When the cooling unit stops.

[William P]

It has been a very cool spring on the west coast so I was alarmed that the wine cellar temperature was slowly creeping up. I had this AC unit for about four years and the cellar was a constant 58F during the year. Yesterday morning I noticed that the unit was constantly in compressor mode (very unusual). When I got home from work it was at 64F. It was time.

Went to Homedepot and picked up another inexpensive AC unit and the cellar is back to 58F. It was not that expensive, $150.00. I hope this one will last another four years but if not, I can live with shelling out $150.00. Oh, the switch was just in time, we started a summer weather pattern. Finally in the 80's.

[Houndsong]

Thanks Bill for reminding us that while the Chinese are making our favorite wine more expensive to buy, they are making it very inexpensive to cellar.

[tailorcut]

Gentlemen, Please help me with your sage wisdom. I was surprised that William P is able to use just an air conditioner for cooling, does this not present problems with a lack of humidity? I am building a cellar in my new home, if i can get away with not purchasing a commercial unit it would save me several hundred dollars. Any answers? Thanx.

[William P]

Tailorcut, in 20 years I have not had a problem with my corks. In the summer I keep an open bottle of water just to add a touch of humidity. My cellar is small a pantry 39 sq feet (32x72x78), so an AC may not work in all cases. In the "free" Parker board days, there were many discussions about AC cellars. I am not alone in ACing.

[JimHow]

I have a passive cellar. No cooling unit, no air conditioning. My cellar stays cool, even in the summer. I would say the temperature ranges from about 50 to 60 degrees from the coldest to hottest days of the year.

[William P]

My cellar is passive in the winter, but I suspect Sacramento is a little hotter in the summer than Maine.

[JimHow]

I'm sure, although it is supposed to get up to 95 today.

[William P]

That is a little hot for you. After a few days of 95 give us a reading. Should be intesting to watch the swing in passive cellar. I take it Jim, you have an underground cellar?

[JimHow]

I do, Bill, and I'm surrounded by trees, the house stays cool even in mid-summer.
I don't even have an air conditioner in the house, I just open the windows and a nice breeze comes through.
The cellar stays really cool even on the hottest days. We may have a few days in late July/early August each year where it gets really warm up here, but otherwise the temperatures are pretty moderate.

[William P]

Nice!

[Houndsong]

So I've been in Colorado 5 years. Indoor relative humidity is about 20%. That was my only concern about passive cellaring. So far no problems. Corks look and act the same as when I had a swampy, moldy basement in a Virginia mountaintop where I actually had to run a dehumidifier constantly from May through October at least. If the dryness now speeds up the aging process somehow that's fine with me. I'll let you know when the corks start crumbling.

[stefan]

Tailorcut, I don't have a problem using a free standing AC in my wine room. You do need to make sure that the unit you have will not freeze up when you keep the temperature at 55 or whatever you choose (my current choice is 62). Most regular ACs will freeze up if you try to cool below around 65-67.