Texas wine cellar....

[captainl]

also beer fermentation chamber. A lot more work than I had figured but I'm making progress. I am jealous of you people and your basements. I made a dual stage temperature controller from an ebay aquarium thermostat. It will be hooked up to a window ac for cooling and a heat light for heating. Its about 4 ft by 5 feet and 7 feet tall. The walls are 6 inches thick with R 19 insulation. I plan to keep it at 62 degrees + or - 3 degrees for the needs of my fermenting beer. Can't wait to get everything out of my spare bedroom into a better temperature controlled area. I plan on building some sort of wine rack along the back wall.....eventually.

 

[Wade E]

That should do great. Keep the rak spacing tight as you run out of room quick.

 

[Flem]

Very nice, indeed. A walk-in wine chiller.

 

[ibglowin]

Very nice, your probably gonna wish you just took it all the way over to the edge wall 2ft away. Somehow this hobby grows quite often to an obsession!

 

[Runningwolf]

Great start, I look forward to see pictures as you progress.

 

[captainl]

I actually have that space reserved for a minifridge collared out into a keggarator. Just don't tell my wife. Also There is some attic access that I didn't want to block completely. I put the texture on today and installed the inside light.

 

[captainl]

Here are some updated pictures. Walls are primed. I'm looking for some ideas to paint some large sized wine bottles and hops on the exterior. I'm not the best artist but can probably manage something. Ideas welcome.

The next picture is of the brains of the operation. It works very well. Last week when the temp got down to 40 degrees I was able to maintain 64 degrees overnight with one 75 watt light bulb. When it warmed up this week it cooled down from 70ish to 62 in just a minute or two. But it cycled on about every 10 to 15 minutes though. I'm probably going to put the temperature probe in a cup of sand to help stabilize.

the last picture is of the latches I use to keep pressure and a good seal on the door. I'm brewing on friday and will put the chamber into full time use then.

My biggest problem is figuring out a way to insulate the door. I bought a can of spray foam insulation that I had planned to drill into the door and fill the hollow areas. But I don't think that is a good idea. Then I considered buying a piece of foam board and glueing it on the inside. But cosmetically that would look like crap.

My stroke of genius hit me tonight when I was opening a bottle of Lunna Rosa. Get ready for this.... Glue used corks on the back of the door. It might take a while but I think it will work. I have read online that cork has an R value from 2.5 for 1/4 inch to 3.1 for 1 inch. I'll take what I can get. Now I just need a hot glue gun.

Also anyone in the Northside of Houston (the woodlands, spring, conroe) would you mind saving me some corks.

 

[captainl]

and sorry for the large pictures????

 

[pioneergirl]

Love it!!! Can you spray that foam onto the face of the door and then stick the wine corks into it? then file/sand away at the edges of the door? (I say this because my husband makes nifty things with that spray foam - like an arrow holding bucket by placing conduit inside 5 gal bucket and spraying foam around it all to hold the "tube" in place then when dry he sticks arrows into the tubes for storage that is easy to move around. He's also made a portable pole holder bucket to move around on our dock using conduit/pipe and that foam and such...) And I know that some foams are even paintable. Just a thought as you move forward...

What else is that space used for? Is this in your garage? I can't tell. You mentioned artwork and such.....You also mentioned a wine rack adjacent to it? to the left?

 

[robie]

Looks great. My wife would kill me...

If you decide you need a bigger temperature controller for that air conditioner, take a look at this guy:

Ranco ETC-111000-000

It can handle up to 16 amps. I bought one and love it. I use it to control a chiller jacket for my fermentor bucket and fermenting barrel.

 

[harleydmn]

I don't see any way for the a/c condensate to drain. In the summer and humid days, you be surprised how much water they can produce.

 

[captainl]

Ok. I went live today. Moved 3/4 of my wine and beer stuff into the room. I need some room to build some shelves for now. Here are a few more hopefully better pictures. So much to do cosmetically but it is in operation now. I am brewing up an American Amber Ale tomorrow.

The AC unit initially cycled quite a bit as the thermal mass stabilized. It was kicking on every 15 minutes or so and running for about 3 minutes to cool. I have the temp set at 17 Degrees celcius with a 1 degree variable. Now that everything is cooled off it seams to be running maybe once an hour.

The condensation drain is on the exterior. Today it was 84 degrees outside with a relative humidity of 80%. While the ac collected condensation, it wasn't enough to drain out the hole. I have a drain tube to connect if needed to run into a bucket. I don't think it has a lot of condensation due to only running for a few minutes at a time.

The door is definitely the weak link. I can put my hand on the exterior of the door and compared to the exterior wall, the door is COLD. I do have a very good weather stripping seal so no leakage. I actually have a good friend that has been collecting old corks for a few years. He probably has close to 200 that he is giving me. But I think I will need a lot more. I like the idea of spray foam but the only pictures I see of the stuff look pretty mehh. And if I pushed the corks in it, I would need all the corks at once. I am now leaning towards adding a foam board on the back and gluing the corks on to cover it as I get them.


As far as the temperature controller. It is the stc 1000 on ebay for $25. Switches from heating and cooling. Rated at 15 amps. It took another $25 in parts and about 1.5 hours to build. There are U tube videos that walk you though the build and I can attest that it is pretty easy. Those rancos and johnsons controllers where tempting but I like the DIY aspect and I'm cheap . We shall see how it holds up.

 

[captainl]

I'm going to build a wall of shelves 12" deep above where the carboys are. I think it is about 42 inches across.

And Yes this is in the back corner of my two car garage. I was going to make it come out a little further but I then realized that I should keep the ability to have two cars in the garage. Hope it doesn't hurt any resale value...but we plan to be here at least 5 to 10 more years.

 

[Americana]

Captain, your cork idea inspired me to do the same. I gathered up all the corks in the various drawers and nooks around the house last night... and realized they would be enough to cover perhaps 1/20th of the door. I'm going with the foam board and just glue corks to the back as I go.

My space is a small interior closet so there isn't a drastic temp variation from the outside of the walls, and I think as long as I have the wooden door sealed, weather stripped and foam boarded, it will sufficiently insulate, giving me time to slowly but surely complete the cork project!

 

[DirtyDawg10]

You could always buy an insulated door.

Insulated Door

 

[TxBrew]

Have you calculated the cost of energy to run the room a year?

 

[captainl]

haaa. Yep. foam first then add the collection of corks. It might take a few years but I imagine it will look cool when completed. Insulated door = $145. If I didn't mention it.....I'm cheap Plus I like to make things harder than they should be.

Yearly costs. Yep, Here is what I have estimated.

Right now (Not summer yet) The AC compressor runs for about 2.5 minutes about every 30 minutes. That comes to 2 hours per 24 hour period. So 60 hours per month. It is a 5300 BTU unit. Looking online I have found this:

Yes. They use a considerable amount of electricity. A standard single room air conditioner will cost approximately 7-12 cents per hour to operate. If you run the air conditioner for 8 hours per day it will cost you approximately $24.40 per month at $.10 per kilowatt hour.

I found another science math based formula that came to about the same. For my sake I am going to say $.10 per hour. So that would come to about $6.00 a month. Maybe double that on hot summer months. I am hoping the ac will cycle less once I get the door insulated and some sort of foam flooring...maybe laminate??

Cooler night should be much cheaper. Winter maybe not. One 75 watt lightbulb kept it at 64 degrees and that was before everything was sealed and just plywood in the ac hole. Anyhow 75 watts for 24 hours is 1.8 KW per day. My electric rate is .11 per KWH so .198 per day maximum. So that could come to about $6 per month maximum.

So my yearly energy use I'm going to estimate is $100 but that doesn't include the multiple times I go in and out checking on my brews. Of course I could be completely wrong on my estimates?????

 

[DirtyDawg10]

I fully understand...I'm cheap too. But I think my impatient nature would steer me toward an insulated door before my cheapness steered me away. I do agree the corks will look nice though. Keep up the good work.

 

[captainl]

Here are some updates. It has now been fully functional for a month or so. I got the shelves installed and somewhat organized as I want it. I tried to make it look cosmetically nice on the inside but it is more about functionality.

Here are some points of interest:

Now with the weather in the 90's the ac turns on about every 20 minutes and runs for about 2 minutes. Wondering how long the AC will last. Still no permanent floor insulation...I'm kind of burnt out on project work. Not sure how it is affecting the electric bill?

The insulation on the back of the door helps a lot. I'm currently in the cork collecting process to put on top of the insulation.

Shelving should hold 120 bottles plus what I can put on top and bottom left. Its a lot of weight but the verticals are 2X6's doubled up. Wine rack hold 36 I think. Should be more than enough for me.

Plenty of floor space for bottle storage and fermenting.

Ferments my beer at a wonderful temperature. 64 degrees ambient and the fermentor will warm to about 68 at peak fermentation.

Is 64 ambient too cold for wine fermentation? White wine maybe?

I actually have the temperature controller set to 16.5 C and it turns on the ac when it warms up to 18.5 C degrees. I'm considering decreasing the temp and increasing the on point so it will cycle less but still average the same temp.

Thanks for looking.

 

[DirtyDawg10]

looking good!