jeremy johnson wrote:so after listening to all your collective advice, I have decided to move forward with a cellar in my basement. I've tested the temp, and it will have to be active, as it fluctuates too much during the day, but I think I can get a corner of my basement (which doesn't really get ANY sun) insulated and closed off pretty easily.
Now I'm wondering if any of you have tips on doing this more properly. The real key is in the cooling arena, and I'm wondering if there are any inexpensive ways around it, as it seems RATHER pricey. Also- I'm wondering who has basement cellar experience, because I'm a little confused about the winter months...I'm pretty sure it gets pretty cold in there...what do you do to make sure the wines don't get too cold? Rookie questions, I'm sure, but let me know if you have advice!
I did exactly this, 25 years ago, in the in-ground basement of my condominium unit. I cordoned off about 1/4 of my basement and installed an active cooling unit, which I'm using to this day. Yes, there are inexpensive alternatives to the purpose-built wine cooling units that you see advertised at The Wine Enthusiast and elsewhere.
The area I walled off as a wine cellar is about 10 feet by 10 feet square. I put up plywood walls with a layer of R10 fiberglass insulation on the inside, and reflective aluminum insulation on the outside. And I caulk-sealed the boundaries to prevent air leaks. There is also R10 fiberglass insulation on the ceiling of the wine room.
For a cooling unit, I use a 8000 BTU standard-type room air conditioner that's mounted into the wall of the wine cellar. If I had the carpentry expertise, I'd have mounted it at ceiling level. Then I could just let normal convection take its course. As it is, it's mounted at floor level, and I use a pair of 8" duct pipes connected to the vent output of the air conditioner to guide the air up to ceiling level, where is then vented into the room. This provides for the proper convectional air flow (if possible, you want the cold air from the cooling unit to fall into the room from the top, and the air intake to the cooling unit to be from the bottom).
The big problem is thermostat control. Conventional room air conditioners don't have thermostats that can be set low enough. Back when I built this wine room, Hunter manufactured a programmable digital thermostat that I have set to turn on if the temperature exceeds 57 degrees F, and to shut off when the temperature falls below 56 degrees F. It exercises its control by turning the AC power to the whole air conditioner unit on and off. To use this sort of mechanism, you just take out the air conditioner's normal thermostat entirely, so that the compressor always operates whenever there's AC power to the air conditioner.
In my climate, frosting over of the air conditioner coils can be a problem during humid summer conditions. To prevent that from happening, I put a frost-control thermostat in place of the normal control thermostat of the former room air conditioner (now wine cooling unit).
So the complete unit operates like this:
The Hunter programmable climate control applies AC power to the air conditioner's compressor and fan whenever the temperature gets above 57 degrees F. It removes AC power when the temperature drops below 56 degrees F.
If the anti-icing thermostat detects that the chilling coils of the air conditioner are getting too cold, and are about to ice up, it shuts off power to the air conditioner's compressor, but leaves the fan running. Once the coils get a tad warmer, it turns the compressor back on.
The total cost of the cooling system was about $400 for a 8000 BTU unit. You'd pay many times that for a purpose-built unit with the same cooling power.
It has one other drawback. Like all window-mounted air conditioners, it drips condensate out the back. You have to put a catch pan under it, which you empty regularly when the unit is active in the summer months, or it'll piddle all over the floor, and if that water leaks back into the wine room, it carries the heat you've so carefully pumped out back into the room with it.
If you don't think your engineering skills are up to constructing a unit such as this yourself, contact a local heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) professional. They can build a unit for you that again will cost a fraction of what a wine cooling unit from the specialty shops will set you back.
If you don't mind paying the extra money, there's nothing wrong with the wine cooling units from the specialty shops. They work just fine. It's just that there are much cheaper alternatives, that can cool a much bigger volume, available if you're willing to go to some extra effort.
-Paul W.