enjoyable ending to your Via de la Plata walking adventure. Happy travels. Cheers, Gav.

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Hi Lotte, Apologies for the delay in coming back to you. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions your Mum may have regarding the walk, but I'm reluctant to publicly release my email address. If her questions are of a general nature, I'm more than happy to answer them in KZbin via this forum. Hope to hear from you soon Cheers, Gav

Hi, @@greenenergygav8053 and thanks for your reply. I've passed it on to my mum and copied her response for you. Thanks again. 'Thanks very much for responding. One of my questions is names of places where you stayed You had mentioned that some places were particularly good. Also the place you had stayed where there was a little waterfall which had created a pool where you were able to swim and which was. on private land Also any restaurants bars etc which you would recommend! I plan to walk VDLP from beginning March 2024. All information very gratefully received!!'

Hi Lottie, Apologies for the delay in responding to you. I've actually just returned to Australia from another walk - not a Camino however. I've included a link to the list of all the stops/towns I stayed in. Please expand the video description and you'll see the link. In general, every town has its appeal. I actually like the larger towns/cities as there's generally plenty to see and they have good facilities (Merida, Caceres, Zamora, Puebla de Sanabria, Salamanca and Ourense). The town with the private swimming water pool is Laza and the place I stayed in was Casa Blanco Conde. Be prepared though, the water is really cold! In terms of food/bars, I can't recall specific places and I didn't keep records of the places I ate in. In general, you won't have a great number of eateries to choose from in smaller towns - indeed, there may be only one restaurant or bar serving food. I didn't starve though. I had a Sunday in Fuente de Cantos where I had to live off provisions, so you might need to keep this in mind if you're planning to stay in a small town on a Sunday. I tried to work my itinerary to be in the larger towns/cities on Sundays as there were more places open, and even supermarkets in some cases. It's not always possible to achieve this however. I hope you have a wonderful walk in March. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Marianne, Thanks for your lovely comments. I'm so happy that you are able to 'join' me on my walk. It sounds like you also have had many enjoyable walking experiences. I plan to do the walking circuit around Mont Blanc this year in August and I'm really looking forward to it! Enjoy the journey! Cheers, Gav.

I'm glad you've found the videos valuable. I wish you all the best on your Camino. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Zwelethu, Please have a look at the links provided in the video description where you'll find a more detailed write-up of the project and its elements. I would also advise you have a look at the Open Energy Monitor website where there's learning resources relating to power diversion (and of course the base code /sketches that I used for my diverter). Good luck with your project. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Jerry, Yes, you can utilise phase shift modulation to limit the actual power delivered to the hot water element. This approach is more complex and I didn't want to alter the switching hardware setup I was already using, hence the PWM approach. Cheers, Gav.

can you please suggest some device to utilise phase shift....thank you

Hi Jerry, I did a quick search and there are some products available for control of single phase resistive loads. I found quite a few in AliExpress, but I can't vouch for their performance or reliability. In general they accept a control signal of 0-10V or 0-5V and use phase shift control to vary the AC output. You'd need to the test the set up to firstly see if the device will accept a raw filtered PCM 1-5V DC (like) output from the Arduino. Assuming this works, you need to test the linearity of the device (ie: if 5V delivers near on 100% output, does 2.5V deliver 50% - I suspect not). The charts I saw look roughly linear from about 1.5V to 4.5V, but you'd need to test and model this and deduce and algorithm that produces the required power control. I'm a bit buried at the moment, but might have a play with one of these devices at some time. I hope this helps. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Vaclav, I'd the first to admit I'm no expert in this field! Your friend's hob sounds like it has a challenging problem. The issue I faced was a simpler power supply problem. In the case of your friend's hob, I would first reprogram each of the elements in the hob if that's possible. You'll find instructions online for this. Other than this, you could try and swap the pot sensor from a working element to a failed element to see if that's the issue. Given the issue is with pot sensing, the electronics for this are generally not overly stressed so I can't imagine resistors blowing or caps failing - you can always check though. The board might be exposed to heat from the element, so it might be an idea to check for dry joints using a continuity meter for the electronics associated with the pot sensing. I hope this helps. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Blake, Our evacuated tube water system comprises two banks of 30 tubes each of 1M in length. They are tilted at an angle to catch the winter sun. During winter and the shoulder months, they are not generally able to fully heat our 315L storage HWS. During this time, we divert the energy from our rooftop electric solar array to assist with hot water heating. In this way, the diverter is invaluable. During the warmer months, the evacuated tubes heat the water on their own with no assistance required from the electric solar array. Not silly at all really. Cheers, Gavin.

Hi Efren, You'll find some comments against some of the other episodes I've published in relation to hotel/hostel/casa accommodation on the walk. Yes, I stayed mainly in hotels/hostels/casas as opposed to albergues. Costs vary between locations, but for smaller towns you can get a room for 25-35 euros. Larger cities/towns are more expensive ranging from 40-60 euros per night for a room in the centre of town. Santiago de Compostella is a little more expensive again if you want to stay close to the Cathedral. These figures are just accommodation only. I found it relatively easy to source mostly private accommodation along the entire route, but there may be times when you need to leave the camino for a short distance to get to your accommodation. I would recommend you carry a small towel and sleeping sheet because there is a likelihood that you'll need to stay in an albergue at some time. I hope this helps. Cheers, Gav.

Glad you're enjoying it! Cheers, Gav.

Hi Chris, It would be a personal choice, but for me, I think it makes things more complex. If you're able to carry a pack, then I recommend you carry a pack and keep it as light as possible. Just thinking back, there were a few very steep inclines on the walk and a trolley might have been problematic. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Chris, I suspected that might be the case and gave them a pass. Pretty to look at though. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Germaine, I'm happy you're finding the vlogs enjoyable. I wish you a most enjoyable ride in May. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Michelle, Glad you liked it. I hope you have an enjoyable walk. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Renae, Yes, the quietness of the trail is attractive, but it won't be for everybody. I've also walked the Frances and Portuguese, and the Via de la Plata is much, much quieter (or at least it was when I was there - I suspect Spring may be busier). I would say that approximately 45% of the people walking the trail when I did were females of varying ages, and most were solo. All seem to be walking on their own and enjoying the experience. On this basis, I would say it's safe. Walkers in Spain are not necessarily revered, but they are respected. I did sight police at times along the trail, but they're obviously not everywhere. I didn't hear of any issues on my walk and I wasn't exposed personally to any situations that I'd consider unsafe (apart from walking along roads in the dark). If you're planning to stay in albergues, you will have options to walk with others in the morning, particularly on longer days when you may need to walk in the dark for an hour or so. You may be able to team up with a few walkers in a sort of convoy arrangement that gives you the option to walk alone, but know other walkers are nearby. I hope this helps and wish you a pleasant walk in 2025. Cheers, Gav.

@@greenenergygav8053 thanks for the reply that info helps a lot. The solitude doesn’t bother me in fact I prefer it. Your video guide has been an inspiration to a fellow Aussie planning for this Camino where planning resources can be harder to come by.

Hi Lorna, My pleasure. Cheers, Gav.

Hi Elena, I'm glad you found it interesting. Cheers, Gav.

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Thaks Kevin. I hope you have a most enjoyable walk in April/May. Cheers, Gav.