Wine Cellars -

My personal opinion is that for your needs it sounds like a cooling system would be a bit redundant. And I wouldn't go too crazy over humidity with a max

But if you're building, it's not very expensive and should give you some peace of mind to put in insulation. In a similar situation, this year I built a passive cellar in a corner. I framed and put in R-19 insulation in interior walls, R-30 in ceiling, left below grade walls and concrete floor as heat sinks. I couldn't fit an insulated exterior door in space (low ceilings), so I put an interior door in, then drilled holes to put in expanding foam insulation, then put 2" extruded foam insulation panel on inside. Vapor barrier, drywall. I had my stepson do a creative paint job. And then put shelves on outside So far so good. The highest it got was 68° F at eye level during a heatwave when I was working installing some bins and a shelf for halfbottles. We'll see next year if there's a more sustained heatwave how I fare. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Very similar treatment to a similar space I had in Colorado, which worked fine for about fifteen years. In my case, I did have to shut off all heat outlets in basement, but I was able to keep the space at around 65F with very slow fluctuations year-round. Now, AZ, that's another problem all together! Depending on the heating system, and how the rest of the space is used, a little more insulation for the interior walls might be considered.

Hunt

I am literally as we speak in the process of excavating at the rear of our home a 8m x 4.5x x 3.6m (deep) cellar. Whilst this is perhaps a little more than what most people will attempt, let's just say that good cellaring is worth every penny..

There's no reason to worry about humidity if you're storing screw capped bottles. In fact, I don't think humidity is all that terribly significant with cork finished wines either - but that's a much more controversial issue.

Tom S

high humidity is certainly issue where mould is concerned. I was sitting at about 90% humidity for 3mths, and the labels on perhaps 8 dozen bottles were quietly being covered by black spots. I have since put in a dehumidifier which has curtailed the mould, but has in turn led to increased temperatures in the cellar.. Hence the need to build a belowground cellar, which is now halfway done (excavation done, concrete is poured next Monday).

Low humidity has in my experience led to crumbly corks, which can be most difficult to extract. Whether this also increases the likelihood of oxidation or not, I'm not in a position to comment.