How Can I Reduce The Ecological Footprint Of My Home?

I am studying a course called “Urban Planning”, and this is my second Action Project. This Project is about designing my own energy-efficient electrical plan for my house.This Unit was about electricity, and about how, when used effectively, it can do wonders. I learned about AC and DC power systems, about how humans linked lightning to electricity thanks to Benjamin Franklin, and about circuits, volts, amps, resistance, among other principles.

For this Action Project, I had to: sketch a circuit diagram, construct my circuit representation, build a case to house my diagram, connect my circuit to real energy-efficient solutions, calculate my design's impact, and explain my eco-friendly plan.

 However, I began encountering problem after problem in the process of developing this Action Project. First of all, there isn’t a detailed hardware store where I live (Galapagos Islands) where I could buy the materials I needed, and so I had to find my materials through other means. I spent several days riding my bike around town, asking people where I could find resistors and small LED lights. I finally arrived upon an electrical recycling shop a nice man owned, who I became friends with. He gave me a piece of a broken TV where I could retrieve both resistors and LED lights. These materials however, weren’t working so well. Some of the resistors I retrieved weren’t exactly functioning the way they should’ve, and they also weren’t quite the ones I needed.

Also, I needed technical assistance on how to use materials such as the soldering iron, etc. There is a teacher from the school where my Dad is Principal who was willing to help me, but he is usually very busy and can only offer small periods of time per day.

Given the circumstances, I decided to propose to my teachers an alternative Action Project. A co-worker of my dad’s and great friend of mine, Reina Oleas, owns what I believe to be the first and only completely self-sustainable house in the history of Ecuador. She decided to set this project up on her own with the help of her family. Now, given that she lives on the Galapagos islands (there is absolutely no history of anyone trying to set up a project here similar to hers, and therefore no architects that could help or no market to buy from), she had to engineer most of her house on her own. She uses all of the natural resources (sun, rain, wind, etc) that predominate in the region where she lives to make her house work, while her house is connected to no cable and no pipe. She also had to engineer her whole electrical system!

I proposed that my action project be to interview Reina and to focus mainly on her whole electrical system engineering process, to finally think about how I can apply some of the principles she used on my own house. And my teachers agreed!

And so I began developing my proposed Action Project. I told Reina about my proposal to my teachers, and she told me she would be marveled to help. However, she said that if I wanted to focus mainly on the whole electrical system of her house and the journey to fully develop it as it is seen today, I would have to talk to her husband, Mr. Roberto Plaza, given that he was the one in charge of that part of the project. Roberto works as a guide for tourists that come to the Galapagos Island in search for knowledge about these wonderful islands, and has a very busy schedule were he leaves on tourists boats that voyage around the islands for weeks at a time. Thankfully, I managed to contact him and he was only hours from embarking yet again to another tourist trip! He agreed on interviewing him while on his way to being embarked.
I interviewed him for about 30 minutes, and I asked him mostly about his experience in designing his own electrical plan.

He told me that, as they were working on their project to build their energy-efficient house, they realized that the predominant renewable resource they could retrieve electricity from was solar energy. Once they figured that out, they began planning how to install solar panels in their house. They got in contact with several companies from Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and finally agreed on employing one that seemed to fit best. However, they decided to to try installing the solar panels on a smaller house they had, as an experiment to see if this company’s job was efficient.

Once the company had finished their job on the smaller house, they moved into that house to try it out. 24 hours later the power went out, and it never came back. Apparently, the company had made a very basic mistake, and refused to accept that they had done so. The problem was, the Plaza family didn’t face much of a choice, because very few companies offer their services on the Galapagos Islands, and from those few the one they had already employed was by far the best. Also, given that the company had to import all of their material (there is no solar panel manufacturing company in Ecuador), send it all to the Galapagos Islands, and send people to install them, it was very expensive. Roberto contemplated all of these difficulties, and finally decided something that would mark a turning point in the project: He would learn how to design the whole electrical plan for the house and install the solar panels on his own, as well as learn how to provide maintenance. His main sources of knowledge in this process were a great friend of his who accompanied him throughout the whole proceeding and led him to friends who worked on the solar panel business and knew about how to install them, the internet, and a handbook called “Dimensionar tu equipo solar de acuerdo a tus necesidades” (Fashion your solar equipment according to your needs). With these 3 tools, he gradually learned and developed an electrical plan for his home. He realized that the amount of solar panels they needed to buy relied a lot on the type of appliances they were going to use, especially the ones that created heat. He told me about a very cool exercise he did with his family were they all sat together and made a personal plan of the amount of electricity they needed per day. They realized that most of the electricity they used came from appliances that could be substituted by more efficient ones. Something that I feel like makes this exercise very cool is that through it everyone became aware of the amount of electricity they needed, which is not always the amount of electricity we use.

Thus, they got rid of the toaster, the waffle maker, the coffee maker, etc. and found substitues such as the manual coffee maker. Another amazing thing that permitted them to reduce the amount of electricity they used was to take advantage of the wind regarding the architecture to control the temperature of the house. Most of the windows face the side of the house from where the wind comes from, and that way the wind keeps the house cool. However, when it gets a little too cool, you can control the temperature by closing some windows. Thus, the Plaza’s don’t use any air conditioners.

Also, the property in which the house is built is in the high (altitude) part of the island, where it's humid all of the time. Most of the other families that live in the area use de-humidifiers. However, the Plaza’s investigated and found a Chinese method which consists on a series of ventilation chambers placed below the house that permit air to flow below the house, not letting the humidity rise from the ground and reducing it by 20%. Thus, the Plaza’s don’t use any de-humidifiers.

The decided on an estimate of the amount of electricity they needed per day and bought the number of solar panels and batteries that would fit the description.

With the help of the 3 tools I mentioned earlier, Roberto installed the solar panels and batteries, and has given them maintenance ever since. With all the changes they made as a family to reduce the amount of electricity they use on a daily basis, Roberto was profoundly proud to express to me that if you were to turn on all of the lights and all of the appliances of his house at once, you’d be using the equivalent amount of energy of one average air conditioner. He also told me something that he proved in the development of this project: if any family decides to use only the amount of electricity they need, and substitute their appliances for other more eco-friendly ones, they can reduce up to half of the amount of electricity they were previously using. He says that even if you don’t decide to use natural resources to power your house such as solar panels, only re-thinking the way you are using electricity can drastically change your electricity bills and your ecological footprint.

From all of the amazing things this experience has taught me, I will apply in my own home:

• I’ll tell my family about the exercise the Plaza family did to analyze the amount of electricity they were using and the amount they needed, and I will persuade them to try it out. As a result of this exercise, I will consult with my family about which appliances we can substitute or give away.
• My house has some installed solar panels which haven’t been mantained in a long time and are currently not in use; I will ask Roberto to take a look at them and if possible help me with making a budget of how much money and effort it would take to make them work again. 
• We are in the cooler months of the year, and therefore never use fans in my house, but I will locate the direction from where the wind comes from, and find ways to take advantage of it to keep the house cool in the warmer months of the year (December through May). 
• I will make a budget of how much it would cost to change the light bulbs in my house for LED lights.

I learned so much from this experience and am very thankful to my school for permitting me to develop an idea I had in mind into an Action Project.

San Francisco Park & Main Puerto Ayora Dock Redesigned

I am studying a course called “Urban Planning”, and this is my third and last Action Project. In this unit I studied about cities as a whole, and about the different qualities that make a city great. I began with studying about why cities were built in the first place, and about how they progressed and grew into what they are now. I interviewed Mrs. Ivonne Torres, the director of Sustainable Development of the Autonomous Decentralized Municipal Government of Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. She told me all about how the town I live in (Puerto Ayora, Galapagos) grew into what it is today, as well as the different difficulties it went through in the process.

For this Action Project I had to choose a specific urban area and take everything I’ve learned about cities to improve its planning.I am most proud of the fact that this course gave me the opportunity of learning a lot about the town of Puerto Ayora, given that I have only lived here for the last 4 months ago and I barely knew anything about its organization and history.



I will redesign the main Park and Dock of the town. The park’s name is San Francisco, and it is situated at the end of Baltra St., in the furthest point South of Town. The dock is situated in the Southern end of the park, which is limited by the sea.

The park is shaped as a rectangle, with its longer sides curved southward.  The main dock is also shaped as a rectangle, a much thinner one, with four small docks shaped as rectangles as well that branch out from the dock (two on each side).The dock also divides into two rectangles at the very end. The total area is 3840 square meters.

There are several purposes for this area. All of the boats coming from the different islands across the archipelago arrive at the main dock, and all of the boats that leave from this island to others also leave from the dock, as well as boats that leave for scuba-diving, snorkeling and surfing trips or to other parts of the island for other purposes in general. In order to get to the dock you must cross the park, and therefore the park is usually full of tourists and residents going or coming from the dock throughout the day, carrying their luggage. San Francisco Park and the main dock are both situated in the “busiest” part of town (relatively; Puerto Ayora is a pretty small town and rather unbusy). Usually in the evening the men of the town meet to play a sport called “Ecua-volley”, an Ecuadorian variable of the Volleyball sport, along with their families who come to watch them play. Youth begin arriving mostly at night when the men have stopped playing Ecua-volley and they have enough space to skateboard and hang around. Rails and ramps are stored when men play Ecua-volley and are taken out by the youth at night, and stored back when they are done skateboarding. The park also counts with a 20 m. long stage in the East end of the park, where most of the social events in town occur, such as concerts, festivals, contests, etc., as well as a small section full of games such as swings and slides for kids. 

One of the main strengths of this area is the fact that it is always full of people, and that it is a place of great economic flow to the town. Sailors and their crews make their money taking passengers such as tourists and businessmen to other islands in the main dock, as well as making small trips to other parts of the island. Small businesses are scattered around the park as well, mostly providing tour guides and food. The street parallel to the park is also full of restaurants, tour guides, the biggest supermarket in town, and one of the main churches. Merchants also appear in the evening, selling food and drinks to tired Ecua-volley players and their families, as well as anyone else walking through the park. The park is also a very safe place, where kids come from their homes without their parents to meet with other friends to play in the evening. Very rarely is something stolen and if you leave something forgotten you have a good chance of finding it exactly where you left it or picked by someone for protection. It is also a very clean park and  counts with some small neat green spaces, as well as with an artistic statue of a Galapagos seagull with a message from the artist and a patriotic altar with the flags of the country, province, and town. The park also faces the sea along all of its Southern border, and it is a beautiful place to sit and watch the colors of the sea as well as the sunrise. Finally, the dock (even though it is not meant for this purpose) is just about the best place in town to go sightseeing for sea lions, smalls rays and baby sharks. At night, the lights of the dock inside the water are turned on which permit you to see all of the sea nightlife, which is simply stunning.

This area, however, also has several weaknesses. First of all, the men that play Ecua-volley enjoy betting and drinking, and therefore it is common to hear shouts and insults during their time playing, as well as fights. This also doesn’t permit other people who are not willing to bet to play (there is only two courts, and usually both are being used). Youth skateboarders at night also often drink, smoke, and use illegal drugs.

 Besides, the Eastern part of the park is the one that is mostly used, but the whole western side of the park is almost always empty, even though it has a lot of nice footpaths and seats. I believe that one of the main reasons why most of this side of the park is usually not used is because it is not lighted well enough at night. It also appears to be that its current design doesn’t seem so amusing for residents and tourists. 

Also, there are some bicycle parking racks throughout the park, but there is two problems with these parking racks: First, they are designed poorly; the space between them is too close and they also are too high and damage your bike. Secondly, there is too few; you always see bikes being parked against lamp posts and trees because there is no more space in the bike racks. 

There is also no sign that shows the name of the park (San Francisco).

Something that would make this area better is drinking and fighting restrictions. Guards could be posted along the park (even if it's only in the evening and night while men are playing Ecua-volley and youngsters skateboard, given that the park is very safe for the most part) that could help control fights and shouts from the men that play Ecua-volley, for the purpose of there being a better ambience in the park.

 Another important matter that I have had in mind ever since I began living here is that Galapagos has a simply astounding flora and fauna that only exists here, and there is so many information that most tourists and residents don’t know of. Taking in account the truth that this area is one of the most visited on a daily basis by both of these groups, I believe this area could be even better if it would take advantage of all of its footpaths to place signs full of information about the flora and fauna found in the park, which (even though it may seem as a very small percentage) is a lot of information. The park counts with many native (and only native) trees, as well as a grand variety of birds and other animals that live both in these trees and in the mangrove that grows in the shores of the ocean in the southern edge of the park. The main dock could include a path meant for users that would like to enjoy the view of the ocean and animal sightseeing only, and the dock itself could include signs full of information about the fauna found right beneath it, in the ocean. These signs could be written in Spanish, and include English translations. The western side of the park could also include more seats that could be placed along the footpaths, and these seats could have this type of design (image below), which is seen in other places around town and I believe work well for both lighting, shading and beauty purposes. 

Concerning the bicycle parking rack problems,  this design (image below) could be applied instead of the current one, and it could also be placed in other strategic places across the park for there to be more parking space.

The food & art fairs that take place in the park are also quite irregular. It would be good for these fairs to happen every Friday evening and night, every 15 days.

There is also a lot of very talented local artists who work with recycled materials. They could be employed to design and make the park’s sign with its official name: Parque San Francisco. The sign could also include a translation of the work “parque” for the English word “park”.

In summary, these are  7 alterations that I believe could help improve this area:

• Drinking, drug consumption, noise, and fighting regulations could be set, and post guards in the evening and night for the purpose of enforcing the law during Ecua-volley matches and skateboarding sessions.
• Signs full of information about the flora and fauna found in the park along the mostly unused footpaths in the western side of the park could be placed to encourage visitors to walk through them and learn. The signs could be in Spanish, along with English translations. 
• The main dock could be divided into 3 passageways: One for passengers leaving, another one for passengers arriving, and a final one for users who simply want to walk along the dock and enjoy the scenery. This third passageway could be full of signs placed along the way full of information about the fauna visible underneath the dock, in the ocean.
• More seats along the mostly unused footpaths could be placed, with a special design that works well for lighting. These seats could be placed strategically along the park's border to the sea, to offer users a relaxed view to the ocean, the mangrove, and the sunrise.
• Food & Art fairs could take place on Fridays (when most people go to the park) every 15 days instead of irregular dates.
• Local artists could be employed who work with recycled materials to design and create the park’s official sign, which would read its official name: Parque San Francisco. The sign could also include a translation of the word “parque” for the English word “park”.
• Current bicycle parking racks could be replaced for another more convenient and less damaging design, as more bicycle parking racks in convenient places along the park.

This is a drawing of what the area re-designed would look like:

Scale: 1cm:15m

This is a digital design of the redesigned area:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/fRFrwhGTk2j-magnificent-esboo-uusam/editv2

A small problem I encountered along the process of making this AP was learning how to use Tinkercad to digitally recreate the area I redesigned. I had some trouble figuring out at first, bu slowly started getting the catch of it. I finished my digital design, and on the next day when I go back online I realized that it had never saved! It all got lost. I had to repeat it, but I did it much better the second time (and I made sure to save it and take a screenshot!).