The Star: January 31, 2019

6 Thursday January 31 2019
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
The Star
News
Innovative father and son duo
First there was the
castle and now there
is a self-sustainable,
eco-friendly tiny house.
Anan Zaki talks to the
father and son behind
the creations
MAJESTIC: The Chapman Castle was Dennis Chapman and his son Alan’s first project, now
DENNIS CHAPMAN built a
castle overlooking Tai Tapu six
years ago.
Now his son Alan is building a
tiny house, with inspiration from
the castle.
The tiny house in Tai Tapu is
off the grid and self-powered by
solar panels.
The house can generate enough
power to charge an electric car,
which will keep its two residents
self-sustained. It also has a large
thermal mass, which means the
temperature of the building does
not change.
The technological features were
right at home for Dennis, who
made his money in electrical
engineering companies Enatel
and Swichtec. His son is also an
electrical engineer with his own
company Darc Technologies.
“We built the tiny house to see
if we could utilise all the technol-
the pair have built a tiny house.
ogies we used in the castle into a a grander scale.
tiny house that was economically “We didn’t set out to build
accessible to everybody,” Alan a castle. We actually set out to
said.
build a thermally efficient building
that was fully automated,”
Meanwhile, 4km away, the
Chapman Castle takes things on Dennis said.
The family loved the Dunedin
Railway Station’s stone entrance
way and drew inspiration from
that.
“Because it was all stone and
there were slip windows . . . we
decided we needed a theme,”
Dennis said.
From there the idea of a castle
was born. But the castle was no
ordinary castle.
“In the castle, in the middle
of winter we’d have no heating
for a week and the temperature
will only change by two degrees,”
Dennis said.
“To retain heat and store water
in the castle, we’ve got 30,000
litre water tanks – four of them.
Half of them are thermally insulated
so we use those to store heat
to the house.”
The tiny house in comparison
has 3000 litre water tanks.
The Chapman’s hope to take
the building concepts from the
castle into the market to develop
more eco-friendly houses.
The castle also generates
enough electricity to not only
power the itself, but three electric
cars and supply power to the
grid. Other innovations include
translucent light panels instead of
windows in order to prevent heat
escaping the house.
“The psychology of that is it
looks like you’re looking at a
window. You’ve got the light
coming through the window,
even at night,” Alan said.
A musical afternoon with
Carl Doy
Saturday 9 February, 1.30pm
Anthony Wilding Retirement Village
You’re invited!
Please join us as one of New Zealand’s most successful musicians,
Carl Doy (ONZM) enchants us with an afternoon of music. Carl has
released 19 albums throughout his career, and most recently completed
five series as Musical Director for Dancing with the Stars.
This concert programme features a mix of old and new songs,
not forgetting of course, a medley of your requests on the day!
Tickets cost just $15 for Ryman friends.
To purchase your ticket,
phone Susie on 338 7696
5 Corbett Crescent, Aidanfield