Commercial refrigerators as wine coolers!!!

[SteeClar]

Hey guys.
Hope I will find some answers here.
I have been making wine in my home for over a year, mostly blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry wines. I mainly sell those to a few nearby wine parlours. I have the usual 24-50 bottle wine fridges that I bought from home depot. But I'm thinking of buying a commercial refrigerator unit to use as wine storage; if I get a used unit that won't cost me much and allow me greater storage space. I intend to store the short term(1-3years) red wines in a wine cooler fridge and keep the more expensive longer-term wines in my commercial unit. But I will not jump into conclusions. I have only just started and would like to hear recommendations from the pros out here.
Have you guys used a commercial refrigerator unit as a wine cooler?
If yes, what should I be mindful of when using one? Most fundamentally, will it affect my energy bills significantly?
Any advice or ideas on this would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[koolmoto]

I think unless you can set the fridge to 55-65 degrees you may need to have a thermo sensor type thing set up to turn it on/off. I have been looking for wine fridges as well, but read NorCal's post here which inspired me to build my own just like it. I've got it designed in CAD and parted out. Now I just need to buy the plywood and 2x4s and get cutting. I can send you the plans if you want so you can make it too. Just let me know.

 

[koolmoto]

Made some improvements since then...

Gonna make part drawings for all the pieces. (only 2x4s, OSB plywood, batting and rigid insulation). It attaches to existing studs and rafters. I think it will cost about $1100 for everything sans the 1000 bottle wine rack. That could be another $1000 easily.