Cooling a cellar

[-Bezza-]

One of my grand plans is to turn a brick outhouse into a wine and beer cellar. This means I need a cooling solution that doesn't remove all the humidity from the air (otherwise the corks will suffer).

Air volume will be in the region of 15-20 cubic meters I would think. Target temperature would be around 12 degrees and around 60% humidity. That keeps the wine in good condition but also a good temperature for serving beer, I would think.

Does anyone have any smart ideas for how to cool the cellar without breaking the bank, say £250 max budget?

Humidity can be botched by covering the floor with gravel and watering this from time-to-time when humidity drops.

Power available and running water can be available if needed.

 

[Nicks90]

There are plenty of second hand free standing Aircon units on eBay etc.
No reason you couldn't hook one up to and inkbird!
Heating could be accomplished with a little oil filled radiator for those few weeks of the year where it gets proper chilly

 

[Dutto]

Looking at the climate in Surrey I sure as heck wouldn't be spending money on a cooler!

In Surrey, the average low temperature only exceeds 12*C in July and for nine months of the year the average High is below 20*C.

I would spend my money on insulating the interior walls with priority given to;

• South and West facing walls.
• South and West facing windows and doors.

If I still had some money spare, I would insulate the East and North walls before positioning my shelves and/or racks against them.

I would store:

• Wine on the bottom shelves.
• Beer on the upper shelves.
• Gear on the top shelves.

I would also put a VERY strong spring on the door and never let SWMBO or anyone else (especially kids) have a key!

PS

The ceiling area in a garage is normally held up with wooden beams. Plasterboard is probably the cheapest option to use to develop an "air gap" between the roof and the interior rather than installing expensive insulation.

 

[-Bezza-]

The concern with air con units is whether they can chill as low as needed. How low can they go? Heating is easy in comparison!

@Dutto Thanks as ever for your thoughts. But if average temperatures exceed my target for most of the year, that suggests I need some cooling. Or do you think the temp will remain around 12 through insulation alone? The value of the booze is likely to exceed the value of a cooling unit.

Someone posted a while back about how they had built a cool room using some sort of cooling unit.

 

[ACBEV]

I wouldn't bother with air con units, they are not designed to maintain temps as low as 12c.

I have an out building which keeps quite cool compared to the house (shaded by large trees and no direct sun).

I've done a few things to keep it cooler...

Insulation... I've insulated the roof space with plenty of rockwool and used 100mm insulation boards fixed to the interior walls.

Night time duct fans... I have two thermostatically controlled duct fans that brings in cool air from outside when the temp. outside falls below 14c. This combined with the insulation is a good start to keeping temps. lower throughout the day. Not much use when night time temps are higher, but does help quite a lot of the year.

 

[-Bezza-]

The duct fan is an interesting idea and I'll give that some more thought as a potential solution. Presumably you turn it off over the winter so you're not bringing freezing air in?

I can insulate the room easily enough - it's made of 6" concrete block and painted white so shouldn't need much beyond a decent layer of rockwool or insulation board, plus whatever to fill the ceiling cavity (vaulted at the moment but that can be dealt with).

I'm guessing air conditioning units offer relative cooling rather than absolute, so a small well-insulated room ought to get reasonably cool.

The other slightly left-field option I was wondering about was to build a "central cooling" system. I'm thinking I could get a normal radiator and central heating pump, and use an old fridge to cool the water to pump round the system. Or given the water wouldn't need to be pumped far, I could use a pond pump. Reckon that would work or would this be a science fail?

 

[mickthetrick]

if you can place your bottles on a concrete floor it also keeps the temp down. it acts as a heat sink.

 

[Dutto]

I regularly buy wine "en vrac" from wine co-operatives and shops in the north and south of France; and I have never been into one that was cooled to the temperature you feel necessary.

In fact the local supermarkets have wine on their shelves and even those with AC seldom let the shop temperature drop below 20*C.

Like myself, the French chill white and rosé wines before drinking them (red wine is always served at "room" temperature) so they see no need to store wine at any temperature below 20*C. Admittedly most of the wine "caves" are cool, but that is when compared to outside ambient temperatures; and maintaining a near constant temperature is much more important than storing it at your required 12*C!

On the other hand, if you want to spend money needlessly - go for it.

 

[BarnBrian]

As soil temperature at 1 metre stays fairly constant at around 12 degrees (roughly). As your shed floor doesn't get any sun you'll probably find with insulation you'll probably get close to your required temp.