My wine room is finished. This weekend I built a shelf unit for my barrel and carboys and that finishes the job. Overall, I’m very pleased with it. The air conditioning and the controller seem to be working well and are maintaining a good temperature with only a few minutes an hour of run time. The Seville Wine Racks are a great way to store a lot of wine in a small space. My wooden bottle rack let’s me highlight those bottles I want to see the labels on and are in the queue for drinking. I’m also very happy with the shelves I build for my carboys. They can hold six, which means somewhere around 360 pounds. That’s something I don’t want to have come crashing down so I over designed it and like how it turned out. This room will also change how I make my wine. Now, as soon as I get them properly degassed and cleared I can get the carboys into the cooler while they await their turn in the Vadai rather than spending a year in the basement under airlock. But degassing is another story.
Since these threads stick around for a while I figure somebody may have a similar notion down the road. If you do, here is some information about the project.
The finished room is 5’ x 7’ inside, 2x4 construction on five sides, open concrete basement for thermal cooling on the floor. Insulation was spray closed cell foam. Mold resistant green board inside. An LED light with about 120W of light for 43W. Cheap 5K BTU window air conditioner, modified to avoid it turning itself off at cool temps, and controlled by a temperature controller that lets me set the target temperature and the number of degrees leeway I want it to have before it kicks on again. I added an indoor/outdoor thermometer by the door to keep me from going in and checking it all the time. I figure that this can hold about 500 bottles and 6 carboys.
The total cost was about $2,000. Insulation was the largest expense at $750. Aside from the controller, thermometer and Insulation kit, everything was purchased at Lowes or Home Depot. Here’s a gross breakdown:
AC: $135
Controller: $ 40
Insulation Kit: $750
30” Ex Door: $175
Lumber, drywall, electrical, paint etc: $600
2 Seville Racks: $200
Wood for carboy shelf: $100
The project took 4 weekends, and two weeks of evening work and I did it alone. For now, about the only change I would make would be to look harder to get a cost estimate from a professional insulation company. I didn’t do it this time because I was in hurry to get it done and didn’t know when I’d be ready for it and I thought I could do it well enough with a kit. I did an okay job, but I think a pro would do it much better, though I don’t know the cost and how many would do such a small project. Other than that I’m pleased with it. It’s certainly isn’t a showcase piece, but it’s functional and suits my space. If things ever change, the room becomes: 1., Tornado Shelter, 2., walk in closet, 3., indoor green house, 4., fancy indoor storage shed. Multipurpose
I hope this helps someone who was wondering about their options for storing wine.
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