Many times, the most sustainable solutions are also the most economical and simple. And it is there, where the occurrence and innovation becomes almost a necessity. Such is the case of the shower modules with recycled materials that an organization builds to improve precarious housing in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
Pablo Castaño is an industrial engineer and the co-founder of Adding Energiesan initiative through which hot showers are built with solar energy and reused materials for families in vulnerable contexts of Pilar and La Plata, in Buenos Aires. This is how, thanks to this project, families avoid buying a jug a month to bathe, in addition to learning about renewable energy.
These solar water heaters are made up of PET containers embedded one in the other, strengthened by layers of tin, styrofoam and tetra brik. Once they are finished, they are mounted on the roof of the wood and canvas structure that will function as a space for the shower, connected to a water tank.
All these materials are contributed by the family that will finally receive the module, their neighbors, the organization’s volunteers and the course participants. It is also necessary to buy some industrial inputs; the cost is covered by the registration fee of the participants, which also allows them to return to the course as many times as they want. A) Yes, a family receives a shower with an ecological heaterand twenty-five other people learn how to replicate it.
In an interview with , Pablo told us in the first person about behind the scenes of this exciting project:
How and when did the Sumando Energías initiative come about? How was your first contact with this problem?
It arose in 2013, being a volunteer for the NGO Techo for 3 years, I discovered that I liked social work and that is where I could observe the deficit in access to basic services for families. Secondly, I am passionate about sustainability and from engineering I wanted to do projects based 100% on sustainable concepts. Mainly, I think that it is the only way in which any project should be done, in this case using clean energies that do not pollute and because they are the most economical way in the product’s life cycle.
How many volunteers participate in Sumando Energías and how are they committed to the cause?
what we do are theoretical-practical workshops on solar collectors, where the participants come to the family home, they all take the theoretical class on solar energy and then we move on to the practical part of building the collectors, they are courses with a great focus on learning by doing.
Then they can return as volunteers as many times as they want and help in the different stages of construction of each solar collector. Currently there are 50 volunteers per construction and by training a greater number, it allows us to build more collectors in parallel.
Today, we also give those online workshops, for people who want to take the course from other places, where they learn about solar energy, specifically how the solar collector should be built in your cities and the construction step by step.
How is the field work? Do you offer courses in advance?
During the week, it consists of collect the materials in the neighborhood where we are working: bottles, cans, tetras, foam rubber mattresses, drums from 90 to 200L. Then, interview and visit the future families with whom we are going to be building. Finally, on Saturday, organize the workshops and finalize the construction of each solar collector. On that day we have a 1-hour theoretical class and then we go on to build the collectors for all the families, which can be between 3 and 5 per weekend.
How does it improve people’s quality of life?
The improvement in the quality of life of the families that build their solar shower is immediate. Before the construction, the families heated water with firewood or with a jug in a pot, then bathed with a jug. They also heat with electric tanks that are not safe due to the connections.
Mothers tell us that this process took 2 and a half hours for 5 people to bathe, where they had to be attentive to the water that was heating up in the pot and, what they always point out to us is that now all they have to do is open the shower valve and they have hot water. So, in addition to the fact that it is water heated for free by the sun, that they have a conventional shower that can mix hot and cold water, that the hot water tank stores hot water even when it is frosty so that they can bathe the next day, mothers can now have of that time.
And yours when you reach this achievement?
It’s amazing to be able to help families in need, by connecting and building together a team that reuses materials and works using solar energy: free, free and renewable. The closure of construction, with all the effort that it entails, is an immense joy, where a specific problem of access to a basic service for families is solved, but where we achieve something more important than sharing and integrating.
The most important, the day after having built, families can already use their solar showers.
What challenges do you have in mind for the coming years?
In addition to continuing to build solar collectors we want to be able to implement parallel sewage treatment projects (biodigesters), rainwater harvesting and solar cookers, that we have already built but on a smaller scale.
Personally, did this project lead you to rethink the use of discarding and apply it to your daily life?
Totally, what we are looking for from Adding Energies, it is Getting people who participate or follow us on social networks to reduce the consumption of single-use packaging as much as possible. Going back to the solutions we already had, such as using your own refillable water bottle and, if you are going to buy, make sure it is in a returnable package or in bulk.
From the point of view of the rational use of resources It makes me understand the energy and water expenditure of each shower I take, considerably reducing the time of each shower.
Understanding what it costs to generate that energy makes me be more responsible in the use and understand something that we usually realize when we are isolated from the network: there is no better energy than the one that is not consumed.