Cooling my cellar

I do not know of any chilled water systems. However there are split refrigeration systems designed for wine cellars. The condenser unit is mounted outside, in the attic, etc. The evaporator unit that does the cooling is mounted into the wine room or close to the wine room with duct work for entry and return air. The refrigeration lines and cables can pass through a rather small opening when you mount the evaporator unit within the wine room. You likely will need to hire a refrigeration technician to purge the system of air and moisture and to charge the refrigeration lines with freon, even if you can install the compressor and evaporator yourself. You may need an electrician if new electrical outlets need to be installed. Such a split refrigeration for wine is sold by a few of the larger wine equipment companies. See

and for two companies that sell split systems. You likely need to have a detailed discussion with a seller of a split system if you buy one. They will need to know several details concerning the construction of your home to choose the best unit for you. A split system is rather expensive. I would guess it might cost you in the US$ 2000 to 4000 range. In addition, you may require the services of a refrigeration technician, an electrician, and a carpenter or handyman depending on what you can do yourself and how complicated the job turns out to be.

I would not be too worried by about a constant 65 F temperature for most wines that are to be drunk within just a few years. It could be that you could pay much less if you only get a refrigerated wine storage cabinet large enough to hold only your wines for long storage and store wines for shorter storage as you do now. I would like a temperature lower than you have now for storage of Champagne and some of the more delicate whites for more than a few months.

I use a Whisperkool system - but my issue is different than yours; my cellar is not consistent; summer temps can get too high, so I need to use a colling system.

But if I had a passive cellar that was TRULY 65 +/- 2 degrees, I would not bother with a cooler. With the exception, as noted by the previous poster, of deliucate whites, 65 is fine for agin reds. It may not be ideal, but fluctuation is a far greater enemy than 6 degrees ot temp.

1) I agree a constant 65� wouldn't be so bad, just things a little quicker maturing than 55. 2) Before thinking about cooling, consider can you insulate space? If not, cooling won't do much to keep it different from the finished space. 3) don't think water is practical. To make it significantly lower temps, you'd have to have tons of exposed pipe (more than a heat radiator, because you couldn't have the temp differential hot pipes do). Plus to chill the water would take as much energy as air heating systems. Unless you have access to a cold spring or river. 4) is the finished space somewhere a system could vent to?

A friend of mine in Montreal used exactly that method to cool his cellar. I have no idea what the baseline temp of his cellar was, though, nor can I supply many details of what he did. Some thoughts, though: you'd need lots of surface area to get much cooling; you'll need good insulation; you need pipes of high thermal conductivity (no PVC, use copper instead). Another plan would be to use an external heat pump and send the cool air into the cellar via pipes.

Good luck! Mark Lipton

I seem to remember seeing something about cooling wine with well water. An insulated room was built with hotwater baseboard radiator strips hung near the ceiling. The owner was on a well and the water came uo at nearly 58 degrees. He ran all water that he used through his wine room and soon had cool wine. I don't know if that is applicable for you or not.