Hole is dug for our new wine cellar

[ibglowin]

I have several of the lacrosse technologies units. Check Amazon for models and prices. The concrete and steel could be blocking the signal for sure. I have the remote unit in my cellar and the main unit in the house about 30ft away and they work great together but then they are only going through air and wood, not steel and concrete. Worst comes to worse use a wired one and mount it on the door and send the wire through the vent opening.

Happy to hear your making some progress!

 

[FABulousWines]

Sammy,

Another alternative is one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013BKDO8/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought one to keep an eye on the temps where I am aging my wine in the house. It will track the high and low temperature for a 24 hour period along with the humidity. That way you only have to enter once a day or so to see how the temp has been going.
Free shipping if you have Prime.

 

[Sammyk]

Finally!

The only place to install an air conditioner was in the steel door. So that is what we did. It is rated for a 15 x 15 room and 5,000BTU. There was no place because of the RR ties to get one set into the walls.

This morning the temperature is down to 69 and the humidity down to 54%. It was lower last night but we turned the unit down for the night since we could not keep an eye on it. We did turn it back up to high this morning.

The other air conditioner, the lowest we could get it was 75 degrees and 84% humidity.

Drilling a hole in the 8" cement to install the other air conditioner and put dust everywhere inside! Major cleaning to be done inside now.

Anyone here have any legal background?

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I am very happy for you both that you were able to find something that works without tearing down and starting over. Do you have a pic of the complete front side ? Door and AC unit ??

 

[Sammyk]

The last photo is of the front side of the door. The very top photo is the inside. It is placed near the top of the door.

I did attach another photo. So the controls are on the inside of the cellar. It is not going anyway because it is tightly wedged in the opening.

The last photo of the originals was also taken from the side so you can see the depth that the air conditioner is set into the opening.

 

[Sammyk]

To clarify taken straight on the one photo does not show the depth that the unit sticks out. So I took a side view so you can see the depth of the unit in the door.

We did have to caulk to fill in small gaps where the jig saw had a hard time cutting through the steel.

 

[ibglowin]

Those are much more efficient AC units. Was this new or something you had around the house. The newer units have a complete shut off thermostat that shuts the unit off when it reaches the temp set point, then cuts back on as needed just like a real (indoor) AC unit. That way it doesn't run 24/7.

 

[TahunaJR]

Sammyk, so happy there is finally light at the end of the tunnel!!!! Just a couple of things...

Have you considered adding supports to the bottom of the A/C unit on the outside of the door? Perhaps a couple of flat metal bars angled from the bottom of the A/C to the door? Wondering if it would help create a more solid arrangement depending on the overall weight of the A/C.

What did you do with the hole that was chiseled out? Hopefully it can serve some purpose for the effort.

Anyway, congrats are certainly in order.

Joe R.

 

[Sammyk]

TahunaJR the other hole is still there with the piece of foam insulation that was cut out for the hole. That hole will be filled with cement soon.

No need for anything to hold the unit in place. it is a very tight fit, took 2 men to force it into the hole that was cut for it because the hole was a smidgen too small. We do have some "L" shaped brackets but decided that they were not needed. It has been caulked in a lot of places where the jig saw "jumped" making the cuts or the cuts were not straight.

Unit was only $119.00 at Lowe's minus a 10% military discount. It has a high star energy rating and supposedly only uses $41.00 in electricity a year.

 

[Boatboy24]

Glad to see you've nailed down a solution.

 

[TahunaJR]

BTW, I love the picture of the dusty bottles! Reminds me of a French cellar that has been untouched for 30+ years. Adds a lot of character to the bottles/cellar!

Joe R.

 

[Sammyk]

LOL! TahunaJR, Do you want to come dust them? Before we got this unit in, we thought the dust might inhibit the mold that started to grow on the bottles.

 

[TahunaJR]

Sammyk, believe me, if I lived closer, I would be there in a heartbeat! However, my work ethic of "dust 1 bottle for you - drink 1 bottle for me" would get me tossed quickly!!! At least the working conditions would be pretty cool... Regardless, still happy you solved your problem.

Joe R.

 

[DaveL]

I agree I'd leave the dust

 

[Sammyk]

Update

Many were watching this thread so we thought it was time to update.

The Frigidaire air conditioner is holding the temperature consistently at 62 degrees. It is energy star rated so we will see how well it holds up. The lowest setting is 62 so it is living up to what we hoped the unit would do.

We never heard back from the contractor or billed for the balance. We feel it is because he knows he screwed up by not doing any research or listening to what we told him had to be done based on our research that we did prior to him starting the project.

We do feel bad for at least one sub-contractor who was never paid. Hopefully all the others were paid because we specifically gave him money when he asked for money to pay the sub-contractors. Word will spread fast in this smallish town that he does not pay his sub-contractors.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

That really is great news !!! I am sure you both have alot of weight lifted off your shoulders.

 

[jamesngalveston]

SammyK...I started reading this thread at the end...Then went back and read all the post from the start....Its a shame that you had to go through what you did to get to the point you are at now...
whats called a split ac system is twice as effeicent as what your using, and there really not that more expensive...you can buy the whole package for about 1200.. and it will chill that area to freezing.

 

[Sammyk]

James we looked at many different options and the room air conditioner was $130.00 (minus 10% military discount) and has been working like a charm for about a month now. We could replace the unit many times before changing over to another type of unit.

At 62 degrees we think the wine will hold up a few years. We are curious to see what the winter brings in the way of temperature inside the cellar.

We had professional air conditioner company from Lennox come out and he would not guarantee a temperature that his unit would provide. At 5K we were not willing to get into something that would not be guaranteed in writing to the temperature it could achieve.

He actually told us to look into a room air conditioner that was energy efficient.

Time was against us too because we had to get the wine out of the 80 plus degree home and into the cellar that was holding at 75 degrees. At that point it time we were approaching 90 degree plus temps outside.

We talked to refrigeration installation company and their estimate was even higher.

At any rate, the air conditioner bought us more time to explore more permanent solutions when the weather is much cooler.

 

[cimbaliw]

Congratulations on the fix, I think we're all genuinely happy for you. It's a true friend who will share his problems with others.

BC

 

[Sammyk]

The thread did not turn out the way we hoped. We hoped that others input would give us great insight on how to have a great wine cellar and that they did. There is a wealth of great information here on the forum. We are all fortunate to have so many folks from different walks of life who are willing to help out others with their personal experience.

Sadly we hope others will learn from our disastrous situation and know the correct way to build/dig a wine cellar.