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Light and heat in wine cellar?

I'm just beginning to build a wine cellar -- both in the sense of starting to collect wine for future use, and in deciding to build a small enclosed room in our basement for storing the wine. I've pencilled in an 8'x15' room well away from the furnace/hot water tank, but including the water meter (the next best choice of a location is directly under the laundry room). Right now there's a bare bulb lighting the area I'll be framing in.

What sort of light is appropriate for a cellar? I've discarded the idea of fluorescent fixtures, as I don't expect to be leaving the light on for extended periods of time. Most of the other lighting choices appear to be heat generators that also happen to shed light.

Also, I've been tracking the temperature in that corner of the basement, and it rarely gets below 18 Celsius, and sometimes goes as high as 23 Celsius. This is certainly the warmest basement I've ever had (new house in the Toronto, Ontario area). Although I don't expect to be buying and storing extremely expensive wines, I understand that this temperature range is too high to expect great results. Do I need to look at cooling units for my new cellar?

Regards, Nicholas

Reply to
Nicholas Russon
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"Nicholas Russon" in news:Xns9612736124E5nrussonrogerscom@216.196.97.142...

(Welcome to the world of lighting!) Compact fluorescents can screw into any incandescent socket anyway of course, as long as the rest of the fixture does not limit bulb size.

21 Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) is the customary Red Line. Most serious wine storage avoids that temperature by a few degrees C. Insulation and artificial cooling is customary with the natural temperatures cited above. (The cost of cooling can be quite low, if the insulation is good and your friends don't keep opening the cellar door.)

A vapor barrier of some kind to prevent a cooler (or mechanically-cooled) cellar from drawing in moisture constantly from the environs is another standard consideration in wine cellar design.

There are cooling contractors who specialize in this subject, and I expect that there is a competent self-help guide or two in print or online. (For example, on the SF peninsula a contractor named, if I recall, Phil Finer built or equipped many home cellars. I have not dealt with him, but he is much mentioned.) It might be prudent to invest some research and time into serious advice from one or another such source, especially if you are also new to the general subject of longer-term wine storage.

-- Max

Reply to
Max Hauser

Salut/Hi Max Hauser,

le/on Sun, 6 Mar 2005 22:00:35 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

Exactly. I'm sure that in the USA just as in Europe, it's possible to get high pressure fluorescents which plug\screw in to the ordinary light fittings, use 1/10th the electricty and cause no heating at all. In fact, if such things were adopted generally wherever incandescents are used, it would go a long way to solving the current electricity crisis over there - along with remembering once in a while that lights, TVs etc have an off switch.

Reply to
Ian Hoare

Their only major inconvenience (their minor one is their unpersonal, stale white colour) is the fact that they need time to fully lighten up. Not the kind of lightning I would appreciate in a cellar where I normally don't stay long, but rather need light instantly.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

"Max Hauser" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

I'd forgotten about compact fluorescents. Thanks for the reminder! ;-)

I'm hoping that just putting up partition walls will be enough to lower the ambient temperature in the cellar-area-to-be without investing in some sort of additional cooling unit.

Well, longer-term wine storage at the moment is measured in months, rather than years. The oldest wine I have currently is a

1994 Ontario Riesling, and the majority of wines are only 2001- 2002 vintages (I only have about 200 bottles at the moment, over half from Niagara and SW Ontario wineries). Not that I'm rejecting your suggestion!

Thanks very much for your advice.

Regards, Nicholas

Reply to
Nicholas Russon

Ian Hoare wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

In our last house, we made a conscious effort to replace incandescent bulbs with fluorescents, but with only mixed success: the lifespan of the bulbs available at the time wasn't significantly longer than normal incandescents, and the price was much, much higher.

I understand that the compact fluorescents available now are much more economical, and I'll look to see what's now on offer in my local area.

Regards, Nicholas

Reply to
Nicholas Russon

"DaleW" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I hope not, but at the moment the furnace and hot water heater (both natural gas) are not isolated from the rest of the basement. Along with putting up partitions for the wine cellar, I'm also going to put up partition walls to create a separate utility room.

The area I'll be enclosing is about 6' below grade, with no windows. It seems weird to consider insulation on an interior wall, but I see the sense in it.

I'm sure that worked better than a standard interior door (basically a torsion box with only airspace between the two outer skin panels).

I hope I'll find the same thing! ;-)

Regards, Nicholas

Nicholas Russon snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com or snipped-for-privacy@hummingbird.com

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Reply to
Nicholas Russon

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