New Home - Wine Cellar design help

[RedRockGirl]

I'm building a new home. I need suggestions on where to put the wine cooler and what type. I need to keep it pretty economical.

On the plans, the "garage storage" is going to be what we call "The Lab", the brew room. The small 7x7 room on the back corner will be the wine cellar. The garage will be well insulated, but will not be air conditioned. We will be doing foam insulation and 2x6 construction. I live in Southern Utah. Winter lows get below freezing and summer highs around 100.

My initial plan was to vent into the garage just above the water heaters with a through-wall unit, but I'm worried it will be too warm in there. I didn't want to vent into the garage storage room (Lab) for fear of warming that space up.

Any suggestions or tips? Where is the best place to buy a cooling unit? Any brand recommendations? We will be breaking ground next month. Thanks!

 

[AZMDTed]

What a great project to be starting on. As far as cooling units go there are a couple of manufacturers who make wine cellar specific units, such as:http://www.cellarprocoolingsystems.com/ .

As you know, or soon will, they are quite pricey, but certainly the way to go. If you want to go cheaper you can also use a window AC unit, modified, along with a controller as several of us have done. There are also ducted systems which means that you can have the AC in one room but ducted to another location to discharge and get fresh air. Those too are pricier than a window or thru the wall unit.

My window AC unit is set close to my water heater and geo thermal unit. But being in a relatively cool basement it's needs aren't much and it doesn't pump out much warm air. I haven't noticed it measurably increasing the room temp. If you're garage is going to be 2x6 with closed cell spray foam it will probably be cool enough to support a through the wall unit. Just check the manufacturers page to see what the max temperature differential they can support is, but I'm sure that you'll be fine. What direction is the garage door facing, that will greatly effect how hot it gets in there.

If you have the money, then a professional wine cellar cooler is the way to go, either through the wall or ducted. If you want to save some (more than some actually) money, then a modified window AC unit is the way to go. The window AC unit won't help keep the humidity at the right level, where the cellar ones claim they do. But around St George you may still need to add a humidifier to either solution, so check into that too. That's assuming that you'll be storing wine with natural corks. If you're only using synthetic then that may not be an issue.

Have fun, that's exciting being able to build from scratch as you wish it.

 

[ibglowin]

Sounds like you will definitely need a vented system of some sort if you don't want to overly heat up the rest of the garage in the Summer at least. We are roughly at the same Latitude and I have had corks in some of my bottles for 6 years now without any issue (drying out) I use a regular small Window AC Unit that is ducted to the outside in the Summer. If you are like us you typically get a monsoon season in the Summer time and your humidity is quite high for several months you won't need to worry about adding humidity at all. LOL

 

[Johny99]

I'm guessing you'll have house ac. I use the house ac to cool during the hot months, full open vents. In the winter I have a duct and fan that pulls cool air in from the garage. That all keeps the wine room pretty cool. The challenge are the spring and fall when the garage is too warm but the ac doesn't run. For that I have a small portable ac unit that goes in the wine room and vents via a 6 inch duct out to the garage. Humidity or lack thereof is my problem. Someday I hope for a wine cellar unit, but other priorities govern.

Im in eastern WA but our winter, summer extremes aren't too different.

 

[mrramsey]

I purchased my cooling unit from CellarProCoolingSystems.com. For all intents and purposes my cellar is based on 7'x7' though I am below grade in my application but you may be in the larger series of the cellarpro 1800's. They will do a free thermal load calculation for your space and recommend a specific unit for you. http://www.cellarprocoolingsystems.com/request-thermal-load

Very happy so far and it is running about $0.10 per day in my region. I keep my cellar at 60 degrees and vent into another room. Very minimal heat build up. My cellar has a capacity of 400 ish bottles.

 

[JohnT]

One question.. Since you are building a new home, is digging a below grade room an option (an actual cellar). If possible, I am thinking that this is far cheaper in the long run. Let mother earth do the work!

My Dad always said that it is far cheaper to dig than to cool and heat.